The Sandman, Vol. 8: Worlds' End

I can't decide which I liked better, the previous volume or this one. Despite the volume's minimal focus on the Endless siblings, I'm still very much entertained by the tales told within. This volume is another one with several short stories spun into a much bigger arc - and to be even more specific, it's series of stories within stories within stories. Stephen King's introduction really put the focus on this aspect of storytelling.

The tale begins with two Americans who got caught up in a strange storm, and ends up in a place at the end of worlds. Travellers of all sorts end up in that place and exchange stories to pass the time. Each of these stories has their own theme and superb art style, all somehow very fitting to the story being told. There's also some underlying themes and hints of inspiration and touches of mystery that I can't quite seem to grasp. Making it just that much more tantalising to me. It even puts in little seeds of doubt as to what really happened from the point of view the American.

This volume is like a spin-off from following the Endless around, like a telescope spying into distant places, and you having to fill in the gaps in between on what reality really means. This is a great volume.

This series is a combination of little stories, where each chapter is basically a different story, longer stories that take up a full volume, and of course the overlying story of the Sandman's development in his world and with his family. In my opinion, the shorter the stories, the better.
This volume really plays with the stories within a story style of this series, by going what I would call “full Inception style”. This whole volume takes place in an inn full of curious characters, making it sort of a continuous story. However, each chapter is a different character telling a story, making it feel more like a collection of little stories. Then it goes further when a bunch of the chapters are about characters who hear unusual stories. Next thing you know, you're reading a story within a story within a story, and in one chapter, there's another level of stories, which results in just getting lost in an ocean of little stories. Then in the last chapter, you get pulled right out of the ocean of stories to remind the reader that this is all in the world of the story of the Endless.
This was an incredibly unique little volume full of great stories and fantastic art: each character's story had its own artist, which was conceptually brilliant. If someone asked me “What's so special about The Sandman?” I'd probably hand them this volume.
I'm holding back on 5 stars, because as with other volumes, there were parts of the larger story that felt dissonant, like there was a number of ideas Gaiman wanted to portray, and a few didn't quite hit the mark. For example, one of the characters points out that there's no relevant feminine perspective in any of the stories, but then when given a chance to tell her story she just talked about being uninteresting and lonely. Was that the feminine story? It wasn't even a story. It was like Gaiman noticed he had no good female perspective, then decided to point it out himself so that people can't criticize him about it. An odd tactic to address gender inequality in his series, and one that in my opinion didn't work.
Still though, I liked most of what is going on here, and with the last chapter, I'm eager to see what's next.

This review is really for the entire Sandman series.
I'm not sure I've ever found it so difficult to review something. I feel like I've been on a long bizarre journey and have just woken up. I'm pretty sure that was what Neil Gaiman was aiming for from the start, the series centering around the Lord of Dreams, Morpheus himself. While we follow Morpheus around and through interweaving tales we get amazing insights about the importance of stories, the human condition, family, mythology, nightmares, dreams, religion, faith, madness, life & death and the list could go on. There is so much packed in this series that I can't even put it into a category, it really is a category all its own. I haven't ever read anything like it and doubt I will ever again. It is fantasy of the highest sense. Poetic, meaningful, dark, funny, sad (okay in the last few there is a lot of sad), but also a lot about hope and new beginnings and changes. I feel like Dream, Destiny, Desire, Delirium, Despair, Death and Destruction are a pantheon of mythos I will never quite shake from my mind. Like the Greek gods, they will forever be apart of a mythology in the fabric of people's consciousness. They live there now in the back of my mind and when I encounter these things in my life, I won't be able to help but think back on Neil Gaiman's amazing story and colourful characters.
The artwork was always great and even surprising sometimes and inventive. I especially loved the Dreaming and it's heart where Morpheus' surreal and ever changing castle was. I feel like now that the journey is over, I need to start it over again, so that I can pick out all the things I missed the first time. See all the hints about where it was headed, to put characters into perspective now that I know their fates. I feel like I missed a lot, because there were stories within stories that I didn't realize were significant until after the fact. I can only marvel at its intricacy.
The imagination on display is vast and mind blowing and the way in which Gaiman can take flawed creatures or humans and give them hearts and voices and emotions that you carry with you through the entire series, is a testament to his character-building. I never thought I'd shed a tear for a pumpkin-head or raven or for a place that doesn't even exist, although I really wish it did.
I could go on and on about this series, but I'll do the only thing I can do and that is to recommend it to everyone, just as the comic book store employee recommended it to me. I have read very few graphic novels, so I can't compare to it to other graphic novels, but as a story completely on its own and of its own merits, I highly, highly recommend you give The Sandman series a read. Even if you only do it once, it will be worth it. You will see storytelling in a different way and it will stick with long after you finish the last volume.