Bill Kerwin's Reviews > The Sandman, Vol. 9: The Kindly Ones

I remember reading somewhere that Bleak House is one of Neil Gaiman’s favorite novels, and The Kindly Ones, the penultimate volume of The Sandman, reminded me a great deal of Bleak House. Like the typical Dickens novel, The Sandman series contains a multitude of characters and plot threads, and The Kindly Ones is the volume which, gathering these characters and threads together, brings them to climax (though not to conclusion, a matter reserved for the next volume, The Wake.) It is precisely this movement toward climax that reminded me of reading Bleak House: somewhere near the end of Dicken’s narrative, with about one hundred pages remaining, you can sense the characters arranging their final tableaux, the plot threads combining into a finished tapestry. This is a huge endeavor, and the reader can feel the novel, like a great engine, moving deliberatively forward, and the readers excitement increases, for he knows he has almost reached his destination.

This is the tale of Morpheus’ struggle with The Furies (known euphemistically as “The Kindly Ones") and a few other enemies Dream has acquired over the years: Loki, Peaseblossom, Hippolyta Hall (also a “Fury,” from DC Comics), and Thessaly (last of the 1,000 year old witches). It also resolves a few other stories, including those of Rose Walker and the fairy Cluracan.

It is sad to see this series brought to a close, but The Kindly Ones is an excellent beginning to what one can sense—as the great machine of the story moves forward—will be a satisfying ending.