Review by Booklist Review
Sandman Slim is dead (for real this time) and abandoned in a desolate part of the Tenebrae, the land of the dead. He's discovered by a motorized roving gang trailing destruction and death in its wake, led by a religious fanatic looking for an ultimate weapon to kill God. Slim runs into some old friends along the way. It culminates in a fight between angels at the gates of Heaven itself. And Wormwood is up to something, as always. All because Sandman Slim tried to break open Heaven. This is Kadrey's version of a Mad Max movie laid out as a cautionary tale about religious fanaticism. It's a fast-paced story and an ideal setting to show off more of his richly imagined hereafter. The ending puts Sandman Slim right where he most wants to be, but in the last position he ever wanted. This entry in the series is plenty entertaining, but there are a few too many coincidences to be believable. Kadrey's social criticism is much more obvious than usual, and it hits closer to home.--Keogh, John Copyright 2017 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Library Journal Review
Jim Stark, aka Sandman Slim, is in hell again. The difference this time is that he's actually dead. In the Tenebrae, the farthest reaches of the lost dead, he sees a dust storm approaching. As the dust gets closer, he realizes it is actually an enormous convoy of humans and hellions, and seeing no better option, Stark cons his way into the group, which is led by a messianic leader who seeks the ultimate weapon to use against heaven in the ongoing war. But Stark just wants to find a way back to Los Angeles and Candy, or at least to a less depressing part of hell. With all the violence and smart-alecky snark readers expect from Stark, this sojourn in hell might scratch a Mad Max itch for some readers. But while the war between heaven and hell is referenced, this volume doesn't move things along. VERDICT A solid, if not particularly memorable, entry in the long-running series (last visited in The Perdition Score), with some nice callbacks to familiar characters we haven't seen for a while. [See Prepub Alert, 1/8/17.]-MM © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Sandman Slim returns to hell. Again. Must be Tuesday.The prolific Kadrey has been riffing off his comedic thief Charlie Cooper for his last couple of books (The Wrong Dead Guy, 2017, etc.), so it's time to get back to business with James Stark, aka Sandman Slim, the half-angel assassin who anchors his inventive horror saga. Only, whoops, Stark's dead, murdered by Audsley Ishii right in front of his girlfriend, Candy, back in The Perdition Score (2016). Fortunately for him, Stark has been here in the Tenebrae, a subset of hell, before, like that one time he had to be Lucifer for a while. Back story aside, Stark finds himself in a Mad Max-style desert apocalypse populated by a roving band of followers of a powerful rebel called the Magistrate. "I know a killer when I see one and he's one cold Charlie Starkweather motherfucker," says Stark in assessing the Magistrate. Not that the infamous Slim outs himself, instead going by the moniker ZaSu Pitts. Buoyed by a familiar face in Father Traven, the man who eats sins, Stark reluctantly joins the gang. It turns out that the Magistrate seeks to unite a powerful cannon with the Lux Occisor, God's own sword, to blow the gates off heaven itself. Like any good ensemble drama, there are plenty of cool cameos, including the return of Cherry Moon, who used her power to transform herself into a manic pixie manga girl, Stark's old girlfriend Alice (now a powerful angel), and a touching reunion with Stark's buddy Death himself. If you're a newbie to the series, you've probably realized by now that starting nine books into it is probably not a great jumping-on point. For fans of Kadrey's profane assassin, it's a welcome return to form and a wildly entertaining bridge to bring Stark back from the brink. One of horror's most singular characters goes to hell. And back again. As per usual. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
