While some readers may believe Worlds' End may not be as entertaining as other volumes because Dream and the Endless are only briefly shown, Gaiman spins another yarn of a tale and what may not seem to be about Dream actually is.

A large collection of characters from different worlds are drawn together at a tavern called Worlds' End. A large "reality" storm brings these travelers together to the tavern, where the many different characters tell tales to pass the time. These tales include "a swashbuckling adventure, a sea story, a gangster story, a grisly boys' funeral story, and even a little ghost story." Each of these tales is unique and a splendid read, but the funeral at the end is big (and explains the reality storm), and it is clear Gaiman has drastically changed the Sandman series and is setting up the reader for a monumental volume to follow. ( )

Another collection of short stories, unlike DC, these all fall back to the same origin point. I read somewhere that Worlds' End is a series of finding an egg inside of an egg at Easter. There are stories inside stories inside stories and sometimes you lose where you are and how you came to be there. A more appropriate metaphor might be those stacking Russian dolls, but who am I to complain? The end of WE is extremely... it's hard to handle. I cried the first time I read it, although granted, I was not on a public bus. Without knowing exactly what has happened, you know somewhere very instinctual who's in the casket and it just about breaks your heart because you know it's true and quite possibly, you've known it was coming for quite some time. It's not at all like other popular novels where it feels like an author is "killing off" a character because you know that this is what's right and this is what's true and there was no other way it could have happened. ( )

Perhaps best summarised as "Gaiman does 'The Canterbury Tales'". While each of the individual stories here is engaging and entertaining, it's the frame narrative that is the real treat. I also think that Worlds' End has some of the most spectacular artwork out of the entire series -- there are several two-page spreads that you can't help but gawk at, they're so intricate and beautiful. ( )

SPOILERS AHEAD!!! SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

So much for quitting Sandman for a while. I was in a weird mood last night, so I picked up World's End, and I finished it today after I exported my grades. I have a bad feeling about this one, and I want to remind myself to talk about the artwork again. But, quite obviously, I still need to finish my blog on Brief Lives, so one thing at a time, eh?

Oh the perils of blogging out of order once the plot thickens! My first thought about this book is that it is out of order! Haha, what I mean to say is that the events in this book take place after the events in the next book. One of the introductions mentions that Gaiman is meticulous about time, but I really beg to differ. Perhaps he knows when all the events take place, but it would take a thesis to figure out the timeline for The Sandman.

Worlds' End is another collection of stories. I guess it's a function of the medium. They were produced monthly, and every once in a while, it must be nice to buy your comic once a month and have the story actually be self-contained. Dream is in most of the stories, but not all. Still the book is about him, and that becomes clear at the end of The Kindly Ones. No matter. The basic plotline is that a large group of travelers are stuck in an inn at the Worlds' End (a place where all the worlds end) because there is a reality storm. We don't know why there is a reality storm, but if we read Brief Lives (and we did), we can surmise that the reality storm might have something to do with Dream having killed Orpheus. The main characters are: Charlene Mooney, Brant Tucker, Klaproth, Cluracain, Jim (only he's really a girl named Peggy), and Petrefax. I say these are the main characters because we learn their names, but really they are only fleeting characters in the greater drama. In any case, much like The Canterbury Tales, each traveler must tell a tale to pass the time at the inn. Actually I think this makes it more like The Decameron.

Mister Gaheris tells a tale of a dreaming city and the man who roamed its streets. Cluracain tells a story of envoy to Aurelian, a city where the position of Lord Carnal and Psychopomp have been usurped by one individual. Cluracain's story is interesting because the climactic moment occurs when he decides to tell the truth about something. He says of his species, "Sometimes we will say true things. And these things we say are neither glamour nor magic, neither prediction nor curse: But sometimes what we say is true." Again, we come back to that recurring theme in Sandman about truth being something other than what has really happened. It's different from reality. Anyway, Jim tells a story titled "Hob's Leviathan," which features our friend Hob Gadling. This story was kind of interesting because of the possibilities for gender analysis. Hob tells Peggy that he is "Old enough to hae learned to keep my mouth shut about seeing a bloody great snake in the middle of the ocean," and somehow this is evidence that Peggy can trust him with her secret as well. The idea of the great submerged snake and the great submerged secret have some possibilities. The next story is told by an unknown slightly Asian looking man, and it is about Prez Rickard, the boy President. There was something very cool about the folding of mythologies, but other than that the story was a little weird. I might have to give it some more thought. The final story was told by Petrefax, and it was about Litharge, the Necropolis. There were a few tales imbedded within this one, and I enjoyed it. There is an interesting foreshadowing/warning about having the tale about the Necropolis in this book. The citizens of the Necropolis are supposed to respect the dead, respect the passing of life, and it is certainly placed so that we heed their beliefs.

The ending of the book is the part most worth writing home about, however, at least in terms of the larger Sandman plot. At the end of the book you see a funeral procession where the Endless are pallbearers. I admit to having read the wikipedia page on The Sandman early in the series, so I had a pretty good guess who was in the casket. I won't say more about it now, but it will come up again in The Kindly Ones. ( )

"This is what's left when the real worlds end," says the inn-keeper, and gestures toward a motley group of refugees crowding her tavern. (141) Each traveler finds him or herself caught by a surprise "reality storm" and forced to take shelter in a free house between realms. The hostelry is named Worlds' End, and the placement of the apostrophe in that title is an ominous sign of what might be happening.
Gaiman's lost pilgrims pass the time by exchanging tales. A visitor catalogs them: "a swashbuckling adventure, a sea story, a gangster story, a grisly boys' funeral story, and even a little ghost story" as well as "a Horatio Alger story of some poor boy becoming President." (142)