The First Post: Meet Sandman Slim

Who (or What) is Sandman Slim?

Sandman Slim (a.k.a. Stark, a.k.a. the Monster Who Kills Monsters) is the protagonist of Richard Kadrey’s outrageously good series of books (as of March 2014, five books and a short story).  But God–or the Devil–forbid you call him James (or worse, “Jimmy”), or you might get a na’at through your gut.

The first book, intriguingly titled Sandman Slim, begins just after the title character’s escape from Hell:

“I wake up on a pile of smoldering garbage and leaves in the old Hollywood Forever cemetery behind the Paramount Studio lot on Melrose, though these last details don’t come to me until later. Right now all I know is that I’m back in the world and I’m on fire.”

And so, meet Sandman Slim. Actually, he prefers to be called Stark.  Just “Stark.”  His full name, as we come to learn, is James Butler Hickok Stark, and he is (allgedly) a direct descendant of “Wild Bill” Hickok.  We meet him too, in a later book, but I don’t want to get ahead of myself.

Before the novel begins, Stark has spent 11 truly horrifying years in Hell, thanks to the betrayal of some fellow magicians he thought were friends.  Yes, Stark is a magician.  Not the rabbit-out-of-a-hat kind, but the type with real magic (or “hoodoo,” as he calls it).  Stark, a very powerful, talented, and natural magician, ran up against a cocky and power-hungry jerk named Mason Faim, who felt threatened by Stark’s power and conspired with the rest of their Circle to send Stark to Hell.  In Hell, Stark fought Hellions in the arena as a kind of gladiator, owned by Azazel, one of the generals of Hell.  For 11 years, he was dissected, vivisected, torn apart, and sewn back together, and somehow managed to survive, focused on the thought of getting back to our world and exacting revenge on Mason and the others for their betrayal.  They call him the Monster Who Kills Monsters.

And about that na’at…a na’at is a Hellion weapon, and Stark loves to swing it both in Hell and on Earth.  Part harpoon, part whip, all badass–it’s Stark’s weapon of choice.

Then, something happens that gives Stark even more incentive to get back to Earth: his longtime girlfriend, Alice, dies at Mason’s hand.  He finds a way to get home–which is where we come in on page 1.  Now it’s payback, and we’re along for one hell of a ride (pun intended).

In a lesser book, Stark’s single-minded rampage would fill the rest of the book’s pages as he systematically hunted down each member of the Circle who betrayed him and unleashed Hell on their sorry carcasses.  But this is no lesser book.  Other than Mason, no one’s motives are simple or straightforward, and it gets increasingly difficult to tell who’s a good guy and who’s a bad guy.  And it becomes increasingly apparent that Hell may suck, but at least you knew who to watch out for.  On Earth, it’s waaaaaay more complicated.  Even the angels are backstabbing, homicidal maniacs.  If you can’t trust an angel, who can you trust?

The world that Kadrey has built for his readers is one of the richest and most fascinating I have ever encountered.  There are vampires, natch; other magicians (called Sub Rosa, because they tend to be secretive and invisible); and ghosts and demons and zombies and angels and all other manner of supernatural beings.  In his quest to unleash Hell on his betrayers, Stark introduces us to a remarkable cast of characters and beings, including Lucifer, and, in later books, The Big Man Upstairs Himself.  (Well, He isn’t exactly Himself these days, but that’s a conversation for another day.)

Stark himself isn’t exactly human either–as with most urban fantasy protagonists, he’s something more.  I won’t spoil anything by revealing what he is, but it’s yet another layer on this particularly crazy and gleefully lopsided cake.  He’s a great character–even five books in, you have no idea what he’s going to do next, except that it’s going to be wild, explosive, and leave a big pile of bodies behind.  He’s definitely not the type to serve in Heaven, but he might be the kind of guy who could end up ruling in Hell.  *cough*

Kadrey’s writing style is really the icing on the crazy cake, and what turns this series up to 11, in my opinion.  Despite the violent brutality (lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of beings get their heads chopped off, spines ripped out, hearts cut out, limbs hacked off, and so forth), these books are among the wittiest I have ever read; it’s rare that more than a page goes by that I didn’t laugh out loud.  Stark’s name might as well be “Snark,” and his companions and opponents give as good as they get in that department.  If you like your UF with a hefty side of sarcasm and wit that cuts deeper than the sharpest blade, you’re in for a treat.

One of my few points of criticism for this series–and it’s a big one–is its women.  For all the genius and awesomeness of his writing, Kadrey doesn’t seem able to conceptualize women who aren’t straight out of central casting.  There’s Alice, the quirky and tough girlfriend with a heart of gold who loves her tough guy.  There’s Madea Bava, the Head Inquisitor for the Sub Rosa, who’s an old biddy with a serious axe to grind with Stark.  Aelita is a power-hungry angel who uses her beauty and sexual allure to manipulate the men around her.  The women around Stark start out interesting, then deflate faster than a five-day-old birthday balloon.  Allegra, an African-American woman with a shaved head who helps run the video store that Stark takes over, turns into a Healer and goes right back to two-dimensional and boring.  Brigitte, a zombie slayer who moonlights as a porn star, fades into the background after an initially awesome run ripping out zombies’ spines.  Even Candy, who ends up being Stark’s girlfriend, fails to be interesting.  She’s a Jade, which is a kind of vampire that sucks out all your innards.  Sure, she gives as good as she gets when it gets to breaking the furniture during sex, and she’s tough as hell, but she’s a static character who doesn’t grow at all during the course of five novels.  She is the most interesting of the female characters, and I can only hope that in subsequent novels, Kadrey does something with her.

How much this detracts from the overall experience of the series may vary.  For me, it wasn’t a total deal-breaker; the rest of the total package was strong enough to keep me hooked.  There’s great writing, compelling protagonists, a fascinating world, scary monsters, even scarier “good guys,” and fabulously twisty plots that get more complex from one book to the next.  We quickly learn that Mason Faim is not Stark’s only or most dangerous foe; he is surrounded by a host of humans and supernatural beings with a vested interest in seeing him either dead or back in Hell (but not necessarily in that order).  And then there’s the small matter of the Old Gods who want their universe back . . .

Get into Sandman Slim.  You’ll thank me.

MY RATING: 4 out of 5 stakes