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4.0 AVERAGE
4.0 AVERAGE
Richard Kadrey:
BI STARK! BI STARK! BI STARK!
I'm not sure that will be textually acknowledged just because... Stark is really oblivious. I fully expect him to never have a sexuality crisis over this because it won't even cross his mind. I kind of want someone else to bring it up to him, though. Carlos, maybe--that would be a fun conversation. When I started this series 7 years ago, I didn't expect that 11 books later I'd have a bi poly mentally ill protagonist with a nonbinary disabled love interest, but yet here we are! And unlike... some reviewers... I felt like this was perfectly natural. Nonbinary people exist. We get to be in B-movie action flicks too. Yes, some of the conversations felt a little "here's nonbinary 101." But that's... what the conversations are like when you come out as nonbinary. I found Stark's struggle with pronouns natural, and I think I would have been annoyed if he magically got them right all the time immediately. I did find his total acceptance of it a little unrealistic... but also not out of character for Stark. There's so much shit about the world he doesn't know, he's gotten used to taking it in stride. Like cellphones. Kadrey even calls to this with "does everyone else know about enby?" Stark just sort of accepts things that confuse him, so I wasn't bothered by that.
I did struggle a little with Janet's actual character. I like the "adrenaline junkie because of chronic illness" take (quite possibly because of how opposite it is to my own experience while making perfect sense), but I felt that could have been explored more rather than just mentioned once. I also would have liked a little more exploration of Candy and Janet, though it makes sense they're avoiding each other. Overall, I enjoyed their relationship with Stark, and I like that Stark is exploring multiple love interests rather having One True Love.
My favorite thing about the book, though, was Kadrey's handling of PTSD. I re-read the first book recently, and I feel like he's been building up to this the whole series. I am in love with the fact that this gritty action series is actually acknowledging the effects of trauma. I was cautiously optimistic at the end of Hollywood Dead, and Ballistic Kiss super delivered on my hopes. It felt like such a real handling of trauma because so much of it was so fucking mundane. The grocery store, the party. The nightmares and the holes in the wall he keeps patching with paperbacks and then moving on because it's whatever. Very relatable. But also written in a way that was very Stark. It felt totally in character and honestly not much of a deviation from what we've previously seen, except for him struggling with day-to-day things that... he hadn't had to do in previous books. If he suddenly had to use public transportation instead of shadows, you bet your ass he'd freak out at that too. That's what it's like trying to re-introduce yourself to "normal" life. It's so combat veteran it hurts.
And of course, there was lots of great other stuff packed in between. The ridiculousness of the lodge, the Chris Stein mystery, Samael. Everything I expect out of a Sandman Slim novel, except with bonus representation and an exploration of PTSD. I'm so here for it, and cannot fucking wait to see where things go in King Bullet.
Spoiler
This book was written for me, specifically. Nonbinary, chronically ill love interest with a trauma background? Um, where did Kadrey find my self-insert fanfiction? (Note: Samael is right. Stark's a mess and I wouldn't actually date him, not at this point in his life anyway. But still.) Which, awesome enough representation on its own. But this also means...BI STARK! BI STARK! BI STARK!
I'm not sure that will be textually acknowledged just because... Stark is really oblivious. I fully expect him to never have a sexuality crisis over this because it won't even cross his mind. I kind of want someone else to bring it up to him, though. Carlos, maybe--that would be a fun conversation. When I started this series 7 years ago, I didn't expect that 11 books later I'd have a bi poly mentally ill protagonist with a nonbinary disabled love interest, but yet here we are! And unlike... some reviewers... I felt like this was perfectly natural. Nonbinary people exist. We get to be in B-movie action flicks too. Yes, some of the conversations felt a little "here's nonbinary 101." But that's... what the conversations are like when you come out as nonbinary. I found Stark's struggle with pronouns natural, and I think I would have been annoyed if he magically got them right all the time immediately. I did find his total acceptance of it a little unrealistic... but also not out of character for Stark. There's so much shit about the world he doesn't know, he's gotten used to taking it in stride. Like cellphones. Kadrey even calls to this with "does everyone else know about enby?" Stark just sort of accepts things that confuse him, so I wasn't bothered by that.
I did struggle a little with Janet's actual character. I like the "adrenaline junkie because of chronic illness" take (quite possibly because of how opposite it is to my own experience while making perfect sense), but I felt that could have been explored more rather than just mentioned once. I also would have liked a little more exploration of Candy and Janet, though it makes sense they're avoiding each other. Overall, I enjoyed their relationship with Stark, and I like that Stark is exploring multiple love interests rather having One True Love.
My favorite thing about the book, though, was Kadrey's handling of PTSD. I re-read the first book recently, and I feel like he's been building up to this the whole series. I am in love with the fact that this gritty action series is actually acknowledging the effects of trauma. I was cautiously optimistic at the end of Hollywood Dead, and Ballistic Kiss super delivered on my hopes. It felt like such a real handling of trauma because so much of it was so fucking mundane. The grocery store, the party. The nightmares and the holes in the wall he keeps patching with paperbacks and then moving on because it's whatever. Very relatable. But also written in a way that was very Stark. It felt totally in character and honestly not much of a deviation from what we've previously seen, except for him struggling with day-to-day things that... he hadn't had to do in previous books. If he suddenly had to use public transportation instead of shadows, you bet your ass he'd freak out at that too. That's what it's like trying to re-introduce yourself to "normal" life. It's so combat veteran it hurts.
And of course, there was lots of great other stuff packed in between. The ridiculousness of the lodge, the Chris Stein mystery, Samael. Everything I expect out of a Sandman Slim novel, except with bonus representation and an exploration of PTSD. I'm so here for it, and cannot fucking wait to see where things go in King Bullet.
A more subdued and realistic Sandman Slim hits the streets of LA this time around. He has PTSD. He has a non-binary friend who he's trying things on with. He even has a job. However, he still has a bad attitude, a raging alcohol habit and a knack for getting put through the ringer. We spend most of our time in the real human world, although there's some strange things going on. Worth a read if you're this far into the series - why wouldn't you hang on till the end?
I started to read King Bullet and had no idea who the hell Fuck Hollywood was. Somehow I missed this book. It was a super fun romp, but I really dislike Stark's latest love interest. I just have no sympathy for their bullshit. Kadrey really has built some epic lore in this series, can't wait to read the next one!
The Sandman Slim series is one of the few urban fantasy series that I continue to follow. Its been at least 13-years now that I’ve been reading it. Kadrey continues to amuse me with his mashup of a: hardboiled, horror and fantasy narrative. This one was OK.
Example of Stark’s Flying Saucer House
My audiobook was nine hours long. It had a US copyright of 2020. A dead tree version would be about 370-pages. MacLeod Andrews was the narrator. Andrews is a good narrator that can ably change his voice with the characters internal and external narrative. Although his female voices sound too similar. However, he’s been narrating the series for a long time. He’s become the voice of Sandman Slim in my head, for when I actually have eye-read a book in the series.
Richard Kadrey is an American novelist, freelance writer, and photographer. He has about 20 novels published including this one. This is the eleventh book in the author's Sandman Slim Series, of which there are now thirteen books. This is the 13th or 14th book I’ve read by this author. The last being The Kill Society (Sandman Slim, #9) (my review).
I’ve been off my feed urban fantasy-wise. I read this book, having forgotten I did not read the previous book in the series Hollywood Dead Sandman Slim #10. In addition, this book will be unintelligible, if you’ve not been following the series. Long-term plot lines make-up the bones of this story and the author does not provide a lot of backstory. Having written that, I did not notice any serious discontinuity by skipping the previous book.
Writing was good and on a par with the rest of the series. I get true enjoyment over Kadrey’s modern impersonation of [a:Raymond Chandler|1377|Raymond Chandler|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1206535318p2/1377.jpg]. In particular, I treasure his pithy metaphors and bizarre descriptive prose. You can also recognize the strong ’70s influence of [a:Charles Bukowski|13275|Charles Bukowski|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1501509674p2/13275.jpg] and [a:Hunter S. Thompson|5237|Hunter S. Thompson|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1206560814p2/5237.jpg] in his stories. The action scenes were well handled. However, the typically hardboiled dialog was better than the descriptive prose. In particular, Stark’s inner narrative, off-color aphorisms, and disdainful badinage have always been endearing to me. When I grow-up, I want to be like Sandman Slim, but human and not a scarred, Nephilim.
As per the series, there is always sex, drugs, rock ’n roll and mega-violence. (Stark (AKA Sandman Slim) is a killer.)
The books in the series always have at least one heterosexual sex scene of the fade-to-black type. Stark drinks a prodigious amount of alcohol. Currently he’s been drinking the hipper bourbon. At the beginning of the series, he was drinking Jack. When the series isn’t set in Hell, its in Hollywood. Kadrey depicts this as a hellish landscape in its own right. Soft and hardcore drug usage is portrayed as endemic. Although, Stark's poison is alcohol. However, Stark has a very cavalier approach toward consuming his black market, pharma, antidepressants that would make a pharmacist blanch. The antidepressants are part of the PTSD he acquired while doing time in Hell. There were numerous musical references. Most of them were dated Punk. None of them were memorable. Although, this book contained some good skewering of Metal fans. In addition, there were the usual amount of film school critique and film references. (Its Hollywood.) This book encouraged me to watch a mid-career Nick Cage film.
Violence was not particularly graphic, but it was pervasive. In includes: physical, edged-weapons, firearms and Hoo-doo (magic) related. In this book, Sandman Slim continues his preference for burning his opponents alive. This mode has only appeared in the last few books. He used to be an edged-weapons kinda guy. In addition, Stark takes an extraordinary amount of punishment. However, he keeps on ticking, after taking a licking-- after stuffing his entrails back into his body cavity. Body count was high. This was in line with the, Kill Them All and Let God Sort It Out theme of the series. Since Sandman Slim was on good terms with both God (Mr. Muninn) and the Devil (Samael), the reader should not have been surprised.
There was only a small amount character development. This series continues to recycle its previously introduced Cast of Thousands. The series continues with its single POV. James "Sandman Slim" Stark being the protagonist. Stark spends a lot of pages lamenting his personal situation. This breaks down into his ambivalence in being a supernatural being and the boy gets girl, boy loses girl, and boy attempts to get girl back theme that has run through the series, only with different women. In this book, he’s still wanting to get back to his demon GF Candy. Although, he now has a thoroughly human GF, Jennifer, who is gender binary as well as running with the wrong magic-using crowd. Many old standby characters appear. Significantly, both Vidocq and Kasabian go through major changes. A new female, character “Fuck Hollywood” is introduced as a barback at The Bamboo House of Dolls, but except for some ironic narrative remains undeveloped. I would set an Angel on fire to have a bar like the Bamboo House within walking distance of my flat.
My fave elements of the series have always been the: LA geography lesson, music and film references. The Edut-tainment helps make the books work for me. I typically come away from the books with an album and film 'shopping list'. This book didn’t contain much of that. Except for the Zoo and the Hollywood Hills, there was not much of an L.A. geography lesson. BTW, none of my LA friends have ever heard of a "Little Cairo" neighborhood in LA, the locale of several scenes. There were a few music references. I was unimpressed with them all. Video references were a supernatural provision for describing classic films with alternate actors and directors—movies that never were. Although, I did come away with the previously mentioned Two Lines, No Waiting with both of Stark’s ‘sponsors’ (?) ,Thomas Abbot, the Augur of the Sub Rosa and Samael having a job for him. The A & B plots converge on the ghost of a hustler, B-movie star, of the 70's and a group of wealthy, magic dilettantes in the Hollywood Hills. However, Stark satisfies both and puts a dent in the long-term “War In Heaven” series plotline, without substantially improving his personal situation.
This book was OK. However, it was very much a series ‘placeholder’. It slightly advanced the War In Heaven story arc and shook-up a couple of the series' stalwart characters. However, Stark spent too much time whinging about being a Nephilim vs. human and longing for Candy. I didn't get the impression Kadrey knew where he was going when he wrote this particular episode. In summary, Ballistic Kiss was a readable addition to the series, but not a memorable one. Of note, is that after 14-years of Sandman Slimming, Kadrey will be ending the series with book 12, [b:King Bullet|55921487|King Bullet (Sandman Slim, #12)|Richard Kadrey|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1622416862l/55921487._SX50_.jpg|84068379]. I’m very curious how he’s going to end about 4000-pages and 14-years of series in only about 350-pages?
At the moment, I’m trying to decide, if I ‘go back’ and read the Hollywood Dead or go forward for King Bullet, the series finale, of which I already have in my TBR.
Example of Stark’s Flying Saucer House
My audiobook was nine hours long. It had a US copyright of 2020. A dead tree version would be about 370-pages. MacLeod Andrews was the narrator. Andrews is a good narrator that can ably change his voice with the characters internal and external narrative. Although his female voices sound too similar. However, he’s been narrating the series for a long time. He’s become the voice of Sandman Slim in my head, for when I actually have eye-read a book in the series.
Richard Kadrey is an American novelist, freelance writer, and photographer. He has about 20 novels published including this one. This is the eleventh book in the author's Sandman Slim Series, of which there are now thirteen books. This is the 13th or 14th book I’ve read by this author. The last being The Kill Society (Sandman Slim, #9) (my review).
I’ve been off my feed urban fantasy-wise. I read this book, having forgotten I did not read the previous book in the series Hollywood Dead Sandman Slim #10. In addition, this book will be unintelligible, if you’ve not been following the series. Long-term plot lines make-up the bones of this story and the author does not provide a lot of backstory. Having written that, I did not notice any serious discontinuity by skipping the previous book.
Writing was good and on a par with the rest of the series. I get true enjoyment over Kadrey’s modern impersonation of [a:Raymond Chandler|1377|Raymond Chandler|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1206535318p2/1377.jpg]. In particular, I treasure his pithy metaphors and bizarre descriptive prose. You can also recognize the strong ’70s influence of [a:Charles Bukowski|13275|Charles Bukowski|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1501509674p2/13275.jpg] and [a:Hunter S. Thompson|5237|Hunter S. Thompson|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1206560814p2/5237.jpg] in his stories. The action scenes were well handled. However, the typically hardboiled dialog was better than the descriptive prose. In particular, Stark’s inner narrative, off-color aphorisms, and disdainful badinage have always been endearing to me. When I grow-up, I want to be like Sandman Slim, but human and not a scarred, Nephilim.
As per the series, there is always sex, drugs, rock ’n roll and mega-violence. (Stark (AKA Sandman Slim) is a killer.)
The books in the series always have at least one heterosexual sex scene of the fade-to-black type. Stark drinks a prodigious amount of alcohol. Currently he’s been drinking the hipper bourbon. At the beginning of the series, he was drinking Jack. When the series isn’t set in Hell, its in Hollywood. Kadrey depicts this as a hellish landscape in its own right. Soft and hardcore drug usage is portrayed as endemic. Although, Stark's poison is alcohol. However, Stark has a very cavalier approach toward consuming his black market, pharma, antidepressants that would make a pharmacist blanch. The antidepressants are part of the PTSD he acquired while doing time in Hell. There were numerous musical references. Most of them were dated Punk. None of them were memorable. Although, this book contained some good skewering of Metal fans. In addition, there were the usual amount of film school critique and film references. (Its Hollywood.) This book encouraged me to watch a mid-career Nick Cage film.
Violence was not particularly graphic, but it was pervasive. In includes: physical, edged-weapons, firearms and Hoo-doo (magic) related. In this book, Sandman Slim continues his preference for burning his opponents alive. This mode has only appeared in the last few books. He used to be an edged-weapons kinda guy. In addition, Stark takes an extraordinary amount of punishment. However, he keeps on ticking, after taking a licking-- after stuffing his entrails back into his body cavity. Body count was high. This was in line with the, Kill Them All and Let God Sort It Out theme of the series. Since Sandman Slim was on good terms with both God (Mr. Muninn) and the Devil (Samael), the reader should not have been surprised.
There was only a small amount character development. This series continues to recycle its previously introduced Cast of Thousands. The series continues with its single POV. James "Sandman Slim" Stark being the protagonist. Stark spends a lot of pages lamenting his personal situation. This breaks down into his ambivalence in being a supernatural being and the boy gets girl, boy loses girl, and boy attempts to get girl back theme that has run through the series, only with different women. In this book, he’s still wanting to get back to his demon GF Candy. Although, he now has a thoroughly human GF, Jennifer, who is gender binary as well as running with the wrong magic-using crowd. Many old standby characters appear. Significantly, both Vidocq and Kasabian go through major changes. A new female, character “Fuck Hollywood” is introduced as a barback at The Bamboo House of Dolls, but except for some ironic narrative remains undeveloped. I would set an Angel on fire to have a bar like the Bamboo House within walking distance of my flat.
My fave elements of the series have always been the: LA geography lesson, music and film references. The Edut-tainment helps make the books work for me. I typically come away from the books with an album and film 'shopping list'. This book didn’t contain much of that. Except for the Zoo and the Hollywood Hills, there was not much of an L.A. geography lesson. BTW, none of my LA friends have ever heard of a "Little Cairo" neighborhood in LA, the locale of several scenes. There were a few music references. I was unimpressed with them all. Video references were a supernatural provision for describing classic films with alternate actors and directors—movies that never were. Although, I did come away with the previously mentioned Two Lines, No Waiting with both of Stark’s ‘sponsors’ (?) ,Thomas Abbot, the Augur of the Sub Rosa and Samael having a job for him. The A & B plots converge on the ghost of a hustler, B-movie star, of the 70's and a group of wealthy, magic dilettantes in the Hollywood Hills. However, Stark satisfies both and puts a dent in the long-term “War In Heaven” series plotline, without substantially improving his personal situation.
This book was OK. However, it was very much a series ‘placeholder’. It slightly advanced the War In Heaven story arc and shook-up a couple of the series' stalwart characters. However, Stark spent too much time whinging about being a Nephilim vs. human and longing for Candy. I didn't get the impression Kadrey knew where he was going when he wrote this particular episode. In summary, Ballistic Kiss was a readable addition to the series, but not a memorable one. Of note, is that after 14-years of Sandman Slimming, Kadrey will be ending the series with book 12, [b:King Bullet|55921487|King Bullet (Sandman Slim, #12)|Richard Kadrey|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1622416862l/55921487._SX50_.jpg|84068379]. I’m very curious how he’s going to end about 4000-pages and 14-years of series in only about 350-pages?
At the moment, I’m trying to decide, if I ‘go back’ and read the Hollywood Dead or go forward for King Bullet, the series finale, of which I already have in my TBR.
Not the best book in the series. I appreciate the author attempting to connect with a character like Janet, but they turned out to be a real lame love interest for ole Jimmy.
I recommend stopping reading the series at book 10, and not bothering with the last 2 books.
At first I was thinking, "I don't understand why everyone hates Janet so much. They're great." Then I got to know Janet better and realized how manipulative and stupid they are. It was one of those rare characters that are so annoying that they drag down the entire book with them.
My full video review with detailed thoughts is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2XeH4F1G9A
At first I was thinking, "I don't understand why everyone hates Janet so much. They're great." Then I got to know Janet better and realized how manipulative and stupid they are. It was one of those rare characters that are so annoying that they drag down the entire book with them.
My full video review with detailed thoughts is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2XeH4F1G9A
I won an advance copy of this book from a GoodReads giveaway and was glad to get my hands on it. The Sandman Slim series is an awesome gem, unique for its cranky, violent lead. Our protagonist, James Stark, was betrayed and sent to Hell by a friend, where he was brutalized for 12 years. The first 9 books of the series were about Stark breaking out of Hell and wreaking havoc and vengeance upon Earth. In book 10, Stark starts to realize how traumatized he is and how that affects his everyday actions. This book, book 11, is the first time we get to see Stark actively trying to deal with his problems in a mature fashion. He sees a healer and takes PTSD medication. He talks with his friends about what's going on in his head as honestly as possible. He really did go through an impressive amount of self-reflection. But for cranky readers who still want a little fictional violence to vent real world anger, Sandman Slim was still happy to provide.
This review probably makes me sound like a psycho, but I swear it's not that bad. Sandman Slim is like Marvel Comic's the Punisher, but he uses magic (Hellion Hoodoo) instead of guns.
This review probably makes me sound like a psycho, but I swear it's not that bad. Sandman Slim is like Marvel Comic's the Punisher, but he uses magic (Hellion Hoodoo) instead of guns.
Another quick, bit fun tale as Kadrey continues to build these characters and reveal the underworld hidden behind LA. Stark is typical Sandman Slim in this, but we are also seeing a shift towards a thoughtful, more reluctant killer. What could be next now that the monster who kills monsters has experienced a reset? Can’t wait to find out!
The subplot with Janet's suicidal group was so stupid it dragged everything else down. The main thing was James/Sandman trying to both figure out some problems in LA and find out more about his humanity after all that previously happened. That later was the only interesting part of the book.