Book Review - Sandman Slim

Sandman Slim by Richard Kadrey

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This is a strange little story about a guy who returns from hell to avenge his girlfriend's death. This would sound like a rewrite of "The Crow" if it weren't for the fact that the guy in hell was never dead, just a magician who got tricked into becoming some kind of Ultimate Fighter in hell. There are all kinds of odd creatures and a mix of fantasy and legend in this book, which is the start of a series where it sounds like Sandman Slim - the main charachter - is going to become some kind of freelance agent who works for both angels and Lucifer.

I'm not sure yet if I'll read the rest. This may be a little too "out there" even for me. The characters test the bounds of my ability to suspend disbelief, though the writing is good. I'm just not sure if I care whether he works for good or evil, and even though the main character reads as a typical D and D chaotic nuetral character, he just isn't that interesting to me. And I always think chaotic nuetral is at least interesting, even if I don't usually want to deal with them.

If you're not a geek, and are wondering what I'm talking about, I mean that I kind of like/admire characters who just go with their gut even if it makes them seem insane to everyone else in the world. But while I like that aspect of the character, I just don't care about him. Even if he claims to be spending all his energy searching out the killer of his girlfriend, he's also distracted by every pretty girl he sees, which makes me doubt his sincerity. He's a strange one, and I have to really like the main character(s) to get into serial fiction. I just don't get that connection here.



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