Two more from the Sandman series proper (these are volumes 5 and 6; I've resigned myself to reading them all out of sequence). I really like A Game of You - am surprised again by how immediately likable these characters are. All of the figures in A Game of You are new to me except Thessaly (who becomes Larissa by the time of The Kindly Ones) and the Sandman himself (plus brief appearances by Nuala, Matthew and Lucien), but it takes no time at all for Gaiman to get us rooting for them, and feeling that there's an interesting back story behind the words and images actually on the page. The 'dream' characters are endearing, naturally, while also having a sort of gravitas, and the ones from the 'real' world are eminently sympathetic (and believable). And the whole 'Barbie' concept is great - y'know, like I said last time, clever.
I'd actually read Fables & Reflections before, in a library somewhere, some time. It didn't particularly impress me then, but now, having been introduced to the figures who fleetingly pass through the major storylines of these nine self-contained shorts, I appreciated the book much more, whereas large chunks of it made no sense when I didn't have the necessary context. That said, I still didn't enjoy it as much as the other Sandman I've read lately.
