Sandman Slim by Richard Kadrey

After being Waylaid by a certain Swedish crime novel which took For. Ev. Er. to read, I am happy to be back with a book that I actually enjoyed! Richard Kadrey's Sandman Slim. This was another book recommended by Broguely McBookstore, which means he now has a .666 average. ( No, he was not responsible for the Swede, that was the fault of well meaning family. He did recommend a book that I didn't care for. I won't be writing a review)

The BOB blurb for SMS goes like this : (Stolen from B&N)
Supernatural fantasy has a new antihero

Life sucks, and then you die. Or, if you're James Stark, you spend eleven years in Hell as a hitman before finally escaping, only to land back in the hell-on-earth that is Los Angeles.
Now Stark's back, and ready for revenge. And absolution, and maybe even love. But when his first stop saddles him with an abusive talking head, Stark discovers that the road to absolution and revenge is much longer than you'd expect, and both Heaven and Hell have their own ideas for his future.
Resurrection sucks. Saving the world is worse.

First off-- I loved this. It is just the sort of thing that I wanna write when I grow up. Gritty, irreverent and so playing both sides against the center. Stark is a 19 year old in an "old man's body" and Kadrey manages to make him think that way all the way through.

The pace is so fast in this book, it is hard to write a coherent review-- It is a bit like getting off a roller coaster, then sitting down to do a detailed critique of just how each loop made you feel. My overall impression here? Weeeeeeeeeeee!

I continue the trend of reading books with no sex in them! While Stark gets wood for every pretty girl he sees  (including those that are actively trying to kill him) his heart belongs to dearly departed Alice. The sexual tension is a bit ambiguous, with hints toward warm feelings for two of the major players-- but as long as something is getting blowed up every three pages, I was along for the ride.

Apparently I got on the band wagon just in time, too. The second in the series, Kill the Dead, came out on Oct. 5th and I shall be getting my grubby paws on it post haste!