Sandman Update: The Kindly Ones

[sawyl]

Reduced the strain on my sanity over xmas by immersing myself in Gaiman's The Kindly Ones.

The plot, which is vast and complicated, begins when Lyta Hall's son Daniel is abducted. Lyta is convinced that Dream is responsible, swears revenge on him and enlists the help of the Furies to achieve it. While this is going on, Rose Walker travels to England where she meets Desire, who gives her a heart-shaped cigarette lighter — presumably a replacement for her heart, which she gave away to her grandmother in The Doll's House.

Dream then tasks Matthew and a newly remake Corinthian to walk the earth and track down Daniel's kidnapper. They soon discover that Loki was involved and pass him into the custody of Odin and Thor who return him to his confinement deep underground, where the Trickster realises that he himself was tricked into stealing Daniel.

In the meantime, Nuala returns to Faerie, Remiel seeks advice from Lucifer, who has begun to become bored with his LA piano bar, and Rose, thanks to her new heart, briefly falls in love with her English solicitor. The Furies gradually ravage the Dreaming, killing many of it's denizens, eventually leaving Daniel, Cain, Goldie, Matthew and The Corinthian alone in the Castle, before the plot neatly ties itself up in a way impossible to explain without giving everything away.

The Kindly Ones, as implied by the first few panels which show the Furies winding up plot threads, ties together the main story elements from The Doll's House, Season of Mists and Brief Lives, making it worth reading for that reason alone.