A humble monk who lived in a tiny temple on the side of a mountain. No one ever visited the temple anymore, except for a white fox and a badger. One day they decided to place a wager to see who could make the young monk leave his home. Fate works in strange ways, however, and the fox soon falls deeply in love with the young monk.

Add a fearful Onmyoshi and three creepy witches to the story, and there's a recipe for trouble. When the monk falls into a curse, the fox-woman eats his dreams to save him, thus cursing herself. When he discovers what she does, he tries to take the curse back upon himself to free her. He travels to the land of dreams to beg the King of All Night's Dreaming for help. Although he gets to see the fox as a woman once again, there is no way for them to both leave the land of dreams together. They get to say goodbye, then one carries the curse, and the leaves to seek revenge on the Onmyoshi who caused all this.

The way the book is written. It has a beautiful feel to it, like reading a Japanese folk tale. You have to read the book to really get the feel of it, but here's one of the sentences, "The King of Dreams had skin as pale as the winter moon and hair as black as a raven's wing, and his eyes were pools of night inside which distant stars glittered and burned."

Read it again, and go back and study all the pictures. You get caught up in the story the first time through, so it's a good idea to go back and see each illustration. They're all very beautiful works of art.

-is wonderful. His book is like reading the night. It has a mystical, whimsical feel that is unmatched by anything else.

It is true art. Anyone who has never read this is missing out on a gift. The illustrations are gorgeous as well. Each one has the same quality as a painting that could be hung on a wall. And there is another beautiful picture on every other page.

This book review hardly does "The Sandman" justice. Just trust me, one way or another you'll want to see this one.



** Image ID #454493 Unavailable **

(My clumsy rendition of one of the smaller illustrations)

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Created Jul 01, 2002 at 3:16pm • Submit your own review...