Whaaaat, you haven’t started this bad-ass series by Richard Kadrey yet? Why the hell not? If you haven’t you should read the first two books first, Sandman Slim and Kill the Dead. At the very least you could click on those links and see my reviews. And this here is the third book, Aloha From Hell. Be warned, there will be some spoilers if you haven’t read the other books.
So, after the events of the second book, Stark is being a good boy but going a little stir-crazy. He hasn’t killed anything in weeks, and he’s been too lethargic about finding out what Mason is up in in Hell. He also knows that Aelita is somewhere out there trying to take over Heaven, but he hasn’t done much about that either. No biggie though, because eventually a weird case of possession drags him back into the hellish world he’s kind of been trying to avoid.
This book was SO MUCH BETTER than Kill the Dead. Kill the Dead was one of those ”ehhhh” second-in-a-series books, that kind of sucks but is necessary because it sets up major events for the third book. It paid off, because this was pretty action-packed and I flew through it within 24 hours, and I read over 3/4 of it in one sitting. The whole plot with the God and Lucifer and Mason and Aelita and the Kissi is just nuts, and I was so happy to see Stark back in his element. I love him and his friends. I really like the developing relationship he has with Candy, a Jade who is scarily kick-ass but also a cute tiny girl. Even the writing was awesome in this one – I wrote down a lot of quotes and lines, such as…
“Sometimes just seeing a woman smile is like a knife in the heart. It hurts and it rattles your whole system, but against all your instincts you swallow the pain and keep looking. After a while you realize it doesn’t hurt as much as you thought it would.”
and
“Moo, motherfucker.”
Some great deep thoughts, as well as some hilarious one-liners. Gotta love it.
Anyways, the ending was totally MESSED UP and I’m so happy that there’s going to be a fourth book. This one was pretty hectic and mega-great, so I can only imagine how epic the next book is going to be. It’s going to be called Devil Said Bang and according to Kadrey’s website, it comes out August 28th of this year. Yay!
So you know, if you like demons and angels and humans who won’t die, you should totally read this series. Go pick up Sandman Slim now, and enjoy.
Sarah Says: 4 stars!
