This is one of the bad boys in the paranormal genre - it's grim and gritty, it's violent with crass language and basically with no hint of romance, which seems to dominate the supernatural and urban fantasy books nowadays.
It's summed up in - Life sucks and then you die.
Meet James Stark, a badass and a so-so magician, who was one day dragged to Hell and dropped in the arena to fight all types of monsters for the amusement of Hellions and serving Azazel, one of Lucifer's generals, who sometimes gave him additional assignments. He wasn't expected to survive but now he's back from Hell, walking over the dead bodies of a couple of infernal generals, to seek revenge for the death of his girlfriend Alice. Throughout the story the reader meets demons, fallen angels, Neo Nazis, Lolita wannabes, angels, anti-angels and a plethora of various supernatural beings, not to forget a talking head. And one also gets some information on Stark's, already a.k.a. Sandman Slim, origin that even he is surprised to discover. There were times when I got a bit bored but as a whole it was pretty captivating as it was some sort of a breath of fresh air and very different from what I had read before. And if what I hear is right and this is the weakest one in the series, the follow-up should be great. I'm keeping my hopes up.