I am a big fan of the Sandman Slim series, especially the narration by MacLeod Andrews who just NAILS the character. Thus, I tried some of the author’s other books, The Grand Dark and Dead Set. I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect and yet I feel that my expectations were met. Both books deal with grim worlds and the occult. I think I could identify them as Kadrey books even without knowing, but that might be some really strong hindsight bias.
I read The Grand Dark first. It is a stand alone novel about a messenger/delivery man in a very dystopian, post-catastrophic war, European-based city. He lives happily enough with his girlfriend who, for all intents and purposes, is an actress. He does not aspire to do very much and is content with his life but as he learns a little bit more about his city/country, it’s not terribly clear but also not that important, let’s call it a city-state, he learns that he wants more from life but he lives in a horrible place and people don’t get what they want. The Grand Dark started very slow but there was a lot of character and world building. So much that it almost seems odd that the book is a standalone. I enjoyed The Grand Dark a lot.
Dead Set is a young adult novel about a teenage girl who just experienced the death of her father. She is very into punk culture, which she learned from her parents. She meets an odd man in a record store who offers to help her see her father again for an even more odd price. I think Kadrey did a good job with his young, female protagonist but I honestly don’t know if that is true, or if it matches what I think is true. I look forward to introducing my kids to this book when they get older as a gateway to the Sandman Slim series and other more… adult … takes on fantasy.