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AMBER_GRAINS

                                            June 25, 1993

The Sandman has always seemed somewhat
influenced by Zelazny's Amber to me:

Notably the Gallery of sigils is
reminiscent of Zelazny's deck of
trumps.

Both begin with their main
characters trapped on earth,
both escape and slowly make
their way back home: Dream's
slow crawl back to the center
of the Dreaming was the first
thing that reminded me of
Zelazny's "walking though
shadow".

Also, both Dream and
Zelazny's Corwin return from
Earth with their characters
changed, somewhat humanized.

I don't think there's much
correspondence between the various
members of the "royal" families, but
then Zelazny's pantheon wasn't as
well thought out as Gaiman's...


(For that matter the Phil Jose
Farmer "World of Tiers" stories       His models were Burroughs,
Zelazny drew inspiration from         and Van Vogt, so doing
did an even worse job.)               character was out of the
                                      question.
Also, both Gaiman's
Dream has the                             MAKER
multiple, elaborate
names of royal
convention, much
like Zelazny's hero       (Zelazny's "Sam" is known
in _Lord of Light_.       as "Sam Calkin, Prince
                          Siddhartha, Mahasamatman,
                          Binder of Demons, Lord of
   You might figure       Light").
   this is a trivial
   similarity, since
   you could say the
   same thing about
   any number of
   royal/religious        But the question
   characters through     is what was Gaiman
   out myth and           *really* thinking
   history...             of, not what he
                          *might* have been
                          thinking.



                  And, it's obvious that currently
                  Gaiman is telling a story about
                  stories... but what is it that     SATIRE
                  Gaiman wants to say about them?

                  There's a framing sequence about
                  an inn called "The Worlds' End",             POV
                  where everyone present tells
                  different stories, and they all
                  insist that they're merely
                  killing time.

                  It's clear they "protest too much",
                  but what else could they be doing?

                      Defining the boundaries
                      of the world...


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