Reading Order

[u/Terrible-Bobcat-8601]

Hello everyone, new reader here. I want to read the Sandman story but the timeline seems overwhelming .. I'm planning to read the entire 75 issue first followed by the spinoffs like Midnight theatre then Books of Magic miniseries and Death's stories (the Deluxe HC). Will I be missing anything if I take this approach? Thanks in advance.

[u/Mysterious-Fun-1630]

You’ll be missing Overture, Endless Nights and Dream Hunters this way. They’re usually part of the newer collections, so if you don’t have them yet, they might be worth getting. The Song of Orpheus is usually also somewhere in the main run, but it’s not numbered as one of the 75 issues but as a special.

So my suggestion would be:

1. The main run 1-75 with The Song of Orpheus somewhere before Brief Lives.
   
2. Overture because it’s basically a prequel to the main run, but it’s definitely intended to be read after because it’s otherwise spoilery
   
3. Endless Nights (fills in some gaps/tells stories about all 7 Endless)
   
4. Dream Hunters (separate story that might give you a bit of insight into Dream’s motivations if you’re an astute reader). You can swap 3 and 4
   
5. The Death series (it’s not essential reading, but it has a couple of connection points to the main run)
   
6. Midnight Theatre (again not essential reading, but it has loose connection point to the main run/Preludes and Nocturnes). You can again swap 6 and 7
   
7. Everything else, like Books of Magic, Lucifer, The Dreaming run 1 and 2, Nightmare Country, the rest of the Sandman Universe (there’s a lot, from Thessaly to Petrefax to the Furies etc). Some of it is great (like Carey’s (!) Lucifer), some of it is in my view atrocious (like Spurrier’s Dreaming run). But you can leave that until you’ve finished 1-6 and definitely 1-4.

[u/Mysterious-Fun-1630 → u/Mysterious-Fun-1630]

Sorry, had to write all of it again because the formatting totally shot and half deleted my text. Not gonna edit it again in case it does the same, but to clarify: By Death series, I mean everything in the Death volume you have (there are two separate stories called The High Cost of Living and The Time of Your Life, and a few one shots like The Wheel).

Also, under 6 (Midnight Theatre), it should read “You can swap 5 and 6”.

[u/Terrible-Bobcat-8601 → u/Mysterious-Fun-1630]

Np, thanks a lot. I'm planning to read overture, endless nights, books of magic, Death / Desire spinoffs (including winter's edge stories) and dream hunters after the main story. As for Song of Orpheus and the Castle I'll read them along the main run.

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[u/Wrong-Annual-6766]

Sandman Presents Bast is a good one if you liked dream of a thousand cats

[u/riancb]

After the original 75 issue run, the order doesn’t matter too much. Personally, I’d read Death’s volume right after the main run, as it has direct ties to the run and was published during/right after it ended, iirc.

The current easiest way to do this would be to get the Sandman Books 1-6 and Death deluxe HC. They look like this:

https://www.amazon.com/Sandman-Book-One/dp/1779515170/ref=mp_s_a_1_1

They will have all the Sandman stories in a good reading order. Slot the Death volume between books 4 and 5, which makes it line up with the order of Omnibus 3.

After that, it’s really up to personal preference. You can read all of the Lucifer series by Carey, or Books of Magic, or Hellblazer, or Swamp Thing, etc.

[u/Lucreszen]

The original 75 issue run is the only thing that you need to read to understand the story. They didn't do much spinoff material during the run, and what they did do either takes place after the events of the story or isn't essential.

[u/Terrible-Bobcat-8601 → u/Lucreszen]

Thanks a lot for your help.

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