SANDMAN SLIM - Richard Kadrey
Sandman Slim, by Richard Kadrey
blurb:
Life sucks, then you die. Period. Unless you're James Stark, a hitman in Hell for eleven years before escaping back up to Hell-on-earth L.A. - looking for revenge, absolution . . . love, maybe. But Hell's not through with Stark. Heaven's not either.
'If Simon R Green wrote an episode of Dog the Bounty Hunter, it would read much like Sandman Slim.' - Charlaine Harris
'The most hard-boiled piece of supernatural fiction I've ever had the pleasure of reading.' - Cory Doctorow
'One of the best books I have read in a very, very long while.' - Holly Black
review:
This has a semi-crap, uninformative blurb, but some of the best recommendations I've seen in a while, from Kim Harrison, William Gibson . . . and when was the last time you saw Charlaine Harris, Cory Doctorow, and Holly Black recommend the same book?
I tried to get into this book twice, because people seemed to like it, it seemed arty, and I saw the Charlaine Harris recommendation. It's in the present tense. I didn't make it past the first paragraph, which is a little disjointed. Fast forward a year, I see the recommendations from Doctorow, whose recommendations I trust - and Black, whose books I trust. I decided I was going to make it past the first page. In fact I skipped the first page, and then went back to skim it and find out what was going on. Basically, if you get to the second page, after Stark has escaped from Hell, made sarcastic remarks, and mugged the crackhead in the suit, you're hooked. It doesn't feel like Simon R Green to me as much as Mike Carey. (But the Nightside does deal with a larger cosmology than Carey's London.)
Basically, Stark has escaped from Hell, where he was sent alive by his erstwhile fellow magicians, with one purpose: to kill everyone who sent him there and participated in the murder of his love Alice. While unfortunately plotting isn't his strong spot, he is a wonderful anarchic character who really doesn't care about anything anymore, has superior weaponry, and makes about as many sarcastic remarks as John Taylor - it would be nice to catch them both in an elevator. Supporting characters include Vidocq, the 200-year old French alchemist; Allegra, the art school video clerk; Kasabian's severed head; and various characters from the Sub Rosa (the US' magical underground), the Vigil (the arm of Homeland Security that works with Heaven), and those parts of the cosmos described by Christian mythology.
Of course, nothing can be simple . . . In the end, Stark may be forced to help save the world.
I am completely hooked on the series, and reading the second book, where Lucifer has come to L.A. to produce his autobiography. I don't usually recommend books written in the present tense unless they have a really good voice, but this one makes the cut. It is really funny, although if you're strictly lawful good, it may not be your cup of tea. But if you don't mind a little darkness, it's in no way depressing.