James Stark, aka Sandman Slim, might have renounced his title as Lucifer and passed that duty onto another unfortunate sucker, but that doesn't mean Hell is finished with him yet. He lost the Qomrama Om Ya, the only weapon that can kill a god. Now the old gods are slipping through the veil and searching for the weapon. Stark must find it before it falls into the wrong hands. His search leads him to Kill City, an abandoned global shopping paradise infested with the dredges of supernatural society. Getting in and out of Kill City couldn't be worse than escaping Hell, right?

KILL CITY BLUES by Richard Kadrey is the fifth Sandman Slim novel. I can't believe I've never read a Sandman Slim novel because they are everything I love to read in urban fantasy: an irreverent sense of humor, a complex world that would be scary as hell to live in but is fantastic to read, characters who struggle between good and evil but mostly live in the shades of gray that make life interesting, a clear goal that brings unexpected consequences, and a defiance of the established rules and roles of all societies. Kadrey's prose fits Stark's character well. Snappy dialogue, sharply detailed settings, and edgy subtext create vivid scenes that push Stark further toward his goal of finding the Qomrama Om Ya.

KILL CITY BLUES is a perfect example of why urban fantasy is my favorite genre. It's exciting and complex as it pushes the reader to examine the foundation of their belief system. Richard Kadrey delivers an irreverent, sharply funny addition to the Sandman Slim series. I can't wait to see what comes next and I'm certainly going to buy his previous titles.

Book Summary

Another day, another apocalypse

James Stark, aka Sandman Slim, has managed to get out of Hell, renounce his title as the new Lucifer, and settle back into life in L.A. But he also lost the Qomrama Om Ya, an all-powerful weapon from the banished older gods. Older gods who are returning and searching for their lost power.

The hunt leads Stark to an abandoned shopping mall—a global shopping paradise infested with Lurkers and wretched bottom- feeding Sub Rosa families, squatters who have formed tight tribes to guard their tiny patches of retail wasteland. Somewhere in this kill zone is a dead man with the answers Stark needs. All Stark has to do is find the dead man, recover the artifact, and outwit and outrun the angry old gods—and natural-born killers—on his tail.

But not even Sandman Slim is infallible, and any mistakes will cost him dearly.