The Kindly Ones

I've been working my way through the Sandman series for a few years now, and I like it more and more with each issue. The Kindly Ones threw me off initially however, both in the art style and the writing.

Firstly I made the mistake of reading the forward by Frank McConnell, which basically told me the plot of the novel. Not the best plan on my part. And so since I knew that the young boy was going to become Dream and that the Dream with which I was familiar was going to die I kind of didn't really enjoy the story as much as I ought to have. With every twist and turn in the plot I knew the ultimate goal and so could see where it was going, sort of like when I watched Fight Club and already knew that Tyler Durden was a part of Edward Norton's character's mind, or when I saw The Sixth Sense already knowing that Bruce Willis' character was dead. It was one of those kinds of things.

All spoilers aside I still did enjoy the novel, though the art threw me at first. This volume is so bold and graphic and the others have slightly thinner, more sketchy lines and coloring. But it sort of lends itself to the tale. As the story progress's the art shifts and becomes darker and slightly more gritty to fit the mood of the murder and destruction of the Dreaming and its inhabitants.

Focusing on the selfish tale of Hippolyta and having her be the catalyst for Dream's ultimate demise lends a sense of humanity to an otherwise supernatural story arc. You feel for her having lost her baby and you can understand her pain when she thinks Loki burnt him alive, so her search for the Furies seems justified. But then the Furies take it too far. They see an opportunity to destroy Dream and they go for it despite Lyta's protests. So in the end her child becomes the new Dream through her own actions, and she can never see him as she knew him again.

This book feels like an end to the Sandman series with the demise of our familiar title character and ascension of one to take his place creating a nice close to the otherwise disjointed narrative. But there are two volumes left. The title of The Wake of course gives me a clue of its story, but knowing Gaiman it won't go at all as I expect. However Endless Nights is still a mystery in terms of plot for me. With the protagonist dead where can it go? I'm Neil has something up his sleeve, something new and unexpected. As long as I don't read the introduction.