But you have forbidden me to think.of any man as damned.” An easily resolved paradox, Gaiman thought to himself, provided you empty Hell. Gaiman's inspiration for Season of Mists was a remark of Jesuit theologian and anthropologist Teilhard de Chardin: “You have told me, O God, to believe in hell. The central story is handled expertly, and the major digression-about dead schoolboys and masters returning to their boarding school during vacation-is very good too. One of these offers interests Dream greatly: a chance to rescue his lover Queen Nada from the consequences of his youthful anger. The delightful center of the tale is a grand banquet in the house of Dream, where these beings offer their bids and bribes for the prize of an empty Hell. Dream doesn’t really want the property-too vast, too hard to keep up-but a lot of other beings do, including demons, angels, fairies, and (yes, of course) gods): Odin, Thor, Loki, Anubis, Bes, Bast, the Shinto storm god Susano-o-no-Mikoto, and the personifications of Order (a cardboard box carried by a genie) and Chaos (a little girl dressed like a clown). Lucifer abdicates the throne of Hell, sending the damned back to earth, and turns the keys over to Dream.

Neil Gaiman is at his best when his imagination is peopled with gods and demons-magnificent, outsize personalities, ranging from the eerily transcendent to the surprisingly human-and the tale he chooses to tell in “Season of Mists” gives him ample room to create a godly and superior fantasy.

The sandman omnibus vol