Damn.

This was fantastic.

I was expecting a lot considering the hype, but the audio drama, which read through Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman, volumes 1-3, more than delivered. Skilled cast of voice actors, sound effects that transport you, and a story that more than pulls you in, The Sandman was everything I wanted, and more.

When The Sandman, also known as Lord Morpheus—the immortal king of dreams, stories and the imagination—is pulled from his realm and imprisoned on Earth by a nefarious cult, he languishes for decades before finally escaping. Once free, he must retrieve the three “tools” that will restore his power and help him to rebuild his dominion, which has deteriorated in his absence. As the multi-threaded story unspools, The Sandman descends into Hell to confront Lucifer (Michael Sheen), chases rogue nightmares who have escaped his realm, and crosses paths with an array of characters from DC comic books, ancient myths, and real-world history, including: Inmates of Gotham City’s Arkham Asylum, Doctor Destiny, the muse Calliope, the three Fates, William Shakespeare (Arthur Darvill), and many more.

I want more. If the point of the drama was to resurrect Gaiman’s epic work and drive more people to read his volumes, it worked on me. I plan on reading the subsequent volumes and delving more into the world of Morpheus, Death, Lucifer, Delirium, jinns, and more. I can’t get over how wonderful anf fantastical the story is. It takes a skilled writer to draw together an array of characters, from mythological ones, to fae, to William Shakespeare, to Morpheus, to Lucifer, jinns, efrits, humans, Death, The Joker, Batman, and so many others.

Everything melded and meshed together in a way that blended reality and fantasy in a suspended, and, dare I say it, dreamlike way. The Sandman is truly a fantasy epic.

It seems as if Audible will continue this “sonic experience” as it’s called, it, stating, “This first installment of the audio series The Sandman adapts volumes 1-3 of the graphic novel series (Preludes & Nocturnes, The Doll’s House, and Dream Country).“