“Nobody died. how can you kill an idea? How can you kill the personification of an action?” “Then what died? who are you mourning?” “A point of view.”

This is the second time while reading this series I have been sorely tempted to give one of these five stars, and I probably will when I revisit in future. What’s holding me back right now is that for most of this, I was only mildly emotionally engaged, but the very last issue, “The Tempest,” is one of my favorite things in this series, and maybe that Gaiman has ever written. I got a little teary while reading it, and in a different state of mind, I might have full out cried.

The story of The Sandman proper ended back in Vol. 9, and here Gaiman is tying up loose ends, having a wake not just for SPOILERS Morpheus END SPOILERS but for the series itself, and the very idea of endings and death. The end of a story is a kind of death, and the end of a life is the end of a story. Endings for both give meaning. The last two issues were relatively inconsequential in terms of *happenings*, but in terms of sentiment and meaning, they really tied things up nicely. I’m actually looking forward in the future to revisiting this series as I think I finally have a handle on it, it’s clicked for me. Fitting that that has only really happened for me as the story dies.

I’m not going to say anything more, just that I’m really glad I finally read this series, and that if you haven’t read it either, you should give it a try.

[4.5 stars]