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Working as a sideshow gladiator in Hell after being snatched by demons at the age of nineteen, James Stark escapes and returns to Los Angeles, where he plots to destroy the magic circle that stole his life. "An addictively satisfying, deeply amusing, dirty-ass masterpiece." —William Gibson "A sharp-edged urban fantasy, drenched in blood and cynicism, tipping its hat to Sam Peckinpah, Raymond Chandler, and the anti-heroes of Hong Kong cinema....A bravura performance." —San Francisco show more Chronicle "I couldn't put it down." —Charlaine Harris Sandman Slim has arrived—a wild and weird, edge-of-your-seat supernatural roller-coaster rider that propels author Richard Kadrey to the forefront of the fantasy, thriller, and a host of other literary genres. This spellbinding, utterly remarkable tale of a vengeful magician/hitman's return from hell is part H.P. Lovecraft, part Christopher Moore, part Jim Butcher, and totally, unabashedly dark, twisted, and hilarious. show lessTags
Recommendations
Member Recommendations
brakketh Also contains an anti-hero magician in a real-world setting.
Also recommended by enrique_molinero
80
anonymous user Both these novels are told in first person by men who are not averse to a bit of violence every now and then, and who have a certain attitude towards the universe. Altered Carbon is SF, while Sandman Slim is more of a Supernatural Urban Fantasy.
50
saltypepper Start of a series which begins with the resurrection of a man who uses magic and is seeking vengeance, in a city (Los Angeles, London) which is practically another character.
40
yarmando Supernatural action thrillers with heavier, more graphic violence.
LongDogMom Similar style
LongDogMom Similar in tone and I think would enjoy a similar audience.
majkia gritty supernatural thriller
LongDogMom Similar feel and style, both deal with angels, demons, Hell, betrayal and love.
reconditereader Both are about tough guys battling in supernatural, violent underworlds... but their secret weakness is always the people they care about. Both are real page-turners that keep things moving, too!
Also recommended by ShelfMonkey
by SunnySD
Vulco1 A supernatural creature just does their best to live a good life, even when confronted by mysteries, conspiracies, and supernatural bureaucracies.
They find some love and some danger.
Member Reviews
Fun, dark, and sort of heart-breakingly ridiculous, this is one of those books that you can't help falling into and catapulting through. I have to imagine it's a little like what could result from a mafia boss locking Stephen King and Christopher Moore into a room, and demanding they write a book for him. It defies genre, and it makes you laugh at things that, if you thought about them for any length of time, might make you cry or crawl into the closet to hide.
In other words, it's kind of awesome, and I can't wait to read the next one.
So, yes, absolutely, I recommend it.
In other words, it's kind of awesome, and I can't wait to read the next one.
So, yes, absolutely, I recommend it.
I’m not gonna lie: I loved the hell out of this book. (Pun intended.) I wish I could have given it 6 stars, or go back and adjust my other previous 5 star reviews down to 4’s because this one set a new bar for me. It was a ton of fun to read. It grabbed me immediately and did a great job of balancing character history with running plot.
The positive: The book is funny and has a great noir feel.
The main character, Stark, was sent to Hell, alive, but manages to survive it. Eleven years later, he's back in L.A. with some great super powers and a burning, yearning desire for revenge. So he sets off to kill everyone who was originally involved in sending him to Hell.
Instead, he finds himself possibly a key figure in the war between Heaven and Hell. Aaannnd then the book gets kinda lame.
Stark as a character is great. Setting off for his revenge, he makes and alienates friends, tossing out some great one liners and truly snarky commentary along the way. Stark's voice is intimate even as it is aggressive, and I really felt the post-Hell L.A. that he inhabits .
However, the show more story itself? Here is where I really agreed with the io9.com review:
The strengths of the book are its humor, Stark's voice, and how the author uses it to describe L.A. through a noir-y, monstery lens. But the plot falls apart under itself and the that "final big action" scene, to me, felt cut short. I could have settled for less complicated plotting at the end, and maybe even a little less snark from Stark, and more bangs, pows, and kabooms. I felt like if the violence had taken center-stage, like the beginning of the book promised, then the plot lines may have fallen in step. Instead of exposition, I wanted Kadrey to let Stark's fists do the talking. To have the plot roll out from the action, rather than slogging through characters explaining the significance of the final showdown before we even get to the end.
If you like Charlie Huston (me! I do!) but want something not quite as visceral in its violence or as unremittingly dark, Sandman Slim might be for you.
Io9 Link: L.A. Is A Magical Cesspit, And Sandman Slim Is Its New Champion show less
The main character, Stark, was sent to Hell, alive, but manages to survive it. Eleven years later, he's back in L.A. with some great super powers and a burning, yearning desire for revenge. So he sets off to kill everyone who was originally involved in sending him to Hell.
Instead, he finds himself possibly a key figure in the war between Heaven and Hell. Aaannnd then the book gets kinda lame.
Stark as a character is great. Setting off for his revenge, he makes and alienates friends, tossing out some great one liners and truly snarky commentary along the way. Stark's voice is intimate even as it is aggressive, and I really felt the post-Hell L.A. that he inhabits .
However, the show more story itself? Here is where I really agreed with the io9.com review:
Sandman Slim's main drawback is its plot, which doesn't bear much examination — about halfway, or maybe two thirds of the way, through the book, the exposition starts getting thicker and thicker, and various characters pop up to explain stuff, and then other characters jump in to explain those explanations. Soon enough, the simple tale of a horrendously scarred bastard who crawled out of Hell to kill a bunch of people who deserved it gets more and more muddled with a lot of other stuff. It sort of overpowers the fun revenge rampage you've been primed for since the start of the book — but the good news is, there's still plenty of death, destruction and despair to go around, and the book's final big action set pieces are a lot of fun. It's easy to see why people were talking about it at Comic Con.
The strengths of the book are its humor, Stark's voice, and how the author uses it to describe L.A. through a noir-y, monstery lens. But the plot falls apart under itself and the that "final big action" scene, to me, felt cut short. I could have settled for less complicated plotting at the end, and maybe even a little less snark from Stark, and more bangs, pows, and kabooms. I felt like if the violence had taken center-stage, like the beginning of the book promised, then the plot lines may have fallen in step. Instead of exposition, I wanted Kadrey to let Stark's fists do the talking. To have the plot roll out from the action, rather than slogging through characters explaining the significance of the final showdown before we even get to the end.
If you like Charlie Huston (me! I do!) but want something not quite as visceral in its violence or as unremittingly dark, Sandman Slim might be for you.
Io9 Link: L.A. Is A Magical Cesspit, And Sandman Slim Is Its New Champion show less
Really long books scare me so much that I tend to just avoid them at all costs. Seriously, the last time I remember reading a book over 300 pages long was back in middle school when I read Harry Potter. (I'm now in college, so it's been a while.) My mom read this book and loved it so much, she wouldn't stop talking about it. So I decided, without even realizing the length of the novel, to put the book on hold at my local library. I almost didn't read it when it came in. (Guys, I seriously hate reading long books. It's stupid, I know.)
But I pushed through my fears -- and boy it was worth it! This didn't feel like a long read what-so-ever. Every single page had something new and exciting happening. Half the time I was pulling my hair out show more and screaming at Stark to do this or say that. I loved it! The characters all felt super fleshed-out and real, which is kinda weird since most of them aren't entirely human. The witty one-liners for every character was awesome and I didn't feel like anyone was just a side character to the story. Everyone was there for a reason.
Overall, this was really fun to read and I thoroughly enjoyed it. One of the blurbs on the back of my copy said it was like a really good B movie. I think that sums it up superbly. If you're like me and don't pick up longer novels, do yourself a favor and pick this one up anyways. It's so worth it! show less
But I pushed through my fears -- and boy it was worth it! This didn't feel like a long read what-so-ever. Every single page had something new and exciting happening. Half the time I was pulling my hair out show more and screaming at Stark to do this or say that. I loved it! The characters all felt super fleshed-out and real, which is kinda weird since most of them aren't entirely human. The witty one-liners for every character was awesome and I didn't feel like anyone was just a side character to the story. Everyone was there for a reason.
Overall, this was really fun to read and I thoroughly enjoyed it. One of the blurbs on the back of my copy said it was like a really good B movie. I think that sums it up superbly. If you're like me and don't pick up longer novels, do yourself a favor and pick this one up anyways. It's so worth it! show less
I've never been a huge fan of urban fantasy, it sort of came along after I'd gotten into science fiction, but this is an appealing mix of down and dirty crime writing and full on horror as our hero escapes Hell to modern LA and sets about taking revenge on the fellow magicians who betrayed him and sent him there, alive, eleven years before. Monsters, devils, magicians, alchemists, angels, Homeland Security and Nazis, the pages are crowded with inventive characters and ideas and set-ups. Slim is a nasty piece of work with a heart of gold, though sometimes he leans into being an asshole a bit too much while being as irritatingly self-righteous as only those who go around being an asshole with a heart of gold caught between the forces of show more good and evil can be. It's fast, tight, furious, bloody anarchic fun, and the prose is so wonderfully hard-boiled you can take big bloody bites out of it to chew while you read. show less
This is one of those books that asks the question "What if you could be the asshole you dreamed of being in your worst teenage moments?" And, look, I can enjoy that kind of book sometimes. But unfortunately it also asks the question "Do you want to read a book about an incompetent, not very bright asshole making pointlessly violent choices that are terrible on every level because he's real sad about his refrigerated woman? And not ever learning from it or growing at all because he doesn't really experience consequences but the people around him do?" And I'm afraid the answer to that will always be no.
And, look. It's possible that Kadrey was making some sly jokes about dudes who think they are so, so cool and really they are just like show more every other one of them out there, but it's weird how mainstream this is for a book supposedly about punks who live on the margins of LA. All of the main characters reference the same narrow set of movies and TV shows, and they're all the "cult" classics that everyone knows. They all wear the same brands that poser kids do. They all dress "edgy" in the kind of way you get when you shop at the edgier stores in the mall. And they apparently don't listen to music at all. Like. I would not have been surprised to see a Friends reference in here, that's how mainstream (and dated!) this is.
And wow is this book just the straightest, dudeliest one imaginable. Female characters exist for the following reasons: 1. To inspire the hero by being tragically murdered or maybe just tortured. 2. To inspire the hero by being objects of his horniness. 3. To save the hero (offscreen). I realized I should give up on any of the women having a personality beyond "female" when the supposedly sadder but wiser woman who has just been brutally beaten by magicians because of a mistake made by Stark (the hero -- I didn't bother with his name before because honestly, who cares?) immediately leaps to being on his team instead of running like hell in the other direction. And the queer people -- and please remember this book is set in *Los Angeles* -- exist for the following reasons: 1. To be dead. I mean, maybe? There were a couple of references to dead [homophobic slur]s, but that could also be just the straight dudeliness of it all, because nothing screams "I am so edgy, look at me, look at me!" like assorted slurs. But wow how my suspension of disbelief broke when the hero broke into a club for LA's elite and it was designed exclusively for straight vanilla dudes. There should have been hot young men in harnesses in there. There should have been a very complete dungeon and a ton of people of all genders to torture movie studio execs exactly as much as their heart desires. There should have been goats and swimming pools full of jelly, my friend. And absolutely mountains of substances, instead of one reference to a crackhead.
This might be a reasonably enjoyable book if it's the first time you've seen all the concepts in here that Kadrey borrowed from other people, I guess? But for me, no. There were a few good one-liners. That was it. show less
And, look. It's possible that Kadrey was making some sly jokes about dudes who think they are so, so cool and really they are just like show more every other one of them out there, but it's weird how mainstream this is for a book supposedly about punks who live on the margins of LA. All of the main characters reference the same narrow set of movies and TV shows, and they're all the "cult" classics that everyone knows. They all wear the same brands that poser kids do. They all dress "edgy" in the kind of way you get when you shop at the edgier stores in the mall. And they apparently don't listen to music at all. Like. I would not have been surprised to see a Friends reference in here, that's how mainstream (and dated!) this is.
And wow is this book just the straightest, dudeliest one imaginable. Female characters exist for the following reasons: 1. To inspire the hero by being tragically murdered or maybe just tortured. 2. To inspire the hero by being objects of his horniness. 3. To save the hero (offscreen). I realized I should give up on any of the women having a personality beyond "female" when the supposedly sadder but wiser woman who has just been brutally beaten by magicians because of a mistake made by Stark (the hero -- I didn't bother with his name before because honestly, who cares?) immediately leaps to being on his team instead of running like hell in the other direction. And the queer people -- and please remember this book is set in *Los Angeles* -- exist for the following reasons: 1. To be dead. I mean, maybe? There were a couple of references to dead [homophobic slur]s, but that could also be just the straight dudeliness of it all, because nothing screams "I am so edgy, look at me, look at me!" like assorted slurs. But wow how my suspension of disbelief broke when the hero broke into a club for LA's elite and it was designed exclusively for straight vanilla dudes. There should have been hot young men in harnesses in there. There should have been a very complete dungeon and a ton of people of all genders to torture movie studio execs exactly as much as their heart desires. There should have been goats and swimming pools full of jelly, my friend. And absolutely mountains of substances, instead of one reference to a crackhead.
This might be a reasonably enjoyable book if it's the first time you've seen all the concepts in here that Kadrey borrowed from other people, I guess? But for me, no. There were a few good one-liners. That was it. show less
I'd literally never heard of this series, or even this author...and I'm kind of wondering how that sad state of affairs ever came about.
I'd been talking with another writer friend about how much I ended up loving the Dresden Files, and she suggested this as a good follow up.
She was not wrong.
This one's far grittier, far seedier, more punk rock than Dresden ever got. Where Dresden is a shabby white knight, Stark is an a-hole with an occasional soft spot for those getting picked on...while also being the guy that picks on others. Dresden is noble. Stark is vengeful.
And the attraction to this one is just the incredible dump of imagination and ideas. The writing is noirish and engaging. Where it took me almost seven novels to really become show more invested in Dresden, I was pretty much all in on this one right from the get-go.
I hope the series holds up, because this one shows a lot of promise.
How have I missed this series and author for the past 16 years? Makes me wonder what other incredible authors are out there that I don't know about. show less
I'd been talking with another writer friend about how much I ended up loving the Dresden Files, and she suggested this as a good follow up.
She was not wrong.
This one's far grittier, far seedier, more punk rock than Dresden ever got. Where Dresden is a shabby white knight, Stark is an a-hole with an occasional soft spot for those getting picked on...while also being the guy that picks on others. Dresden is noble. Stark is vengeful.
And the attraction to this one is just the incredible dump of imagination and ideas. The writing is noirish and engaging. Where it took me almost seven novels to really become show more invested in Dresden, I was pretty much all in on this one right from the get-go.
I hope the series holds up, because this one shows a lot of promise.
How have I missed this series and author for the past 16 years? Makes me wonder what other incredible authors are out there that I don't know about. show less
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ThingScore 100
It's the kind of book where suffering and slim hopes are the reality for almost all the characters, and where goals are not achieved without the kind of sacrifice and revelation that change people's lives forever. And by the standards of that kind of book, Sandman Slim is very, very good indeed.
added by lampbane
This is a tightly plotted revenge story that grabbed me by the throat and didn't let go.
added by lampbane
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Author Information
126+ Works 11,874 Members
Richard Kadrey is a freelance writer. He is the author of dozens of stories, plus numerous novels, including: the Sandman Slim Series, Metrophage, and Butcher Bird. Kadrey created and wrote the Vertigo comics mini-series ACCELERATE. Richard has written and spoken about art, culture and technology for Wired, The San Francisco Chronicle, Discovery show more Online, The Site, SXSW and Wired For Sex on the G4 cable network. He is also a fetish photographer and digital artist. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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Sündmuste horisont (101)
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Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- Sandman Slim
- Original title
- Sandman Slim
- Alternate titles*
- Sandman Slim: Höllendämmerung
- Original publication date
- 2009-07-21
- People/Characters
- James Stark [Sandman Slim]; Mason Faim; Kasabian; Lucifer; François Eugene Vidocq; Aelita (show all 7); Dr. Kinski (Uriel)
- Important places
- Los Angeles, California, USA; Hell
- Epigraph
- Just judge of vengeance, grant the gift of forgiveness, before the day of reckoning. - Dies Irae, Requiem Mass
The dumber people think you are, the more surprised they're going to be when you kill them. - William Clayton - Dedication
- For Nicola
- First words
- I wake up in a pile of smoldering garbage and leaves in the Old Hollywood Forever cemetery behind the Paramount Studio lot on Melrose, though these last details don't come to me until later.
- Quotations
- Nothing nice happens to murdered women, except that maybe someone cares about how they got that way.
Ladies and gentlemen, meet the Metatron's Cube. One of the holiest of holy glyphs. The soul of the angel Metatron, the voice of God. Good for keeping away imps, flesh-eating zombies, and ants at a picnic. It slices. It dices.... (show all) It has a thousand and one uses. A thousand and two if you draw it on a brick and throw it through the windshield of your ex-girlfriend's new boyfriend's car.
While it's giving me a migraine right now, I think the fact that I'm not an expert on corpse disposal says a lot of good things about me and my life choices. - Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)"Can we order in pizza later?" asks Kasabian. "Can you eat?" "I can chew" "I'll put a bucket under you." "Shut up. The movie's starting."
- Blurbers
- Gibson, William ; Harrison, Kim ; Harris, Charlaine; Doctorow, Cory; Black, Holly
- Original language
- English
*Some information comes from Common Knowledge in other languages. Click "Edit" for more information.
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