A review by missgloop
Kill City Blues by Richard Kadrey

3.0

Continuing the trend began in Devil Said Bang and Aloha From Hell, Kadrey focuses on more worldbuilding and greater stakes. While at times I miss the scrappy Stark from the first 2 Sandman Slim volumes, the fascinating mythology and increasingly weird metaphysical questions posed by the later volumes are really worth sticking around for. In this volume, Stark goes hunting for the Qomrama Om Ya, aka "The 8 ball," a magical weapon stolen by Aelita that he needs to help destroy the old gods who were around before God-god came in and took things over. That's of course before God split into different pieces, one of whom is now the new Devil. Wacky stuff. From a theological perspective, I'm not really sure what Kadrey is aiming for with all this mixed discussion of gods and devils and the existence of a Hell that is completely unfair and unjust and a God that neither cares nor has the power to change. The books have always been cynical to varying degrees, but this notion that God exists, sees that things are screwed up but washes his hands of the problem just seems so... juvenile I guess. It is as if Kadrey himself is Lucifer, the petulant child, lashing out a God that is unfair in his judgements. And this is coming from me, an atheist. In these later volumes, the existence of the Angra, gods before God, I find to be entirely inconsistent with the rest of the traditional Christian mythology the books relied upon in the past. I find the Iron Druid series far more believable and fully realized in its insistence that all gods from every pantheon are real, than this whole "oh wait, there are other gods now" subplot. I will keep reading these books as long as Kadrey keeps writing them, because they are enjoyable, darkly comedic and violent fun. But I really can't say that I fundamentally "get" what Kadrey's aims are in terms of philosophy or what his endgame is.