Product Description

The Corinthian, Lucifer Morningstar, the Three Witches and others - a host of old friends, ancient enemies and unlooked-for betrayers - all come together for a mythic conflagration of nightmare proportions that will affect the future of the Endless and the fate of the Dreaming for all time.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #13246 in Books
• Published on: 1996-04-19
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 368 pages

Customer Reviews

It really *doesn't* get any better than this
We all know how wonderful "Sandman" is (was). And "The Kindly Ones" is the climax of it - but, more importantly, it's also the apex of brilliance. It's long. It's epic. It's moving. It's filled to the brim with superb characters (of course, all of "Sandman" is, but "The Kindly Ones" manages to get almost everyone in there). You will laugh, and you will cry. Often. Every single line is quotable, and most are brilliant even out of context. The art, so unconventional, fits it perfectly, giving the best interpretations ever of most of the characters that appear. While the rest of "Sandman" could, at a pinch, be described as some of the first comics work (behind anything with the name "Alan Moore" on the front) to be held as literature, "The Kindly Ones" really is a work of epic, literary genius that will stand up in years to come.

Things Come Together
In THE KINDLY ONES The Sandman has invoked the wrath of the furies for having killed his son, Orpheus (even though this is what Orpheus asked for), but the story stretches far greater than the vengeance of The Furies, because in this penultimate volume of THE SANDMAN everything comes together. And I do mean EVERYTHING.

Gaiman brings many characters back, like Hyppolyta, Rose Walker and Hal from A DOLL'S HOUSE, Cluracan and Nuala (SEASON OF MISTS and WORLD'S END), Thessaly (A GAME OF YOU), some of The Endless, as well as Puck, Loki, The Corinthian and Lucifer and ties up all their stories. We see what becomes of Hyppolyta's boy, Daniel, we see how Rose Walker makes sense of her life after the events in A DOLL'S HOUSE and we see how Loki, Thessaly and Nuala respond to The Sandman's involvement in their lives. Some characters discover a sense of closure or, at least, their stories reach a conclusion and some of the characters have (and have had) a direct influence on drawing The Furies towards The Sandman.

Gaiman's writing, which is always good, is even better here as he's written a story with a strong focus. Along with the main story the reader can also enjoy many shorter stories which are conclusions of events in previous books, but also feed into the greater story itself. The artwork is rather different to previous books and takes some getting used to, but is still fittingly plain and actually suites the story well.

The book is extremely satisfying to read, not only for the feeling of conclusivity, but for what the story means in itself; I think through all the books Gaiman has subtly been trying to say certain things about love and responsibility, which are complicated and very difficult to express and in this novel what he has been saying becomes clear.

incredible
utterly, totally, magnificently, almost frighteningly brilliant. buy six. the only thing i can complain about is only being able to give it five out of five. even if you are the kind of sneering fool that dismisses all graphic novels as simple comics, you should buy this, purely because it will change your mind and possibly your life.

this book has a psychotic serial murderer as one of the heroes. you will cheer for him. THIS IS NOT A NORMAL BOOK.

but what it boils down to is that everyone should be made to reads work of art of this calibre purely for reasons of self-betterment. from the painful degradation of hippolyta's sanity to the corinthian doing what he does to the ending, this is full of images that will stay with you for a long time.

seven crowns!