In this third volume of the Lucifer series, story pieces are beginning to fall into place. Lucifer has finally gotten what he’s always wanted: a chance to show up his God by forming a Creation of his own, and doing it better. Better is a nebulous concept in this context, but I think that’s as it should be; clever though the Lord of the Morning Lightbringer is, I doubt he really understands the jealousy and resentment tangled up in his motivations here. Meanwhile, as usual, all creatures great and small scheme against him, up to and including an unsurprisingly jealous God and a possible rift with his constant companion from all the way back to the Sandman days.

Mundane events continue apace as well: many beings are drawn toward Lux, Lucifer’s former nightclub and current gateway to the new Creation; the ever-intriguing Elaine Belloc finds herself in dire straits; and aspects of Hell are explored in the titular A Dalliance with the Damned. As has reliably been the case thusfar, the most interesting themes in the series deal with humanity and free will. How might demons and humans react to a damned soul elevated to equal status within Hell’s hierarchy? How might Adam and Eve have reacted to the sole edict, “Do not worship me. Just be free.”? What might tempt them in such a circumstance?

I can tell this series is just beginning to pick up steam, and it has a doozy of a potential endgame. In theory, Carey may be attempting to settle an irreconcilable difference between two almost equivalent beings with diametrically opposing viewpoints of The Way Things Ought To Be. I’m not prepared to actively compare it with Gaiman’s Sandman, but there’s no doubt in my mind that it’s a worthy successor.