Review by Booklist Review
Raffish magician James Butler Hickok Stark is back from hell and gunning for the Circle that sent him there. Moreover, after 11 years of slaughtering monsters to amuse demons and offing some of Lucifer's generals for their jealous rivals, he's become pretty much unkillable. First stop, after relieving a Brad Pitt clone of his stun gun and cash, is the video store run by the Circle's saddest member. With a shiv from hell, Stark decapitates but doesn't kill the guy (he pumps the head for info) and turns operations over to appealing semigoth Allegra, while he locates his one sure friend, Vidocq (who's 200 but doesn't look much over 40), in a Hollywood that's had a nervous breakdown while he's been gone. The subsequent 300-plus pages, paced like greased lightning (watch out for friction burns on your turning finger), blend the movie-ish delights of tough guy noir and such smart-mouth gore-fests as Reanimator and Army of Darkness, seasoned by soupçons of Gaimanian romanticism and Koontzian sentiment. Delish, and sequels are heavily implied.--Olson, Ray Copyright 2009 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Kadrey (Butcher Bird) provides biting humor, an over-the-top antihero and a rich stew of metaphoric language in this testosterone- and adrenaline-charged noir thriller. James Stark spent 11 years killing monsters in Lucifer's arena for the entertainment of fallen angels, but now he's back in seedy, magic-riddled L.A., trying to avenge his girlfriend's murder and hunt down Mason Faim, the black magician responsible for getting him sent "downtown." He meets with some initial success, beheading second-rate magician Kasabian (whose head becomes Stark's smart-mouthed sidekick), but he can't find Faim. Instead he encounters Homeland Security agents, a near-psychotic angel and some odd nonhuman, nonangelic beings called the kissi. Darkly atmospheric settings, such as a posh gentlemen's club where angels are tortured in an attempt to bring about Armageddon, bring this violent fantasy into sharp, compelling focus. (Aug.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
