Book notes: The Sandman, Act 2 by Neil Gaiman

Get the audiobook on Audible 👇 (affiliate link)

Synopsis:

“Enter the Dreaming again as the blockbuster audio adaptation of “the greatest epic in the history of comic books” continues in The Sandman: Act II. James McAvoy returns to voice Morpheus, the Lord of Dreams, in this sequel to the number-one New York Times audio best seller. Journey into a world of myths, imagination, and terror based on the best-selling DC comic books and graphic novels written by Neil Gaiman (returning as the Narrator), and lose yourself in another groundbreaking, immersive drama adapted and directed by the award-winning audio master Dirk Maggs.

In the absolutely packed Act II, the dark fantasy resumes and the Sandman expands into the French Revolution, ancient Rome, 19th-century San Francisco, eighth-century Baghdad, and beyond. New and familiar characters abound, voiced by a bright mix of performers, including Kat Dennings, Regé-Jean Page, Emma Corrin, Michael Sheen, Kristen Schaal, Brian Cox, John Lithgow, Jeffrey Wright, and so many more, including fan-favorite narrators Simon Vance and Ray Porter.

Just close your eyes and listen again as the greatest epic continues” -Amazon

~If you enjoy my summary, please consider buying me a coffee via my Ko-Fi link (click the button below) or support this blog in one of several ways! 📖 🎓

I appreciate every donation as it goes directly to the maintenance costs of my blog and creation of new content. 😊

Opening thoughts:

I listened to The Sandman, Act I last month and it was absolutely fantastic. I immediately put Act II on my wishlist to listen to the following month. I imagine that this sequel will be a collection of short stories revolving around Morpheus and the Dreaming, and dig deeper into this fantasy world.

Key notes:

Episode 1: Season of Mists – Prologue

The eternal siblings gathered in Destiny’s domain
Desire riled up Dream, and Death inspired him to right his wrong for what he did to Nadia, sentencing her to Hell for thousands of years

Episode 2: Season of Mists – Chapter 1

Morpheus says goodbye to some people and prepares his realm
He also sends Cain to deliver a message to Lucifer about his visit but anticipates that there’s a chance he might die or be captured or never return

Episode 3: Season of Mists – Chapter 2

Instead of fighting, Morpheus accompanied Lucifer as he let everyone out of Hell and sealed all the gates
Lucifer even gave Dream the keys and told him it was all his now before leaving

Episode 4: Season of Mists – Chapter 3

Multiple parties came to Dream’s dominion to seek the keys to Hell
He welcomed them in and promised them hospitality so that they may all discuss the matter later

Episode 5: Season of Mists – Chapter 4

Episode 6: Season of Mists – Chapter 5

Episode 7: Season of Mists – Chapter 6

After meeting and speaking privately with different parties, he ultimately gives the key to Hell to the two angels who came
- God says one of them must be in charge of it as Hell is an important reflection of Heaven
Hell is essentially under Heaven’s control and will resume as it’s been with the damned and the demons
- The two angels can never return to heaven
Morpheus defeated Azazel and trapped him

Episode 8: Season of Mists – Epilogue

After 10,000 years, Dream apologizes to Nada for wrongly condemning her
Nada is reincarnated as a baby with a new life
The two angels reframe their assignment and reformation of Hell as necessary and a good thing

Episode 9: Fables & Reflections – Distant Mirrors – Thermidor

Joanna Constantine helps rescue the undead head of Orpheus, Morpheus’ son, from France

Episode 10: Fables & Reflections – Distant Mirrors – August

For a single day, the Roman emperor Augustus hired an actor to help him be a beggar, which is something he needed to do once a year for some reason

Episode 11: Fables & Reflections – Distant Mirrors – Three Septembers and a January

Dream, Despair, Delirium, and Desire had a challenge to see which of them would drive a man named Norton most until his death, and Dream won
Death professes that of all the Kings and Heads of State, she liked him, Emperor Norton, the best

Episode 12: A Game of You – Chapter 1: Slaughter on Fifth Avenue

Episode 13: A Game of You – Chapter 2: Lullabies of Broadway

Episode 14: A Game of You – Chapter 3: Bad Moon Rising

Episode 15: A Game of You – Chapter 4: Beginning to See the Light

Episode 16: A Game of You – Chapter 5: Over the Sea to Sky

Episode 17: A Game of You – Chapter 6: I Woke Up and One of Us Was Crying

Barbie visits Wanda / Alvin’s grave and attends her funeral
She also remembers a dream of saying goodbye to her along with some goth-looking teenage girl

Episode 18: Convergence – The Hunt

Episode 19: Convergence – Soft Places

Marco Polo got lost in the dream world but thankfully he ran into Morpheus who was recently freed from his imprisonment
Morpheus used what little strength he had to help Marco out

Episode 20: Convergence – The Parliament of Rooks

The baby Daniel who was born in the dream world manages to wander into it
Eve told the story of Adam’s three wives: Lilith, an unnamed woman, and Eve
Abel told a children’s story version of Death and Dream as kids, and how he and Cain got commissioned to go to Dream’s world to tell stories

Episode 21: Convergence – Distant Mirrors – Ramadan

Closing thoughts:

While I enjoyed the production of this work (quality, storytelling, voice acting, etc) I was honestly a bit disappointed by the short stories and overall plot. By the second half of the book, I was zoning out as I was uninvested and uniterested in the collection of stories they were cronicling. I think it was a combination of the stories not really being about Morpheus himself (the most interesting character in my opinion), and the stories not being connected to an overarching plot struggle.

For example, in Act I, Morpheus was on a quest to reclaim his items and regain his power after being imprisoned. Later, it follows the character of Rose as the Vortex and how Dream would need to reconcile her existance. The latter parts of the story follows shorter stories but still revolved around Dream.

In Act II, it seemed like many of the stories took place in the world and somewhat in the Dream realm (or realms near it), but didn’t actually involve Morpheus himself. He might have made a quick cameo here or there, but him not really being the main protagonist of the story made me very uniterested.

Overall, great storytelling and production. However, I really wished the stories focused more on the fantastical stories invovling Dream, and his struggle to fulfill his role in the world. Instead, it focused a lot on these minor side characters that are mostly uninteresting to me.

Nutshell:

Act II of The Sandman follows Morpheus, lord of dreams, in his journey to fulfill his duties. It also contains a collection of short stories happening in the world involving othere characters dreams and adventures.

Similar books:

Rating:

3/5

Subscribe for More Summaries👇

Processing…

Success! You're on the list.

Whoops! There was an error and we couldn't process your subscription. Please reload the page and try again.

Try Audible for audiobooks 📚🎧

Personal recommendation: For the last 9 years, I’ve used Audible to listen to all of my favorite books. It’s easy to use, cost-effective, and they have the best library of audiobooks.

If you use my affiliate links below, not only will you get a special offer, but it’ll help support the costs to maintain this blog! 😊👇

Try Audible and Get Two Free Audiobooks

Audible Gift Memberships

Please donate! 🙂

Please consider a small donation to help support my blog ^_^ I love providing free book notes and other content. Any donations help me maintain my website and create content consistently. Thanks everyone for the continued support!

$2.00