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''Fables & Reflections'' (1993) is the sixth collection of issues in the DC Comics series, ''The Sandman''. It was written by Neil Gaiman and illustrated by Bryan Talbot, Stan Woch, P. Craig Russell, Shawn McManus, John Watkiss, Jill Thompson, Duncan Eagleson, Kent Williams, Mark Buckingham, Vince Locke and Dick Giordano, coloured by Danny Vozzo and Lovern Kindzierski/Digital Chameleon, and lettered by Todd Klein. The introduction is written by Gene Wolfe. The issues in the collection first appeared in 1991, 1992 and 1993. The collection first appeared in paperback and hardback in 1993. Like the third collection (''Dream Country''), and the eighth (''Worlds' End''), ''Fables and Reflections'' is a collection of short one-issue stories. Most of the stories do not contribute directly to the overall story arc of the series on a textual level but rather comment on its themes and provide subtext. The most conspicuous exception is the story "Orpheus", originally printed as the one-shot Sandman Special, which is central to the main story of the series. ==Content== The book contains four tales under the banner of "Distant Mirrors", which are about emperors and the nature of power. These issues all take their name from months ("Thermidor", "August", "Three Septembers and a January" and "Ramadan"). Three of the issues making up the "Distant Mirrors" group were published between the "Season of Mists" and "A Game of You" story arcs. The last, "Ramadan", was written contemporaneously, but because of art delays DC published it as Issue #50, after the "Brief Lives" arc. Three other issues appearing in ''Fables & Reflections,'' published as the ''Convergence'' story "arc", are also single-issue short stories in which Morpheus appears very little. Each of these issues details various characters' meetings with one another, and each is structured as a story within a story (this is a theme to which Gaiman will return in the ''Worlds' End'' arc). "Convergence" appeared between the "A Game of You" and "Brief Lives" story arcs. The collection also includes the ''Sandman Special'', retelling the Greek myth of Orpheus, and a brief piece from a Vertigo promotional comic. Because ''Fables & Reflections'' partakes of so many elements, some believe it lacks the thematic or artistic consistency that is present even in the other short story collections. Perhaps in an effort to make these differences less apparent, DC has shuffled the issues in the volume instead of presenting them chronologically with "Distant Mirrors" at the front and "Convergence" at the back. Some readers may choose to read this volume cover-to-cover after "A Game of You", while others read individual stories in their place as originally published. Due to its nature as a collection of short stories, ''Fables & Reflections'' is probably the least essential volume of the series in terms of the surface plot of ''The Sandman'' (with the exception of "Orpheus"), but perhaps the most accessible as the reader can dip in and out without needing a thorough grounding in the characters and previous stories. That said, some of the stories in ''Fables and Reflections'' provide key subtext that is invaluable to the close reader attempting to understand Morpheus' motivations in the rest of the series. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「The Sandman: Fables & Reflections」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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