This was by no means bad, (I gave it 4 stars) but compared to the other volumes it just felt like it was missing something. The stories were all over the place and some of the text was too hard for me to read. I gave up on a few panels and just focused on the illustrations.
“World’s End” follows a pair of colleagues (Brant and Charlene) who get in a car accident on their way to Chicago. Finding themselves in the middle of a snowstorm (or a reality storm) they find themselves an inn with a ton of other travelers. To pass the time, they start to tell stories. I honestly found myself bored by some of the stories and some I went okay then. There’s only one that seems at all connected to the larger arc of this series. Dream per usual appears in all of the stories.
“A Tale of Two Cities” (3 stars)-What if cities slept, and then one day they could or do awaken? I don’t know. This story felt like it was trying way too hard.
“Cluracan’s Tale” (2.5 stars)-Readers will remember him from Season of Mists. Look this story made barely any sense to me. Dream does appear in this one and helps out Cluracan due his sister Nuala (who is living with Dream in his castle) asking for him to intercede.
“Hob’s Leviathan” (4 stars)-A traveler named Jim speaks of a mysterious serpent he found in the sea during his travels. There’s also a story within a story in this one, and the character Hob appears.
“The Golden Boy” (3.5 stars)-Sorry, any alternative tales of Presidents of the United States just are not going to work for me right now.
“Cerements” (5 stars)-This one has a bunch of different parts to it, but we also get to see Petrefax tell a story which revolves around the city of Litharge. Litharge devotes itself to the practice of various methods of burial. Destiny, Destruction, and Despair show up.
The ending though. Sigh. We get to the end and we see something that shows us something big is coming and we can guess at who it involves.
I loved the illustrations (per usual) and I liked the bigger resolution to the frame story of this one with Brant and Charlene. And we get to see that in the end Brant is telling this story to someone at another type of inn (bar) in our real world.