Kadrey, Richard: Kill the Dead
Kill the Dead (2010)
Written by: Richard Kadrey
Genre: Urban/Dark Fantasy
Pages: 434 (Hardcover)
Series: Book Two (ongoing?)
If you saw my review for Sandman Slim, then you should know that my picking up the sequel was a foregone conclusion. In fact, I read it was soon as I was able, because frankly, it's nice to have an urban fantasy that's more horror than Buffy-Lit, and James Stark is just the anti-hero I needed to make the difference.
The premise: ganked from publisher's website: James Stark, a.k.a. Sandman Slim, crawled out of Hell, took bloody revenge for his girlfriend's murder, and saved the world along the way. After that, what do you do for an encore? You take a lousy job tracking down monsters for money. It's a depressing gig, but it pays for your beer and cigarettes. But in L.A., things can always get worse.
Like when Lucifer comes to town to supervise his movie biography and drafts Stark as his bodyguard. Sandman Slim has to swim with the human and inhuman sharks of L.A.'s underground power elite. That's before the murders start. And before he runs into the Czech porn star who isn't quite what she seems. Even before all those murdered people start coming back from the dead and join a zombie army that will change our world and Stark's forever.
Death bites. Life is worse. All things considered, Hell's not looking so bad.
Review style: There's actually not a whole lot I want to talk about, save for comparing this to the current urban fantasy trend (aka, Buffy-Lit) and why this is a breath of fresh air for some urban fantasy readers. I'll talk about how this works as a sequel, and then nitpick a few issues. Oh, and zombies. We'll talk zombies. No spoilers, so unless you're just paranoid and want to skip to "My Rating," feel free to keep reading.
When I called October Zombie Appreciation Month, I was kidding. I just thought I'd have more than my fair share of zombies after reading Seanan McGuire's Feed and watching The Walking Dead premiere on AMC (10/31). However, I didn't realize I'd be reading MORE zombie books. First it was Cherie Priest's Dreadnought, and then Feed, and now Richard Kadrey's Kill the Dead! If I wasn't tired of zombies before this month, it's a wonder I'm not tired of them now!
Fortunately, all the zombies seem to have their own rules and regulations, so I'm not getting pummeled with the same world-building over and over. Kadrey's zombies not only have their own name (zeds being one of them), but they also have a hierarchy. There's different kinds of zombies, and you can control them all with magic. It's pretty fascinating, and something for everyone, whether you like slow, drooling, lumbering zombies moaning and groaning for brains, or the fast-as-lightning kind, or even those that seem more human than not. They're all here, and they all have a role to play. Like I said, fascinating. More fascinating was the origin of the zombies, and while I may have overlooked something, I found myself more than a little chilled. Especially in light of the fact that these zombies live in a world where angels and demons are very much the real thing, and you'd think, given how much angels hate abominations, that zombies wouldn't be allowed to exist (especially the way they're created here), but yet, they do.
The angels were actually pretty frightening in this book, which in turn made Lucifer look like your best buddy. Reading Kill the Dead was an odd experience. I already had Sandman Slim under my best, so I was used to the constant profanity and insults and overall bad, violent behavior from our anti-hero, the Mr. Stark, but at the same time, I was desensitized. Not to Stark (though short of one section at the end of the book that I loved to pieces, he really didn't surprise me much), but to the world-building itself. I guess that's what happens when, between the two books, you end up reading Neil Gaiman's Sandman and Mike Carey's Lucifer series, both of which have very distinct portraits of heaven, hell, and of course, Lucifer (the Lucifer being in both series). My point in bringing this up is this: to people who aren't as familiar with seeing how Lucifer works in the real world, to people who haven't seen him outside his Biblical designation of tormenter in hell, this might seem really fresh and exciting. To someone like me, it feels like you've been there, done that, and got the t-shit. It's not to say I didn't enjoy it, but I wasn't surprised (except for Lucifer's plans and the source of his injuries). I felt like I knew the character, so there was no sense of discovery there.
That said, I still enjoyed the book. Those of us who've been complaining about how romance is taking over the urban fantasy genre need to stop and take a close look at Richard Kadrey's work. No romance but a sprinkling of lust (and treated as such); a book that has a narrator who, by all rights, is a bad guy but still a hero, whose best friend is a talking head, and who fears that Lucifer might actually be his father. There's a lot of good stuff in this book, and Kadrey doesn't pull back the punches. Okay, some of those punches come out of the blue and don't have the impact that I wish they did, but they're still there. The writing is sharp with sarcasm and cynicism, which is what I'd expect from a drunk anti-hero who spent over a decade fighting demons in an arena in Hell.
It's dark. It's graphic. And considering that Kadrey has a background in comics, that shouldn't surprise you. Sure, sometimes the book feels a bit like wish-fulfillment male-fantasy, but as a whole, it tells a solid story. It's not as exciting as the first, but it's still good, and I liked the fresh world-building and the promise of what's to come. Not that I'm entirely sure of what's to come, but I look forward to finding out.
Nitpicks:
1) How can anyone drive a car that Stark has stolen if they don't have the keys? They can't enjoy it without the keys! Stark can, but he's not going to leave his special toy around for anyone else to use, that's for sure.
2) Stark complaining about bullet wounds, after taking some kind of magical potion that's supposed to stop him from healing so fast. Seriously? He can't figure out why the bullet wound in his side looks raw? Sheesh.
My Rating
Worth the Cash: to those fans who enjoyed the first, Sandman Slim. I don't recommend reading Kill the Dead without the first book under your belt though. There's too many off-handed comments made referencing the first book and it's world-building that don't get explained, so if you haven't read said first book, you're going to be a bit lost and a lot grumpy. But it's an enjoyable sequel, and I'll be happy to pick up the next in the series, whatever and whenever that might be.
If you're interested in the first book, Sandman Slim, check out Free Fridays at Barnes & Noble's book club. You can click here for a free electronic copy, which also includes an excerpt to Kill the Dead. Can't get much better than that, can it?
Cover Commentary: I'm glad to see they're keeping the same font and size size for the series so far, as that's the only thing that's consistent. The art really isn't, but that's okay, there's not much you can do, based on the first book, to MAKE the art consistent. At any rate, I like the green and the panicked birds on the cover, and while I have no idea what scene in the book it's supposed to depict, I like it just the same. :)
Next up: A Book of Tongues by Gemma Files