Compared
to the first three volumes of The Sandman,
Season of Mists has a
relatively-straight plot. It takes fewer
meandering detours than the previous volumes, but while there’s some good
stuff, the main throughline of the story doesn’t grab me as well as it could (a
few spoilers.)
Destiny
of the Endless, who has some knowledge of the the turning of fate, realizes
that it’s vital to call his siblings together for a meeting. While there, Dream has a revelation: he must enter Hell and retrieve Nada, a woman
he imprisoned there long ago when she refused to be his queen. However, he arrives to find Lucifer closing
up shop. The demons and departed alike
have scattered, and the fallen angel, ready to retire, bequeaths his realm to
Dream. As gods, faeries, angels, and all
manner of spirits descend on the Dreaming to try and coax/bribe/threaten Dream
to turn Hell over to them, Dream grapples with the decision of what to do with
the Underworld.
There’s
some interesting stuff in the Hell storyline – I like the cast of otherworldly
characters clamoring for the key to Hell (this series always does well when it
shows assorted supernatural beings from various realms mingling with each
other,) and some of their bargaining chips are pretty intriguing. However, the plot kind of sputters at the
end, and in general, I’m not a fan of the whole thing kicking off because of a
woman Dream condemned to eternal torment because she rejected him. I get that that’s kind of the M.O. for a lot
of these supernatural beings, majorly upending the lives of mortals at their
whim, but I still don’t have to like it.
What I do
like, though – what I love – is the big family meeting of the Endless. The sibling group is rounded out by older
brother Destiny and younger sister Delirium, both of whom are pretty awesome
(although Death remains, for me, the best,) and it’s beyond cool to see them
all interacting at once. Gaiman
simultaneously makes them completely otherworldly and totally “human,” the way
they loom so large and yet still fall into their same ages-old petty squabbling
and rivalries. I also really enjoy the
one chapter that’s an off-shoot of the main storyline, a sequence exploring
what’s happening on Earth now that Hell is closed. It’s cool, creepy, and creative – basically,
the Neil Gaiman trifecta.
Four
volumes in, I’m still a little mixed on The
Sandman as a whole. I’ve pretty
wholeheartedly loved the (admittedly-limited) Gaiman stuff I’ve been exposed to
elsewhere: namely, his Doctor Who episodes, Neverwhere, and Coraline. This one, though,
eludes me a bit, and I’m not sure why.
It might be the strong horror bent with the more grotesque images,
because parts of this story are definitely disturbing. But even just from a narrative perspective, I
don’t know. It’s not quite coming
together for me. I see these flashes of
brilliance, dark beauty, and stunning inventiveness, but on a pure
nuts-and-bolts level, it’s not fully coalescing. It certainly holds my interest enough to keep
going, but at this point, I’m not sure if I’m going to cross some threshold in
the series where it suddenly gets amazing, or if this is essentially where it’s
going to stay.
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