I've read this series before, but I thought I'd do a reread. And reading this first volume again I was reminded of how I felt when I first read it: slightly baffled. I mean, I liked it then (as I do now) but at the time I never understood why the Sandman series was so popular. Had I never heard of it I'd probably not have read further, past that first volume. Thankfully I did read further, encouraged by reputation, but I'm still not delighted by Preludes and Nocturnes. I'm sure others would call it "gritty" but more often I find the unrelenting violence just a bit off-putting, really.

To me, the real spark of interest - then and now - came in the final story, with the introduction of Death. She's fantastic - warm and compassionate, a bright spark of such in this volume - and far and away my favourite Sandman character. And reading the afterword by Neil Gaiman, I found that this was the story when he finally felt the series began to really reflect what he wanted for it - needless to say, I felt a little justified in my reactions, because this is where it started to really come together for me as well.