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thaydra's review against another edition
4.0
Continued shenanigans. Humor, horror, a little romance... (Really...It's a smidge).
srlemons42's review against another edition
4.0
I really liked this book! I felt that the story itself pulled me in, and like the first book Sandman Slim, the main character was entertaining and I was constantly wondering what he would do next.
I actually couldn't put this book down! It started off kinda slow for me, but it soon picked up into a fast read. I definitely recommend this book to people who liked the first one!
I actually couldn't put this book down! It started off kinda slow for me, but it soon picked up into a fast read. I definitely recommend this book to people who liked the first one!
crystalgem's review
adventurous
dark
funny
fast-paced
3.5
Not as good as the first one, but still super enjoyable.
colophonphile's review against another edition
Second in Richard Kadrey's ongoing Sandman Slim series about a hardboiled quasi-angel stuck between warring factions from Heaven and Hell. The character's human name is James Stark, after the pseudonym of hardboiled writer Donald Westlake. Westlake's Stark is best known for his Parker series, and it's something of a humorous thread through Kadrey's series that despite being a mass killer, a veteran of Hell's arenas, and an "abomination" of a metaphysical hybrid, Stark is also quite concerned about humanity, more than he ever allows himself to acknowledge — and certainly more than Westlake's Parker, whose selfishness would make Ayn Rand seriously consider handing out Occupy flyers at a Telegraph Avenue corner in Berkeley. While the close of this second Sandman Slim book may find Kadrey's anti-anti-hero back at the Los Angeles bar that is his secondary residence, much has shifted. That's to the book's credit. In most of the Parker novels, routine is all — a procedural prison built for a man who makes his living avoiding prisons — but here there's a sense that things are moving forward, changing, and something heavy that way looms. Between start and finish are: a government agency led by a war-hungry angel, at least three varieties of zombie, a movie deal for Lucifer, an extended undead riff on Chinatown and The Godfather, the sort of gadgets that Gizmodo.com's underworld spinoff would cover, and the usual cast of friends whom Stark keeps at a distance, not all of whom come out alive.
panpan's review against another edition
5.0
A few story inconsistencies, but a really, really fun ride :D
otherwyrld's review against another edition
4.0
In this second novel in the Sandman Slim series, it has been six months since James Stark escaped from Hell to get revenge on the magicians who sent him there. Having achieved this purpose he has since drifted, taking on odd jobs as a supernatural hit-man to pay for the booze, cigarettes and all the clothing he trashes every time he walks out the door. He is both entertained and annoyed by the notoriety he has attracted in the supernatural world that lives in Los Angeles, so when Lucifer comes to L.A. to makes an autobiographical movie and offers Stark a job being his bodyguard, Stark isn't too hard to persuade.
Of course, nothing is as it seems. Lucifer has an ulterior motive for being on earth, one connected with Mason, the man who sent Stark to Hell in the first place, and who is now stirring up civil war down there. People are going missing as well, but it's only when the bodies start shambling around and biting people that Stark realises that something big is going down.
This is another entertaining book by Richard Kadrey, and one I got through in just a few hours. It's not going to set the literary world on fire, but when it is this much fun to read, then who cares. The end of the story signals some major changes for Stark, and subsequent books only seem to be raising the stakes. At least Stark is thinking a bit more in this story, even though it doesn't do much good, as he still gets into just as much trouble as in the first book.
If I have a quibble with this one, it is just that Lucifer and the other Angels act and behave just a little bit too much like human beings, which serves to weaken them. They remind me of the Angels in Supernatural who, as Dean likes to point out on numerous occasions, are dicks. Of course Lucifer has a good reason to seem weak - he has never really recovered from being thrown out of Heaven, and he is tired of the revolt going on in Hell. So much so that he has decided to pack in the job and go back to Heaven, though it remains to be seen if he will have to fight his way in.
The world building in this story is expanded quite a bit, and we are introduced to quite a lot of new information about many of our main players. Stark learned in the last book just how unique he is, and this serves him in good stead as he goes through a number of changes and power upgrades in this story line. These will no doubt come into play in the next book, as it seems likely that he will be going to Hell to fight for its control.
It's a story I'm looking forward to reading.
Of course, nothing is as it seems. Lucifer has an ulterior motive for being on earth, one connected with Mason, the man who sent Stark to Hell in the first place, and who is now stirring up civil war down there. People are going missing as well, but it's only when the bodies start shambling around and biting people that Stark realises that something big is going down.
This is another entertaining book by Richard Kadrey, and one I got through in just a few hours. It's not going to set the literary world on fire, but when it is this much fun to read, then who cares. The end of the story signals some major changes for Stark, and subsequent books only seem to be raising the stakes. At least Stark is thinking a bit more in this story, even though it doesn't do much good, as he still gets into just as much trouble as in the first book.
If I have a quibble with this one, it is just that Lucifer and the other Angels act and behave just a little bit too much like human beings, which serves to weaken them. They remind me of the Angels in Supernatural who, as Dean likes to point out on numerous occasions, are dicks. Of course Lucifer has a good reason to seem weak - he has never really recovered from being thrown out of Heaven, and he is tired of the revolt going on in Hell. So much so that he has decided to pack in the job and go back to Heaven, though it remains to be seen if he will have to fight his way in.
The world building in this story is expanded quite a bit, and we are introduced to quite a lot of new information about many of our main players. Stark learned in the last book just how unique he is, and this serves him in good stead as he goes through a number of changes and power upgrades in this story line. These will no doubt come into play in the next book, as it seems likely that he will be going to Hell to fight for its control.
It's a story I'm looking forward to reading.
bleedrobot's review against another edition
4.0
Read if you liked the Dresdon files and can't find anything else you like.
yesteres's review against another edition
4.0
Kadrey's followup to the fantastic [b:Sandman Slim|5776788|Sandman Slim (Sandman Slim, #1)|Richard Kadrey|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1311727590s/5776788.jpg|5948537] is a sequel that doesn't disappoint, even if (for me) it should.
This is not a zombie novel, but it does have zombies in it. So, let's set something straight first: I hate zombies in books. And movies. Games. Comics. Casual jokes. I don't get them. I mean, sure, I understand why they are scary: People you love becoming shells bent on eating your brains and guts. A large angry mob that can't or won't hear your protests and can't be stopped (this is the real, primal fear part that I do get, being one against an endless crowd). I just don't find them that scary when compared to actual living breathing people, who lie, cheat, murder and rape in real life everyday, across all cross-sections of humanity. And in books, there are a lot of zombie tropes, which leads to a lot of stale books and movies. I crave something different, and zombie rarely feel different. So Kadrey is coming in from a difficult angle for me. That being said...
I still really liked this book. Kadrey succeeded in taking a subject that I don't particularly like and using it as an obstacle and a backdrop as opposed to the main opposition (and he did complicate the idea behind them as well). Stark's problems aren't just a horde of zombies, they're everyone(not really spoilers ahead): the Vigil, the Sub Rosa, Lucifer, Hollywood, cash flow, his friends, himself, his nature, and cigarettes. That's why this book succeeds for me. He isn't fighting a mindless horde, he's in a conflict with every tiny vibrating bit of the physical and metaphysical universe.
Stark is a damn good character (the star in a robust cast of damn good characters), and I am more than willing to follow him through an arc that I would normal shy away from. I plan on starting [b:Aloha from Hell|10439703|Aloha from Hell (Sandman Slim, #3)|Richard Kadrey|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1302271758s/10439703.jpg|15344305] on my commute home tonight.
This is not a zombie novel, but it does have zombies in it. So, let's set something straight first: I hate zombies in books. And movies. Games. Comics. Casual jokes. I don't get them. I mean, sure, I understand why they are scary: People you love becoming shells bent on eating your brains and guts. A large angry mob that can't or won't hear your protests and can't be stopped (this is the real, primal fear part that I do get, being one against an endless crowd). I just don't find them that scary when compared to actual living breathing people, who lie, cheat, murder and rape in real life everyday, across all cross-sections of humanity. And in books, there are a lot of zombie tropes, which leads to a lot of stale books and movies. I crave something different, and zombie rarely feel different. So Kadrey is coming in from a difficult angle for me. That being said...
I still really liked this book. Kadrey succeeded in taking a subject that I don't particularly like and using it as an obstacle and a backdrop as opposed to the main opposition (and he did complicate the idea behind them as well). Stark's problems aren't just a horde of zombies, they're everyone(not really spoilers ahead): the Vigil, the Sub Rosa, Lucifer, Hollywood, cash flow, his friends, himself, his nature, and cigarettes. That's why this book succeeds for me. He isn't fighting a mindless horde, he's in a conflict with every tiny vibrating bit of the physical and metaphysical universe.
Stark is a damn good character (the star in a robust cast of damn good characters), and I am more than willing to follow him through an arc that I would normal shy away from. I plan on starting [b:Aloha from Hell|10439703|Aloha from Hell (Sandman Slim, #3)|Richard Kadrey|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1302271758s/10439703.jpg|15344305] on my commute home tonight.
sharondblk's review against another edition
4.0
I just love this series. The second book was as fun, and fast paced as the first, with the advantage of the main character trying to be a bit less of a knuckle head. I love this series.