Recommended by Brandon Robbins, Young Adult Librarian.
I had always been into comic books, but had never read the series that is hailed as the greatest ever: The Sandman. I knew that it was a rare gem in the comics world, one that earned praise from both elite academic critics and comic book enthusiasts, a thinking person's title that had weight and depth. But all of this I knew second-hand from reading about Sandman, not from reading the material itself.
Recently, the entire seventy-five-issue-long series has been compiled into a set of ten graphic novels, and I was quite excited to see Preludes and Nocturnes, the first volume in this set, come to the library a few years ago. I took it home and devoured it in a single sitting.
It was a magical book. The story it told was simple, a classical tale about a hero hunting down magic artifacts, but it was told in such an eerie and human tone that it sucked you in and refused to let you go. Gaiman somehow managed to make this dark tale inspiring when it could have been cynical, and there is one scene in particular that is so moving you'll find yourself thinking of it when you most need an uplift.
I went on to read more of Neil Gaiman's work. American Gods is a rich and twisting novel that will bend your mind with its philosophical content, and Coraline is one of the scariest books I've ever read, in a way that good books ought to be scary. But Preludes and Nocturnes will forever be my favorite.
Readers that enjoy books by Stephen King or Clive Barker, or enjoy dark fantasy works and comic books in general, should definitely give it a try. There's no way you won't like it.
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