On the HahaFiction shelf
Sandman Slim
Sandman Slim · Book 1 · 2009
Audiobook available · 10 hr 29 min
Eleven years in Hell have left magician James Stark with a particular set of grievances. Back in Los Angeles, he goes looking for the people who sent him there and killed his girlfriend. Heaven and Hell still have plans for him.
From the publisher’s blurb
“Resurrection sucks. Saving the world is worse.”Read the full description at Harper Voyager publisher description
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What makes it funny?
Stark can face supernatural horrors and still worry that his body armor fastens like a child's sneakers. His descriptions give the same extravagant attention to a plate of food as to a dangerous encounter.
The comedy at work
The jokes come through a belligerent noir voice and comparisons that pull grand supernatural threats down to everyday scale. Stark's years away also leave him struggling with ordinary technology, including phones.
Try this if…
Consider this for a violent revenge story with a cynical antihero and sharp comic narration. The supernatural Los Angeles setting gives the hard-boiled action plenty of strange company.
Good to know
The violence includes decapitation, and the story has graphic flashbacks to Stark's time in Hell.
A few distinguishing details
- A magician escapes Hell to settle old scores
- A noir voice with extravagant comic comparisons
More funny urban fantasy
Sources & further reading
- Apple Books listing for Sandman Slim: A Novel by Richard Kadrey
Book information
- Apple Books listing for Sandman Slim: Sandman Slim, Book 1 (Unabridged) by Richard Kadrey
Book information
- Library edition and cover
Library catalog
- Open Library edition record
Book information
- Publishers Weekly review
Review
- Publisher
Publisher
- Google Books edition record
Book information
- Reactor review
Review
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