Review: Sandman Slim by Richard Kadrey

I received a copy of Sandman Slim from LibraryThing's Early Reviewer program.  Of course, by now I'm officially a Late Reviewer, as I think I was supposed to review this a couple of YEARS ago.  But anyway!

The book is about Stark, a magician whose friends banished him to Hell eleven years ago, then killed his girlfriend.  He's returned from Hell to seek out and kill Mason, the leader of the magical group responsible for Alice's death.  While in Hell, Stark perfected his killing abilities, returning to Earth stronger, faster, and more lethal than when he left.  So killing Mason should be relatively easy...right?

Wrong.  A host of demons, angels, and anti-angels stand between Stark and his quarry.  The book details Stark's attempts to seek out and kill Mason and how he overcomes the hurdles that stand in the way.

The novel definitely falls into the urban fantasy category.  I'm going to be sexist here and say it's a very MALE book.  While reading, I kept thinking that the voice was similar to what would exist if Stephen King and Anthony Bourdain had a baby.  Teenage boys would probably love this book, but I enjoyed it as well.  If you're not into blood and gore, cursing, or anti-religious themes, this would not be the book for you.  As none of those things particularly bother me, I didn't have any issues with the content.  My copy was an Advance Readers' Edition and, as such, was riddled with typos.  I hope those were corrected before the final edition was published.  They were a bit distracting for me, but I'm a grammar stickler like that.  The story, however, kept my interest fairly well.

I'd give the book three and a half out of five Whatevers.  If there were a sequel, and it feels like there might be, I'd probably check it out.  I enjoyed the character of Stark, and I would like to get to know some of the secondary characters better (Doc Kinski, Candy, Allegra, Vidocq).  Recommended for those with strong stomachs who enjoy hard-core urban fantasy.

2011-16