Sandman Slim by Richard Kadrey
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I enjoyed this story, the characters, the voice of Sandman Slim, and the action, for the most part.
I’m not normally a hardcore fantasy person: I don’t go for the straight up magical, I generally need it cut with a little realism. But I’d heard good things about this series and Richard Kadrey’s writing, so I figured I’d give it a shot. The book starts out with very little magical stuff — besides the guy returning from Hell. Slim navigates Los Angeles some fifteen or so years after he’s left and he’s back to hunt down some of his old gang who let him down. In fact, I forgot that the book was supposed to be more in the fantasy genre until the prospect of a magic circle popped up. When it did, and other magical things were referenced, almost ad nauseum, I did get jarred out of the story for a little bit, my suspension of disbelief rattled a bit. But I stuck with it, the magical stuff sunk to the background again and Kadrey’s story telling took over again.
I think I might come back to the series for those flashes of humor, the hard-nosed voice of a man who’s been, literally, to Hell and back, and Kadrey’s dark vision, and just be ready to skim when the fantastic — the type of fantastic elements that make it too easy or just a little too ludicrously difficult for our hero — rears its eight-eyed, fire-breathing, lizard pelted head again.