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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Things Come Together, 28 Jan 2005
In THE KINDLY ONES The Sandman has invoked the wrath of the furies for having killed his son, Orpheus (even though this is what Orpheus asked for), but the story stretches far greater than the vengeance of The Furies, because in this penultimate volume of THE SANDMAN everything comes together. And I do mean EVERYTHING. Gaiman brings many characters back, like Hyppolyta, Rose Walker and Hal from A DOLL'S HOUSE, Cluracan and Nuala (SEASON OF MISTS and WORLD'S END), Thessaly (A GAME OF YOU), some of The Endless, as well as Puck, Loki, The Corinthian and Lucifer and ties up all their stories. We see what becomes of Hyppolyta's boy, Daniel, we see how Rose Walker makes sense of her life after the events in A DOLL'S HOUSE and we see how Loki, Thessaly and Nuala respond to The Sandman's involvement in their lives. Some characters discover a sense of closure or, at least, their stories reach a conclusion and some of the characters have (and have had) a direct influence on drawing The Furies towards The Sandman. Gaiman's writing, which is always good, is even better here as he's written a story with a strong focus. Along with the main story the reader can also enjoy many shorter stories which are conclusions of events in previous books, but also feed into the greater story itself. The artwork is rather different to previous books and takes some getting used to, but is still fittingly plain and actually suites the story well. The book is extremely satisfying to read, not only for the feeling of conclusivity, but for what the story means in itself; I think through all the books Gaiman has subtly been trying to say certain things about love and responsibility, which are complicated and very difficult to express and in this novel what he has been saying becomes clear.
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