The Sandman volume 6: Fabels and Reflections

Please mark Spoilers clearly

This volume consists of

Fear of Falling
Three Septembers and a January
Thermidor
The Hunt
August
Soft Places
The Song of Orpheus
The Parliament of Rooks
Ramadan

Just started this one - looking forward to re-reading the fantastic Ramadan and this volume has art by Bryan Talbot too :-)

Running in front with you, Pete :) Just wrapped this up a few days ago. Love the variety here, but feel that Gaiman is too interested at flaunting knowledge at the expence of storytelling in a few of these (Thermidor most notably perhaps). And I guess I know the Orpheus myth well enough to wish for a more original twist on it. But there are some true gems in here - Ramadan and August especially (it's a shame they are not all named after months, isn't it!). And I love Norton I and the fact that he has existed for real!

On a side note: Eurydice's hair reminds me of Bride of Frankenstein. Is that intentionally, you think?

>3 GingerbreadMan: good to see that someone is keeping up ;-)

In the Companion Gaiman mentions that he wanted to riff off the Orpheus myth but because too many people he pitched the idea to didn't actually know the myth he decided to do a straight re-telling, I'd like to see him riff off it too

I reckon the hair could be intentional knowing Gaiman's work

I finished Fables and Reflections today and found it another winner in this great series. I liked the fact that Morpheus actually appeared in every one of the nine stories, so we get to see more sides to this creation. My personal favorites of the stories were "Three Septembers and a January", "Parliament of Rooks" and 'Ramadan". The ones that held my attention the least were "Soft Places" and "The Hunt", but really all were pretty good and I think went some way towards moving the series along.

I find that the art seems to turn the corner in this collection. The art of Ramadan particularly stands out

#6 - Pete, you are so right that the artwork in Ramadan stands out. I was totally drawn in by the color and the detailed drawnings. I thought it was quite beautiful.

Ramadan was the best in the whole bunch.

I also loved Ramadan and its artwork. I also liked the artwork in August, which, with its expanses of white, was quite a contrast to Ramadan.

Agreed, "Ramadan" is a fantasic story, but I'm not sure I can pick a favorite (review over here), unless I can pick them all. :)

I am finally catching up here. I seem to be favoring different stories from this volume - Three Septembers and a January and Thermidor stood out more for me. Love the artwork in Ramadan but the story itself fell a little flat for me, although it did have a nice recovery at the end. August was good, but my attention span for ancient classics along those lines is rather short, so will chalk that up as lack of interest on my part. I tend to enjoy it more when Gaiman has fun with things and brings characters back from previous stories, but I do feel that Gaiman was on steadier ground tackling the fables he did in this volume.

My further comments can be found on my thread here.

I Finally finished Fables & Reflections this past week and enjoyed it. My favorites among the stories were "Three Septembers and a January", "The Hunt" and "Ramadan". On average, the art here was an improvement over some of the earlier volumes. However I'm sure I missed some of the references Gaiman tucked into the stories. I may have to come back and reread the series some day.

->12 hailelib:
I think that's part of the fun of the series: you can reread over and over and still find new references and angles.

Gaiman really does pack a lot into his stories. I can see where a re-read may produce a different response or insight into parts of the stories!

Having seen an interview with Gaiman recently he says that every single name in the whole series, if they are not from the DC universe already, means something!