The Sandman Vol. 7: Brief Lives (edition 1995)

Some three hundred years ago, Destruction of the Endless decided to leave his realm. Since then, humanity has unknowingly been in charge of their own destruction/construction (and doing just fine with it), and the rest of the family has respected his wishes of privacy. Now however, the loony kid sister Delirium has got it in her head that finding him might make everything better. After asking several of her siblings she comes to Dream, even though he scares her a bit. And Dream, presently spending his time getting over another ended love story by standing in the rain a lot, accepts to join her on her quest to find Destruction as a way of getting his mind off things. He has no intention of actually finding their lost brother. But in the end, not only does he do so, but has to make some rather crucial choices in the process.

This is my favorite of the whole series, I think. The pieces regarding the Endless as a dysfunctional metafamily really start to fall into place and I revel in getting to know more of the other siblings’ realms and personalities. Despair, so tender in her quietly brutal way, is a big favorite of mine. But what really makes this book special is the dynamic between pompous, stern Dream and his sister Delirium. She’s floopy and corny and funny, but underneath it all so broken and dark, it just breaks your heart. And while the artwork is fine throughout this book, it’s really in the rendition of Delirium that Jill Thompson excels, giving her a body language and an everchanging look that really helps define this character.

The quest is also full of Gaiman’s special brand of urban fantasy: Ishtar in a strip joint, a weird glimpse of Sami mythology, the ongoing fate of Orpheus and the late days of Egyptian Cat goddess Bast. My favorite part of this whole book is probably the beginning of chapter three, where Gaiman tilts the world and gives us a backdoor perspective on a miracle by saying that there are ”no more than about seventy people left on earth who still remember the dinosaurs”. He also intoduces a few more lovely characters to the large cast of this series – Barnabas the dog and Merv the bigmouthed pumpkin most notably.

This is a perfect blend of adventure, violence (quite a bit of it in this one, mostly in text though), humor, myth and philosophy. And without stressing it at all, this volume is central to the overall arc of the series in a way that won’t be apparent until volume ten is finished. (How sneaky is that one panel flash forward!?) I haven’t used the word masterpiece yet in my reread of these books. I will now. ( )

If you think you can get through these easily because they're "just" comic books, you're probably wrong. It's taking me a surprisingly long time to get through a single volume now I'm thoroughly embroiled in the series.

This volume stars Delirium and Dream, mostly. The other Endless all make their appearances, including the so far missing brother, Destruction, but it's mostly Dream and Delirium. Delirium is a really interesting character, and the implication that she might change again is interesting. Dream is growing up a bit, no matter what he thinks. The idea of one of the Endless abandoning their realm because they don't want their responsibilities is interesting: I assume it's going somewhere further than this.

The conclusion to Orpheus' little character-arc is quite sad, really, but also fitting. And it was good to see more of Desire and Despair and to see them with complex feelings you wouldn't expect -- like missing their brother, and being scared of what's to come. ( )

I've been wondering about the missing Endless for a while and my questions were finally answered :) ( )

It has been mentioned for several books now that there is a missing member of the Endless, who abandoned his post and his responsibilities as overseer of his realm. In Brief Lives, Delirium sets out to search for her missing brother and somehow manages to convince Dream to help her in her quest.

This one is interesting. Gaiman uses a much more straightforward plot to explore the complexities of the endless and put to bed the idea that they are all as one-dimensional as their names and roles might suggest. Delirium, a manic character that I adore for her complete and utter absurdity, was at one time Delight before 'changing,' and now we see Destruction making the case that the Endless have less purpose than they think, as he has been absent for 300 years and humans are just as destructive as ever.

The ending of the book has me on edge. Dream is in a mental state we have never seen him before and you get the feeling big things are coming. We are left pondering our fleeting existence, our ever-changing nature, and whether or not there is any real reason for the Endless to exist at all as anything other than sentinels, and we do it with a smile on our face having giggled so much at Delirium's dialogue. ( )

"None of us will last longer than this version of the universe."

Delirium enlists the help of Morpheus to find their brother, Destruction, who walked off the job three hundred years ago and lives among the mortals. Destruction maintains that the Endless are merely mythic patterns and have no business interfering in mortal lives. All lives are brief, even the ones that last an eternity, as The Sandman: Brief Lives shows by offering the reader glimpses into the minds mortals, immortals, old gods and the Endless. This is a story about change. "The word for things not being the same always . . . The thing that lets you know time is happening."

Neil Gaiman's The Sandman is amazing. Highly recommended. ( )