“To absent friends, lost loves, old gods, and the season of mists, may each and every one of us always give the devil his due.”
Destiny calls the family together, the first time they have all been together in a long while. Pretty soon Death is needling on Dream about his abhorrent behavior towards Nada. She tells him he must make this right. You remember: Nada rejected him, saying she didn’t want to be his queen, so he banished her to hell. And that was ten thousand years ago. Boy she must be pissed.
So, Morpheus puts his affairs in order, even dropping in on old Hob in case he can’t make the next appointment, then sets off to Hell to retrieve Nada and ask for her forgiveness. But when he gets there he is met with nothing but silence. Soon Lucifer comes along and drops a bombshell: he’s abdicated his throne and is just finishing up booting the remaining denizens. At which point he’ll lock the place up and hand the keys over to the Dream King. Morpheus doesn’t want it, he already has his own swanky realm. Crap, now he’s got to sell the place? Dealing with potential buyers is hell.
Lickety-split Azazel and those cast out, Odin, Thor and Loki, to Lady Bast, a Nipponese god, an emissary from the faerie underworld and more come to stake their claim. Who will get the key to hell?
This was a solid effort story-wise, I just didn’t dig some of the different artwork. I have gotten used to seeing some of the Endless in certain ways, I guess. The little side story about the boarding school was creepily cool and a nice break from all the “what are you gonna do with Hell?” business.
Favorite line in the book though? “Did Mister Shouty really be sausages?”