A collection of four comic short stories set in the Sandman universe, but otherwise not really related to each other. In all fairness, I do enjoy "Dream of a Thousand Cats" and its take on feline mythology, and how that mythology can be manipulated to change the relationships between cats and humans. It's original and sad and affecting. Neither "Midsummer Night's Dream" nor "Facade" have the same level of interest for me, but they're basically alright even if I don't find them particularly startling. If it were just the three of them, the cat story alone would make me give this three stars.

Unfortunately, I loathe "Calliope" and always have done - this isn't the first time I've read Dream Country, and then - as now - the first short seriously puts me off. It's presented in an isn't-this-terrible way, the capture and enslavement of a muse, but what makes it so off-putting is the constant rape Calliope is subject to. I am just so sick of seeing - literally seeing, in this case - the brutalisation of women as the centrepiece of stories. Also, I feel I've read this nasty narrative so many times in other works... I distinctly remember noting this captive-muse trope pop up on the Strange Horizons lists of "Stories We've Seen Too Often" so if it could go die in a fire that'd be good, thanks.