07. Absolute Sandman Vol 4/5, by Neil Gaiman.

Absolute Sandman 4 contains issues #57-75. It is dominated by The Kindly Ones, and The Wake. The book as a whole is very focused on Dream, and you can see the mechanisms turning from the first few chapters, once you know what to look for, drawing the book to a very interesting showdown. Spoilers ahead, so proceed at own risk.

What I liked most about this book was that it was the story of a Dream, but not necessarily the Dream. It really is a story about stories, and it makes sense that Dream is most closely followed throughout the series, because Dreams are, in effect, stories that parts of our brains tell to other parts of our brains.

I also really enjoyed that the end of the book and the end of the series evoked very similar emotions, and they amped each other up really well. The end of the series was regretful but optimistic, in a way, and it definitely made you look forward to a new story that, while it wouldn't be Sandman, might be as evocative as Sandman. Different stories not being worse than each other has come across as sort of a theme that I've picked up from Neil Gaiman's vast array of characters, too. There are many different types of character, and many different stories within the framework of Sandman, and it's never implied that any of them are, at their essence, any more desirable or worthy than any other. Which I like.  

People who know me will no doubt already know of my dislike for endless character-saving deux ex machina, and my liking to see that major characters aren't safe just by virtue of their necessity to the story. So I very much enjoyed the ending. It made me very sad, being that Dream is nearly my favourite character, but I enjoyed the thought that it was just one aspect of the essential concept of Dream that died, and not the idea itself. And I enjoyed seeing them farewell him in such a fitting manner. I haven't started the fifth volume of Sandman yet, but it will be very interesting to see what it adds to the main body of the series.

01: A Confusion of Princes, by Garth Nix.

Khemri is a Prince of the Empire, which is to say, part of a self-absorbed, genetically enhanced, internally squabbling upper class that spend most of their time plotting how to assassinate their fellow Princes without detection from the Imperial Mind. He is directed down a pathway Princes aren't normally aware of, and learns some secrets about how the Empire truly functions.

I quite liked this book, but I think it could have been done better than it was. The Empire is ridiculously top-heavy with Princes, which is never really explained - there's no real reason to keep all of them alive, and the amount of resources needed to cater to so many must be simply enormous.

Following section contains major spoilers, continue at own risk. One thing that frustrated me about the storyline was the whole deal with Atalin. The fact that she and Khemri are full siblings is made into a major plot point, as is the fact that the Empire can't breed for native Psitek ability...yet. Implying that it is genetic, but that they haven't isolated the combinations yet. I know that incest is a rather taboo area, but the Empire is huge, obviously fairly corrupt, and gives the distinct impression that they don't give two cents about the wellbeing of any particular Prince or unaugmented human...but the subject is never even brought up at all? They have two full sibling candidates making up 40% of the total number of candidates, and they don't even consider trying to get kids out of them (or for that matter, out of ANY of the candidates?) If they didn't want to breed themselves a reliable source of Emperors, why even mention it at all? It seems ridiculous that it's just totally passed over, especially since the Empire puts so much effort into finding and raising adequate Princes in the first place, and especially since they already have so much Biotek equipment, so they MUST have a decent handle on genetics. This could have been relatively easily cleared up with a few simple statements about how the Psitek ability doesn't appear to be genetically inherited, but instead it's definitely implied that this is the case, and it's a work-in-progress to figure out what the inheritance factors are. That kind of annoyed me, because it felt like Garth Nix looked at that side of the plot, and just went "Nah, I don't feel like addressing any of those loose ends", when further delving into that part of the plot could have made the story awesome.

Other than that, and the Empire generally seeming to be a stupid system of organisation, the basic storyline was reasonably interesting, although the ending was fairly predictable, and far too make-nice to fit well with the rest of the view of the Empire that we've been presented with for the rest of the book. Granted, it's the start of a new Emperor's reign, and she can presumably exert quite a lot of influence over the Mind, but even granting that, she is a product of her upbringing just as much as any other Prince, none of whom seem to be the forgiving/lenient type at all. They're not raised with any concept of family as something that inspires loyalty within themselves, yet this is used as the basis for Atalin-Emperor's exception. It doesn't make sense, and it feels like a cop out ending. Again, could have been awesome, but the flaws detract from it a little too much.