Parallels And Comparisons

Rereading Neil Gaiman's The Sandman generates several interesting points of comparison with Poul Anderson:

quotations from the poet, James Elroy Flecker;
expeditions to Hell;
Latin;
two Shakespeare plays;
two intercosmic inns;
Martians;
contrasts but also interactions between the extraterrestrial and the supernatural, thus also between sf and fantasy.

Gaiman, like Anderson, also addressed:

time travel (not in sf but in fantasy);
the coexistence of gods from different mythologies;
the fate of the Roman Empire after Augustus (see here);
an immortal living through history, changing his identity every few decades, denying that he is the Wandering Jew (see here).

Poul Anderson, Neil Gaiman and SM Stirling display major parallel themes but also a comparable creative originality.