Devil Said Bang: A Sandman Slim Novel

I loved this book. I didn't expect half of what happened to happen. That's a rare surprise for me in genres I like to read. The characters and setting are just as good as ever. I won't bore you with a plot summary as I know other reviewers are fond of doing that. If you liked the previous books in the series, I say you should give this one a shot because I don't think you'll be disappointed. Have at it! I don't know when I'll read the next one, but I really want to now.

After the events of "Aloha from Hell", James Stark - otherwise known as Sandman Slim, "the monster who kills monsters" - finds himself with a job he does not want. With Lucifer - now going by his original name, Samael - returning to Heaven, Stark is the new ruler of Hell. The natives aren't happy about it either, chafing under the leadership of a mortal, and Stark has no plans to stick around, but bad things are afoot in the realm of the damned, and he needs to stabilize his new domain before he can escape back to earth. When he finally does, he finds that things might actually be worse in the land of the living. Reality is slowly coming apart, a murderous ghost is killing members of Los Angeles' ruling supernatural class, and sinister elder gods appear to trying to reclaim the universe. Even more troubling, his girlfriend, Candy, is seeing someone else. Author Richard Kadrey maintains the headlong pace, strong storytelling, hardboiled attitude, violence, and black humor that make the Sandman Slim series such a blast to rread. Where Book 3, "Aloha from Hell" was just a bit overstuffed, Kadrey once again finds the right balance in "Devil Said Bang". Repercussions for past misdeeds seem to be coming home to roost for Stark - even the new Lucifer can't escape the sins of the past - and fans of Sandman Slim and his world are rewarded with characters that continue to evolve, and even a protagonist who reluctantly realizes he needs to be just a bit more choosy about the battles he fights. Not TOO choosy, but a little bit...

Great book series well worth reading and even better to buy mint nearly new second hand given the cost of books in the USA (other countries sell books more cheaply and generally without tax)

I've read the whole series to this point. I suppose that's obvious, given that I bought this one, but I feel that I should clarify because I'm going to say some kind-of-mean things and it's mostly based around this book's place in the larger series. If you are a very confused person, or perhaps on enough hallucinogens that you're seeing everything backward and thing buying the last book first is a good plan, go ahead and buy this-- in itself it's a perfectly good supernatural action novel. Now, the issues: The thing about a long-running detective/noir series is that it's not really about the setting-- it's about the characters you create within that setting, and how they respond to the conditions involved. This is why you can get away with using the dead-horse "modern life, but monsters are real, and it's a bad time for everyone" setting in the first place: anyone in their right mind was bored with that shtick in itself around the time Anne Rice wore it out fifteen years, but you can still do interesting things with it. So when you're writing a detective story, as we've established that your setting itself holds no real interest to the viewer (or if it does they're off playing a White Wolf game instead of reading your book), so that leaves us with two options: 1. Situations where the setting adds complications to the plot, holding the reader's interest one book at a time. Previous books in the series have done this well: How is a standard Maguffin-hunt (e.g. Maltese Falcon) complicated when involved parties confirmed dead may simply have stopped being dead? Given the power of teleportation, what obstacles remain to actually using that power effectively and how does it complicate the standard PI surveillance routine? 2. Characters who grow and change in response to the weird conditions they find themselves in. The series has done this in the past as well, Sandman Slim's attempts to tone down his hollywood-war-veteran PTSD taking several books to train himself down into... well, not being Sandman Slim anymore and lending the guy a real personality. The problem with this book is that it doesn't do either. The first half is the protagonist jetting around hell, cracking heads at random and showing (note: show, don't tell, Kadrey) nothing approaching even mild unease at being chucked back into the situation that had him clawing at his eyes just to imagine a few books ago. The second is a by-the-numbers mystery with a "twist" semaphored form the highest mountain which is not complicated by the various supernatural setting elements at all. So your character isn't going anywhere, and your plot's not particularly interesting, and even if I was interested in the various setpeices I've seen them all in the previous books before. Why should I read this one, exactly? The moral of the story is: If you've got nothing, take a year off, maybe write something else. Don't just publish whatever crap you've got. I know, I know, deadlines. So maybe the moral of the story is: multi-book deals with more books than you have story outlined BAD.

Devil Said Bang takes place exactly 100 days after the end of Aloha From Hell and once again Kadrey is at the top of the writing game. With great characters that continue to evolve, unbelievable twists and turns and a fabulous gripping storyline with the expected gory narrative, you will be gasping for the next instalment in the Sandman Slim series. The book starts with Stark settling in as the new Lucifer, but he doesn't have the Key to Thirteen Doors so he cannot escape Hell and head back to LA. when his underlings try to assassinate him, he managed to find a missing piece of Lucifer's armour that allows him to visualise himself out of Hell. This is just the opportunity he's been waiting for, do he decides to leave the operational running of Hell to Semyezah (the hellion general he saved from Tartarus) and hotfoots it back to LA only to discover everyone he cared about has moved on assuming he'd passed away. Furthermore, the very fabric of the universe is changing and ghosts, dream weavers and people are being killed by a murderous child ghost. Aelita once again makes an appearance and Stark is fighting to save himself and the universe from imploding. Fortunately, he gets to merge back with Saint James, has the Key to Thirteen Doors returned and also abdicates the Hellish thrown of Lucifer. What can possibly go wrong in the next book? I can't wait to read it.

It's a good read by this author.

Amazing book and quality!

Eines der besten Bücher der Reihe auch wenn das Ende mehr oder minder offen bleibt. Sandman Slim regiert die Hölle wie nur er selbst es kann und als Leser kann man sich an manchen Stellen das grinsen nicht vergreifen wenn Stark in seiner unvergleichlichen Art die Geschehnisse schildert. Genauere Details zum Plot überlasse ich meinen Mitverfassern von mir gibts nur ne Kaufempfehlung da ich permanent gut unterhalten wurde.

This is my favorite book series and I can't wait for the movie.