I’ve never read Gaiman before, but his various works have frequented my to-read list. I wasn’t too thrilled by Sandman, but misattributed that feeling to the graphic novel medium. I abandoned this collection midway since the stories were often really boring or weirdly sexual. Even the best ones weren’t especially memorable or original. At first I optimistically found this unevenness appealing, like playing roulette. Half way through, I decided to cut my losses.

One of the better stories was hidden in the introduction, but was basically a riff on Picture of Dorian Gray. I also found “Troll”, “Chivalry”, “Queen of Knives” and “Shoggoth” to be entertaining but not memorable. Other stories were just bad, like “Goldfish Pool”, and “White Road”, and “Changes”.