Sandman: The Kindly Ones (Volume Nine)

Neil Gaiman

This volume is a mixed bag of opinions.  Before I tell you what I think of the story, I have to first address the art.  All seemed normal until the short beginning was through–then the style changed drastically and the art continued to suck for just about this entire volume.  I hated it, and thought about nothing else beyond how terrible the characters looked and how I missed the nicer art of the other volumes.  Because of this, I was greatly disappointed with this volume.

Moving on: the story focused a lot on Lyta, who is a character I really didn’t like much before this volume and like even less now that we’ve come back to her.  Loki, another character I hope explodes, had a big part as well, and together they made the middle of this volume nearly unbearable.  However, all the characters I adore, like Hob, Gilbert, Matthew and Lucien made the story worth the read.  For some reason, I have completely fallen in love with Lucien.  Perhaps it’s his deep regard for books, his love for librarians (I photocopied a few panels and put them up at work), or because he’s completely and adorably in love with Dream.  Who knows?  Finding out he was the first raven made me smile inside.

The ending brought about so many bright moments, like when Matthew and Dream say goodbye as well as moments that made me cringe, like when Gilbert, the Gryphon, Abel, and Mervyn die.  It made me realize how much I adored those characters.  And Dream–oh Dream.  What an ending.

All in all, though I wanted to stab Lyta and Loki in the eye with a poisonous dart and the art caused me to experience a great deal of anger, the ending made carrying this book around with me for weeks worth the weight (it was huuuge).  I give it a 4/5