A review by badspringbye
The Sandman Vol. 1: Preludes & Nocturnes by Neil Gaiman

adventurous dark mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

 first read but I can already tell I will go back to this over and over again without getting tired of it

“I find myself wondering about humanity. Their attitude to my sister's gift is so strange. Why do they fear the sunless lands? It is as natural to die as it is to be born. But they fear her. Dread her. Feebly attempt to placate her.”

from issue #3/4:
“I am the universe—all things encompassing, all life embracing.”
“I am anti-life, the beast of judgment. I am the dark at the end of everything. The end of universes, gods, worlds...of everything.”
“I am hope.”

from issue #8:
“Death is before me today:
Like the recovery of a sick man,
Like going forth into a garden after sickness.
-
Death is before me today:
Like the odor of myrrh,
Like sitting under a sail in a good wind.
-
Death is before me today:
Like the course of a stream,
Like the return of a man from the war-galley to his house.
-
Death is before me today:
Like the home that a man longs to see,
After years spent as a captive.”
-
“That forgotten poet understood her gifts.”