The most ambitious of all Sandman albums, the highpoint of the series, the convergence of all the random plot threads and part time characters into a spectacular denouement. The tragic nature of the story doesn't come as a surprise: the seeds were planted right from the start, with Morpheus imprisoned in a country manor in England in Preludes and Nocturnes and reflecting on his past mistakes and ways to redeem them. Every subsequent volume added to the morbid and apparently inevitable conflict

I thought coming back to Sandman after a seven-month break would restore my waning interest, but nah, I just can't get the old excitement back. I'll read the last collection for completion's sake, but I won't be sad when it's done.I've stuck with these books so long because in conception this series is really incredible: the blending of fantasy and mythology and history is super cool, and Gaiman of course knows this stuff like no one else. But in a story sense Sandman just so rarely comes togeth...

The Kindly Ones is quite simply the best graphic novel I have read, the bar is raised for a series that was already at the top limit of the vault. A true masterpiece that deserves 6 out of 5 stars, I read it twice which I have only ever done with the Lord of the Rings trilogy and that in itself says a great deal.The thirteen episodes of this volume feature many characters that we have met in the series so far and significantly add to the excitement that builds almost page by page.Lyta Hall leave...

"A culture that doesn’t value its librarians doesn’t value ideas and without ideas, well, where are we?" The more I read of Gaiman’s work the more I realise just how well-read he is. He clearly has read a huge number of books and has strong understanding of them. The number of literary allusions in his work is phenomenal. This is clearly the key to his brilliance. He knows how stories work. I would go as far as to say, he is a reader before he is a writer. He is always defending books, libra

Gaiman masterfully brings in characters from throughout the run of the book so far, juggling them handsomely. But the story goes on too long, especially for the amount of things that actually occur. I remember the book at this time being consistently late. That was probably the reason for the two issues of fill in art that are something of asides to the main story. Marc Hempel's contemporary art style didn't bother me nearly as much this time around as when I read this in single issues as it was...

Re-read 9/3/20:It's really hard to read this again without breaking into tears.Everything that came before came home to roost.There is nothing out of place. Anything that seemed odd or solitary or inconsequential from before has now just reared its head and has jump-scared me. Again.This is no mild feat.Original Review:This one is probably the one that I love the most, but not because of the quick pace, the literary references, the art, or the final act. Or maybe it's because (or not because) of...

6 stars!!! Now, you are probably looking at the title of the ninth volume of Neil Gaiman’s fantastic “Sandman” series, which is called “The Kindly Ones” and you are probably thinking to yourself about how this volume will be all sunshine and roses. Definitely not! Do not let the innocent title of this volume fool you! The ninth volume “The Kindly Ones” is probably the darkest volume out of all the “Sandman” series since “A Game of You” and yet this is probably the best volume out of the entir

Superbly written but too long for what the story is about Creative Team:Writer: Neil GaimanIllustrators: Marc Hempel, Richard Case, D’Israeli, Glyn Dillon, Teddy Kristiansen, Charles Vess, Dean Ormston & Kevin NowlanCovers: Dave McKeanLetterer: Todd Klein THE END IS NIGH We do what we do because of who we are. If we did otherwise, we would not be ourselves. Before of anything, I want to comment that it was very nice to find that The Kindly Ones TPB price remained in $19.99, the same as o

I remember reading somewhere that Bleak House is one of Neil Gaiman’s favorite novels, and The Kindly Ones, the penultimate volume of The Sandman, reminded me a great deal of Bleak House. Like the typical Dickens novel, The Sandman series contains a multitude of characters and plot threads, and The Kindly Ones is the volume which, gathering these characters and threads together, brings them to climax (though not to conclusion, a matter reserved for the next volume, The Wake.) It is precisely thi...

There's but three Furies found in spacious hellBut in a great man's breast three thousand dwell. Oomph. What a volume!At the end of the 8th volume we saw the funeral of an Endless and rightfully guessed that it was Morpheus'. Still, I believed there would be a way out for him. Apparently, so did he. I guess we were both wrong.Because the titular Kindly Ones, also known as the The Furies - often seen as the Maiden, the Mother and the Crone - have a bone to pick with the Dream Lord for somethin

This is my lowest rating of the entire Sandman series thus far, and the main and only reason for this is that I absolutely hated the artwork in this volume. It was childish and very cartoon-ish and it prevented me from enjoying the story. The story itself was quite good, well great in fact, although I feel that its length could have been curtailed somewhat. Rose Walker's story-line in particular felt forced, especially since it distracted from the main arc of the Kindly Ones hunting down dream.

“I've been making a list of the things they don't teach you at school. They don't teach you how to love somebody. They don't teach you how to be famous. They don't teach you how to be rich or how to be poor. They don't teach you how to walk away from someone you don't love any longer. They don't teach you how to know what's going on in someone else's mind. They don't teach you what to say to someone who's dying. They don't teach you anything worth knowing.”I know this isn't quite the end, but it...

The Kindly Ones was the longest and most dark of the collection so far!The Kindly Ones are The Furies. Three goddesses of vengeance and judgement.Typically they are represented as the maiden, the mother and the old woman.They punish men for crimes such as homicide, offenses against other Gods, and oaths not full-filled.And The Furies are after Morpheus.Knowing this plot theme while reading this addition will help with the overall flow.The series revisits characters from earlier volumes and there...

A December 2020 reread, the penultimate book, and one of the great volumes of one of the greatest comics series of all time.Original review, 12/7/14, revised a bit every time I read it: At more than 200 pages, this is the longest of the ten volume epic series, and pulls out all the stops to complete the story. I waited to write this review until after I finished the tenth and last volume, "The Wake," which I liked even better! This volume is about the variously named Furies, The Dirae, The Eriny...

I've rated both this and The Sandman Vol. 7 Brief Lives 5 stars, but I think I liked Brief Lives better, for the sole reason that it contained more scenes with Delerium. Here, Delerium is searching for someone again, this time her talking dog Barnabas, and the scene where they're reunited was charming as all get out.Practically every other character we've met along the way shows up in the Kindly Ones, and it was just more proof that Gaiman is the master of making everything he writes have a purp...

I want to learn how to draw a pentagram, into which I will catch Neil Gaiman to make ask him to tell me bedtime stories every night.

I guess it’s like Sammy Hagar sang (nay, emoted) in a criminally underrated deep cut* off the For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge album: dream another dream—this dream is over.Sandman has never shied away from going into dark places; reading it is often akin to that time when you were a kid and were forced to go down into your grandmother’s unfinished basement to fetch a jar of homemade jam. Logically, you knew nothing bad would happen, but it was still terrifying to open the dingy door at the top of

This is the penultimate arc in Neil Gaiman’s original Sandman run. The seeds for Dream’s ultimate fate has been foreshadowed in previous storylines, with its seeds reaching fruition here. The actual machinations for his demise are contained in this story as we see characters with a vendetta against Morpheus working towards his downfall. This is the longest arc in the title, with the appropriately thickest trade paperback, taking over a year to complete it. I thought that this was a bargain when

Best Sandman volume so far. Sadly illustrations are worst in series and this is series that has pretty bad illustrations overall.

4.5 stars. Got quite emotional towards the end, but also felt a little confused at times... I think a complete reread is required in future!!