This opening story arc is the origin story. It is weighed down by the things origin stories always struggle with. There are individual moments that truly shine, but there's too much happening to allow the story and characters to breathe. Sandman doesn't get to be much more than an enigmatic vengeful revenant. The arc builds him up as badass, and I love how his sister shows up at the end to take the piss out of him (like siblings do). Good but not blown away yet. Looking forward to reading more. 
 I read this after reading the whole Alan Moore run of Swamp Thing, and was interested to see every peripheral character that showed up there also showed up here. I expect to see Swampie some time during the course of this book, and look forward to that. 
 It's also worth noting that the recolored versions of these books in the Sandman Omnibus are really great. I'm going to have to hunt down some discussion on the recoloring. The earlier stuff was very lurid, but not terribly realistic. I really like the visual reinterpretation.