The Sandman Act III: A Continuation Nearing an End

In July of 2020, Audible released the first act of an audiobook version of The Sandman before following it up last year with the second act. Both entries featured full musical scores, a full star-studded cast playing the characters, narration by author Neil Gaiman, and a faithful adaptation of the books that inspired it. Act I adapted Preludes and Nocturnes, The Doll’s House, and Dream Country (basically season one of the Netflix adaptation just with the DC characters preserved and the final two issues of Dream Country adapted) while Act II adapted Season of Mists (the best arc of the run), A Game of You, and Fables and Reflections. Act III picks up where these left off, adapting Brief Lives
and World’s End as well as a few of the shorter stories also released. While Act III does a lot of the strongest character work with Morpheus, particularly during the Brief Lives arc, the fact that it cuts out before the final arc does work against it somewhat.

Full disclosure, this is a faithful adaptation of a comic that ran from 1989 to 1996. As such, there will be spoilers beyond this point. Also, if a reader has seen the Netflix show but hasn’t read the comic, there will be spoilers for things that happen beyond the confines of the show.

In Calliope, audiences were introduced to the muse Calliope and her past with Morpheus, as well as the fact that the two had a son and some mysterious negative fate had befallen him. Act III tells this story and how it related to the relationships within the family of the Endless. Brief Lives follows Morpheus who joins his sister Delirium on a mission to try and track down their lost brother Destruction after her other siblings Despair, Destiny, and Desire all turn down her request for help. World’s End
tells the story of a group of strangers who end up being stranded at an inn between worlds during a reality storm and end up sharing stories of how they ended up at that point.

To quickly get World’s End out of the way, it is definitely the weaker of the two halves of this collection as it is Gaiman using his creation as a way of telling wild dark fantasy stories in a framework that allows him to tell basically any story he decides he wanted to that issue. It is a genius plot device of the realm of the dreaming, however if historical fiction or high fantasy is not something that the listener gels with, this will be the weaker half. That’s not to say it’s bad, however the stories of what happens with these people in the dreaming is not nearly as engaging as the preceding half.

There is a lot more to talk about with Brief Lives
considering where the story ends up going in what would be Act IV of this audiobook version, should they make it. The culmination of the story where Dream and Delirium do finally meet Destruction for the first time in centuries gives Destruction the ability to tell his explanation as to why he abandoned his duties. Morpheus’ arc is that his time among people in the waking world made him grow attached to humans and care about their lives. At the same time, this is juxtaposed here with Destruction who grew desensitized with humans to an extent as he discovered that people will still destroy each other, even without his intervention. Considering that Morpheus is headed to his death at the hands of the Furies at the end of his next arc (The Kindly Ones), and the catalyst for this conflict as well as the ultimate resolution for the role of the Endless are all tied into Brief Lives very closely, it feels strange that as of writing this there is no confirmation of Act IV yet. Without getting the closure of that arc, it does feel somewhat incomplete, especially since The Kindly Ones is very clearly a closing arc for the story.

Just to shout out a few fantastic performances, Neil Gaiman is fantastic as the narrator and brings the right level of gravitas to the role, James McAvoy continues to bring a subdued level of authority to the role of Morpheus, Kristen Schaal is a pitch-perfect casting choice for the role of Delirium, Bebe Neuwirth has a small but memorable sequence reprising her role as the Goddess Bast, and Kevin Smith is a great choice to play Merv Pumpkinhead.

Final Rating: 9/10