For love is not part of the dream-world. Love belongs to desire, and desire is always cruel.

This is easily my favorite issue of Sandman yet. Maybe that has to do with the lack of Death as he has been presented up until this point but a lot of it also has to do with my own preoccupation with cultural mythologies. The story of Queen Nada really spoke to me and I could have easily read this issue without any connection to the rest of the Sandman series and I would have felt satisfied with it as a stand alone piece. Fortunately since I’m reading it as part of the entire series, “Tales in the Sand” leaves me excited for what’s to come. I only wish that I could read the women’s tale.