The Sandman Vol. 8: Worlds' End (edition 1995)

A large group of people, from different times, places and realities, find themselves caught up in storms and disasters. They each find a refuge in the inn at the World’s End. Here they swap stories to pass the time until the weather clears. But what sort of event could create a storm all across reality?

I remember this as one of the weaker volumes – I think I’ve only read it once before, even. Rereading it now I can’t quite understand why. Possible because the book is a pause in the big story arc of Sandman (even though there are, as usual, important pieces to the big story here too), or because I read it out of order. Or perhaps, and this is more important, for being a book about storytelling, it has a rather irreverend way of looking at them. Most of these tales don’t end with bangs or final twists, but kind of halt at a point where they point forward. Their stories aren’t ended, merely halted, like their lives, and like the role of the inn itself this stormy night. And indeed, like the role of this book, an intermission in the big arc of Morpheus. I think I felt, the first time around, that many of these stories could’ve been better. Now I kind of enjoy how they fizzle out.

This is still not one of my absolute favorites of the series, but it’s pretty damn impressive as a structure, with it’s Russian doll theme of stories within stories, and it’s playing on it’s theme of the halt, the wait, the pause for thought. It’s also the best looking Sandman book yet! ( )

Worlds' End is another set of short stories, but what I really liked is how it was all woven together. It's a story about a group of people trapped in an inn at the Worlds' End during a "reality storm" - to pass time, they each share stories. Some of these stories contain other stories, so that the result is a bit like nesting dolls. It was very well crafted, and most of the stories involve characters we've met earlier. Therefore, not only are the stories enjoyable on their own, but it's nice to have those threads woven through.

True to form, the reality storm and its cause, as well as the scene from the end of the book, tie into the full Sandman story. I was very glad when later reading The Sandman Vol. 9 The Kindly Ones to see an explanation for them. ( )

Worlds' End is an interesting collection of stories, not quite in the vein of Dream Country or Fables & Reflections. A "reality storm" has occured, for some reason, and people end up all together in an inn called Worlds' End. They all tell stories, to pass the time. The stories are interesting enough, although I wanted them to be more connected to the series. Characters from other volumes did appear, which is to be expected from something that ties its threads as neatly as The Sandman does, but the Endless didn't really feature until the very end.

I'm assuming the ending is foreshadowing of something, and I'm interested to see what's going to happen. ( )

The stories were very typical Gaiman/Sandman. Some I enjoyed more than others. Not my favorite but another solid read. ( )

A mixed bag, but I liked this more than [b:The Sandman, Vol. 6: Fables and Reflections|25106|The Sandman, Vol. 6 Fables and Reflections|Neil Gaiman|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1311961999s/25106.jpg|181895] or [b:The Sandman: Endless Nights|47720|The Sandman Endless Nights|Neil Gaiman|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327948224s/47720.jpg|460092]. I prefer when Gaiman has an entire novel to develop a story (or, in this case, stories within stories within an overarching story) than when he attempts to create a world and draw us into it in only a few pages.