Summary: Volume Three of the Absolute Sandman series offers up one large story arc, "Brief Lives" (and the single-issue "Song of Orpheus", which is essentially a prequel.) In this, Delerium is on a mission to find her brother, the only one of the Endless who has abdicated his responsibilities and gone missing. Dream agrees to accompany her, albeit for his own reasons, and neither of them quite gets what they were looking for. There's also a smaller "arc", World's End, which is primarily composed of stories told by travelers who have wound up stuck at the Inn at Worlds End. There are also several single-issue stories, including the acclaimed "Ramadan", as well as "A Parliment of Rooks", in which we get a brief look at Dream and Death as children.

Review: I'm having somewhat of a hard time gauging my reaction to this volume. On the one hand, I found the stories - particularly "Brief Lives" - to be really interesting, since they're the first time that I've really felt like each of the individual volumes is part of a whole. I still can't see the story arc of the series entire, but I've glimpsed it, and there's clearly been some character growth and some story progress since the beginning. (Plus, I like the rest of the Endless almost as much as I like Dream, and I really enjoy watching them interact as a family.) On the other hand, though, nothing in this volume was as emotionally driven or as wholly satisfying as either of the arcs from Volume 2, "Season of Mists" or "A Game of You". Nor did any of the single-issues stories (or any of the stories within "World's End") really capture my imagination the way some of the earlier ones have. So while it's fascinating watching Gaiman spin an entire new world out of bits of mythology and stories from every corner of the Earth, this volume just didn't quite have the resonance I could have wished for. 4 out of 5 stars.

Recommendation: Don't start on Volume 3, obviously, but the series as a whole is absolutely worth reading, and I'm curious to see how the pieces all fit together in Volume 4. ( )

Brief Lives always chokes me up but nightmares of Boss Smiley help to clear that up. ( )

This volume contains my two favourite Sandman collections, "Brief Lives" and "Worlds' End", as well as my favourite stand-alone story "Ramadan", and "The Song of Orpheus". I absolutely love the stories: both "Ramadan" and "Brief Lives" made me cry; I love the characters (currently trying to get over a mild crush on Destruction). And the artwork in this volume is absolutely gorgeous. Hey, even the colourists got it right! ( )

A must have for any real Sandman fan (or even any fake ones). ( )

This volume collects the Brief Lives storyline, where Dream and Delirium go looking for their missing brother, and the World's End story, where several strangers are marooned in a mysterious inn during a reality storm. It also contains some short, one-issue stories, including the story Ramadan where the caliph of Baghdad sells his city, as well as extensive galleries and the full script of Ramadan.

Neither of the two longer storylines are among my favourite Sandman stories. World's End in particular, I feel is on the weaker side, I don't care much about the characters involved, or about their stories, which only become interesting when there are fleeting glimpses of the larger mythology of the series. Only towards the very end does something happen which is of interest to me, so it took me quite some time to get through it, I kept taking pauses and reading other things along the way.

Brief Lives, on the other hand, is quite good. Though I say it is not among my favourites, this has more to do with so much of Sandman being extremely good than Brief Lives being poor. Possibly, the reason I don't go nuts for it is that it heavily features Delirium, whom I've never quite seen the attraction of. It is an interesting story, not least because it finally introduces us to the missing Endless, and for its connection to the Orpheus myth. And, of course, it contains important set-up for the rest of the series. In general I quite enjoy stories where the mundane is invaded by the fantastic, so I'm not really sure why this one doesn't sit so well with me.

Ramadan, however, is one of my favourites. It is a beautiful story, written to resemble a tale from One Thousand and One Nights, and though it's been a while since I last looked in a copy of that, it seems to me a very good emulation of the style.

The writing here is superb, and aside from some of the one-shots in World's End, so are the characters. The drawings are beautiful throughout, I have no complaints at all on the art. And seeing Death and Dream as children is practically worth the price of admission.

As for the extras, I don't really have any complaints, but I'm not singing praises either. The many gallery pictures are pretty, but I'm just not the type of person who enjoys looking at that sort of feature for long. The script for Ramadan is interesting in its way, I suppose, but I'm not sure why I would read the story in script form when it's available in full-fledged comic form just a few pages earlier. I did however enjoy the little documentary pieces on Sandman merchandise, specifically the Little Endless statues.

Ultimately, this has to be seen as part of the longer Sandman story rather than a work in its own right, I think. It doesn't make sense to recommend the third quarter of a story to people, so I have to recommend Sandman as a whole. And I do. Very strongly. Sandman is a fantastic comic, and you are definitely missing out if you haven't read it.

And if you have read it, and are wondering whether the over-sized deluxe edition is worth it, I'd have to say yes. Not, perhaps, if you already own the series, but if you've been holding off on buying it, this is what you've been waiting for. The book itself is beautiful; large, heavy and bound in leather, and looking just as mysterious and inviting as a Sandman book should. ( )