Sandman Slim by Richard Kadrey - Review

Product Description:
  

Supernatural fantasy has a new antihero.
Life sucks, and then you die. Or, if you're James Stark, you spend eleven years in Hell as a hitman before finally escaping, only to land back in the hell-on-earth that is Los Angeles.

Now Stark's back, and ready for revenge. And absolution, and maybe even love. But Stark discovers that the road to absolution and revenge is much longer than you'd expect, and both Heaven and Hell have their own ideas for his future. Resurrection sucks. Saving the world is worse.

Darkly twisted, irreverent, and completely hilarious, Sandman Slim is the breakthrough novel by an acclaimed author.

I'm not sure if I should be giving it 3 or 4 stars. I did enjoy the book a lot, but I have a feeling it is the weakest one in the series, as most first books are.

This book is straight up Urban Fantasy, not a drop of Paranormal Romance in there. This doesn't bug me at all, as I'm as much of a fan of UF as I am of PNR. I've been reading a lot of PNR lately which mostly consists of female main characters kicking ass, although I quite enjoy, that I was pleased to read a book with a male main character as the narrator. I really liked Stark. He is an anti-hero, but a kick ass one at that.

The book reminds me of The Dresden Files, but Stark is no Harry Dresden. They might share some snark, sarcasm, wit and balls of steel, but Harry is a hero in the best sense of the word. Stark not so much, although I still liked and appreciated him.

The world building is good and solid, gritty and edgy. Heaven and Hell play huge parts in it, and I loved Kadrey's take on it. I even enjoyed meeting Lucifer (which was a fantastic scene).

I'll be reading the sequel for sure, but I might wait until tomorrow to start it. I think I had all the darkness I can handle for one night.

I'd recommend this book to anyone who likes UF, and it's not put out by the lack of romance. It might take a little getting used to for people who only read books with female narrators (or maybe not), but it's a book worth reading. Dresden fans will enjoy for sure. I still like Dresden better, but I don't think anyone can take Harry Dresden's number one spot in my heart, so that's not a fair fight. 

I'm going to give it 3.5 out of 5.

The Sandman Slim series: