If you don’t know already, this is the fourth book in the Sandman Slim series and if you haven’t read the first 3 books yet (Sandman Slim, Kill the Dead, and Aloha From Hell) you really should and you should also be warned that there will be spoilers for those books here.
It seems that I’m following a pattern with these books. I loved the first one, thought the second one could have been a lot better, the third book was awesome, and this fourth book was alright, but something was lacking.
At the start of the book, Stark has been stuck in Hell playing Lucifer for over 3 months. He’s trying to help rebuild it, and he’s constantly at risk of being assassinated. He’s trying to find a way out of Hell, since his good half ran off with the Key. Snooping around Hell looking for answers takes a lot longer when you’re essentially a politican and always looking over your shoulder.
Sooo… basically, this book is about Stark trying to escape Hell and not be Lucifer anymore. Him being stuck in Hell sucked, because there were a bunch of different Hellions plotting stuff and it got a little confusing here and there, plus I missed Candy and all the other regular characters. He does get his hands on a scary new one-of-a-kind weapon, which is always fun. Sadly, Stark gets caught up in a couple “Oh I’m such a monster, I do such terrible things” crisis for a while, which was annoying cause his badassness and general “fuck-it” attitude are what makes these books so much fun. Much like the second book, it dragged a bit but then so much happened at the end that I’m really excited to see what the fifth book will be about. Unfortunately, I can’t really mention what happens near the end without mega spoilers, but this new plot twist definitely made the whole book worth reading. It totally appealed to my inner nerd.
I’m totally looking forward to the fifth book… there’s no title or date or anything like that yet on Kadrey’s website, but the book ended in a way that you know the series isn’t over.
Sarah Says: 3 stars
