Everything about this book should work. It's a virulent mix of violent hard boiled modern crime writing set in a supernatural revisionist history of Angelic and Hell mythologies. The protagonist, Stark, is a fresh spin on the "back-from-the-dead" type of anti-hero and the world author Richard Kadrey creates is James Ellroy trying to be as hip as Elmore Leonard with the snarky fantastical element akin to Charlie Huston's Joe Pitt series thrown in to flavor the over-the-top angels vs. demons baseline scenario. Kadrey does an admirable job world-building, with various strains of the world-behind-the-real-world tropes that are interesting and seem original. Almost everything is interesting enough to warrant further exploration in the future novels that he is clearly setting up.
The only thing that doesn’t work is the way Kadrey presents Stark, the main character. It’s gets to the point where by the middle of the novel you are almost sick of Kadrey trying to prove just how tough and how much of a bad-ass Stark is with description that eventually comes off as cliché chest pounding instead of character development. Kadrey does a good enough job putting stark though the paces that it is clear who and what the character stands for and is capable of, it doesn’t need so much over-justification. In fact, it would have suited the character better not to be described so over-the-top and allowed some natural character development to occur within the generous and interesting supporting cast. It might have also allowed more sympathy to have been established earlier in the book so the ending isn’t a series of false climaxes that seem to keep going on and on.
However, even with the nitpicking about overselling Stark as a tough-guy-anti-hero, Kadrey rewards the reader with some intricate plot twists and allusions to further adventures to more than make up for these few shortcomings. Had I not been on a blitz through books of a similar genre, I might have found this book even more enjoyable than I already did. SANDMAN SLIM is a creative, interesting book that keeps your attention and leaves you interested in the what happens next. I look forward to reading the rest of the series and look forward to exploring more of Kadrey’s other writing.