I liked Sandman Slim most of the time. It’s got an interesting premise of a not-fully dead human resident of Hell getting back to Earth, and trying to get revenge on the people who got him sent there. There’s also some interesting side-characters like Vidocq, Candy, and Dr. Kinski (in a very different version than the Coop stories). The various denizens of Hell who show up occasionally are pretty interesting, as is the gradually revealed backstory behind Stark’s trip to Hell in the first place. […]
The best mechanical octopus tv cat person professor ever
One of the fun things about the Everything Box was that all of the various threads come together pretty neatly at the end, and there was snark and mayhem and thievery and adventure in between. The Wrong Dead Guy has a lot of the same stuff, but it’s missing the coherent ending. The stuff with Nelson overall never comes in to the main storyline, and neither do the Auditors. They just seem to be there for some extra scheming and possible threat to Coop and […]
Too much old, not enough new in the Box
The Everything Box got a lot of attention when it first came out, but I’ve only just now gotten to it. I don’t quite understand what all the hype was about. Yes this is an entertaining adventure story with amusing characters, but I didn’t love it. I enjoyed it, but it just wasn’t as awesome as I was hoping. 3.5 stars. First, it’s so strongly reminiscent of Good Omens (by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman) in terms of characters and plot that it comes off […]
I’ll be fine,” said Bayliss. “I just need to dinosaur Jell-O escalator.”
When I read The Everything Box, it never occured to me that it was the first in a series!! HUZZAH AND HURRAY, more Coop! I love these books. I’m going to get to more Richard Kadrey eventually (see also: I’m working through the “Dark Tower” series AND the “Rivers of London” series concurrently, currently), because I absolutely howl with laughter when I read his books, and I cannot put them down unless absolutely compelled to. He is my new Douglas Adams. I’m on board for […]
Your smile will tell you what warms your heart, or How to go from zen bliss to a massacre in three easy steps
James Stark, aka Sandman Slim, is officially dead, but in his universe, there is all kinds of dead. While he tries to figure out where he is and why he’s there, he’s trying not to get deader. At the end of The Perdition Score, Death, formerly known as Samael, formerly known as Lucifer, has left him on a mountain at the edge of Hell looking at a sandstorm. The sandstorm is the Havoc, a Mad Max style caravan with a portable gallows led by a […]
Olives Are a Despotic Fruit
I think I say this on every Richard Kadrey review. Richard Kadrey is currently my favorite author and I am ridiculously excited every time he releases a new book. The Wrong Dead Guy is the second in Kadrey’s Another Coop Heist series, built around thief and reluctant Federal Agent, Charley “Coop” Cooper. Like the Sandman Slim series, the Another Coop Heist series is set in an LA where magic is real and the end of the world is nigh. Unlike the Sandman Slim series, Coop […]