Devil Said Bang
Sandman Slim Series, No 4
Richard Kadrey

Harper/Voyager
August 28, 2012 / ISBN 978-0062094575
Fantasy/Sc Fi
Amazon

Reviewed by Bob Walch

If you've read any of the previous novels in the Sandman Slim series, you know author Richard Kadrey went off the rails when he created this character and there's no getting him back on the straight and narrow now.

God's had a nervous breakdown and the Devil has taken a holiday. Now guess who has been charged with running the Fiery Inferno? Yup, our boy Richard Stark (aka Sandman Slim)! And, speaking of Hell, Los Angeles is even more of a total disaster zone than usual so Stark's going to have to fix that mess too.

OK, let's see what we've got now. The Heavenly Father has had a major meltdown and now is embodied by five different personalities who inhabit different places in the world above, below and in between. We also have a really nasty conflict (make that a war) raging between angels, Hellions, humans and anything else that would like to join in.

Then there's a serial killer plying his/her/its trade in LA, ghosts galore flitting about along with other weirdies like the undead, nearly dead and soon-to-be dead. Add to that a coffin-load of curious, inexplicable and unnatural events occurring all over the city and you have LA run amok.

Sounds like a total and complete meltdown that encompasses everything and everyone from the Pearly Gates to the Everlasting Fires of Perdition (yes, and East LA too!). There's naturally only one person who can bring any semblance of order to this cesspool of complete and total mayhem. But, for once, perhaps not even Sandman Slim can deal with the situation. Perhaps he is finally going to have to toss in the towel.

I'm not telling if the end has finally arrived! It obviously doesn't look very good, does it?

The ball is now in your court. You'll have to see where Kadrey's bizarre imagination and macabre sense of humor take his protagonist this time. But trust me; it will be worth the raucous ride, so punch you ticket by ordering a copy of "Devil Said Bang".

Reviews of other titles in this series

Sandman Slim No 1