The Sandman Volume 5: A Game of You

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Please mark spoilers clearly

This collection consists of:

Slaughter on 5th Avenue
Lullabies of Broadway
Bad moon rising
Beginning to see the light
Over the sea to Sky
I woke up and one of use was crying

Apparently this is the least liked collection of the lot. Which is odd. Gaiman states that this is a "female" episode for Sandman and again Dream is only tangentially involed. Lots to discuss here with regards to gender I think, can we choose our Gender? not according to the gods apparently! Each story takes its title from a song too which is quite neat.

I read it over the weekend, review to follow shortly on my thread

Finished this the day before yesterday. A solid installemnt, if perhaps not my personal favorite. I agree with the gender theme, but also identity as a whole: Can we choose who we are?

*Spoiler alert*

It also seems the book is dealing a lot with change, and getting stuck in transition. The cuckoo is stuck on the skerry, Wanda's unfinished sex change, George hanging on the wall, not being allowed to "leave"... It seems to me it's no coincidence the scariest and most lethal creatures in The Land are called "tweeners".

Least liked according to what? This was one of my favorite volumes, and my most favorite of the first 5 for sure!

>4 .Monkey.: Not sure, I'll have to check the companion to see if NG explained why...

2 I read that Gaiman alternated between "male" and "female" stories. I presume that was tongue in cheek, it still bloody annoyed me though. Like little girls only want to be rescued and never be the misunderstood geeky superhero. Huh.

3 Ander's the name Tweeners still makes me laugh.. deadens the horror a bit :)

Minor spoilers
Anders I think your right.. getting stuck but also making your own decisions, choosing your own name I.e. the end choice of Barbies.

Huge Spoilers 4/5 about being least favorite volume..
I also read in the companion there was a bit of an outcry about Wanda's death, actually an outcry Wanda full stop and less of a outcry about the only black character dying off (and being poor) go figure. Outcry because you create a relatively positive minority figure and them kill them off.. bit of a cliche. Gaiman made a lot of sense in that it works for the story, Wanda is the character that makes your heart wrench and gives such a great ending. Still..
I also wonder if the while theme of outgrowing you fantasies leaves some hardcore fans a bit uncomfortable :)

This used to be one of my favourite volumes, I still love it but less over the years.. some of it doesn't quite work for me.

I just finished A Game of You and I loved it. This one goes up alongside of The Doll's House as my two favorites so far. I have posted a review on the main book page.

Read A Game of You earlier this week and liked it pretty well. More of a continuous story than some volumes and I agree that a major theme is about identity. I'm still enjoying Sandman and will continue reading with the next volume soon.

I finished this volume today. Volume 4 is still my favorite so far, but I did enjoy this one. I like that in the end Wanda got her happy ending at least.

I finished this volume this afternoon and I have to agree that Gaiman really created a gender/identity theme for this volume!

For, me this was not the worst volume so far but not my favorite either. So far I love how Gaiman has gotten even tighter with his story-telling. The artwork still needs work but I have decided that this is probably as good as it gets art wise for the rest of the series, unless I am surprised.

I felt that this one also left some rather large gaps that made no sense to me, such as: 1)who is Alianora - is this yet another girlfriend of Dream's?; 2) It took me a while to remember who Rose Walker is but I still don't see the connection with this story; and 3) I am still trying to figure out the Cuckoo and how the Cuckoo came to be in the dreamworld.

I probably shouldn't leave some much time between my reads of the various volumes if references to previous volumes are going to continue to crop up.

Overall, a great addition to the Sandman series but parts of it don't work for me. Not complaining.... just saying! ;-)

Count me among those who loved this volume. I've written a fuller explanation in my 2013 Category thread. I can understand why it might not be a favourite for others, but somehow, the characters, themes and storyline all worked for me. Maybe it's because the whole Sandman universe, which seemed somewhat alien to me at the beginning, is starting to feel comfortable, and it's great to see the return of certain characters, even the creepy ones.

I've finally gotten a move on my reads for this group. This volume ticks all the fairy tale boxes for me (review over here) - do I need to say it's a favorite of mine... :)