The Story

Brant and Charlene get into a car accident during a crazy snowstorm in the middle of summer. When trying to carry an unconscious and hurt Charlene to safety, Brant comes across the World’s End Inn, an inn where travelers from various worlds and realities are all staying during a reality storm – a hugh momentous even that has an effect on all realities, dimensions, worlds, etc. To pass the time until the reality storm ends, the guests at the World’s End all tell stories – most of which are about themselves and which usually include a glimpse of one of the Endless.

The Review

This volume reminded me a little bit of Arabian Nights, in that there’s the main story of someone telling stories, and the real focus of the book is the stories that are being told.

I’ve mentioned before that the volumes of standalones are my least favourite of the Sandman books, but I think it worked a little bit better for me in this case because of the fact that there was the underlying story of the people at World’s End telling the stories. It gave a little bit more background to the stories, and shows glimpses into the characters of those telling the stories.

I also really liked that some of these characters we’ve seen before, and how in some way most of these stories did tie to other things in the series so far.

The Bottom Line

I surprisingly enjoyed the fact that most of the stories in here were standalones. All in all, though, this wasn’t one of my favourites, and it felt mediocre when compared to some of the other volumes.

Other Reviews

Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist. Have you reviewed this book on your blog? Let me know and I’ll add your link.