Devil Said Bang: A Sandman Slim Novel [Hardcover]

Richard Kadrey (Author)

Book Description

Release date: August 28, 2012 | Series: Sandman Slim

Richard Kadrey’s Sandman Slim—aka James Stark—is, quite simply, one of the most outrageous uber-anti-heroes ever to kick serious butt on this or any other world or dimension.

In his previous three adventures—Sandman Slim, Kill the Dead, and Aloha from Hell—Stark has fled Hell for California, taken on angels, demons, outlaw bikers, zombies, covert government operatives, and all manner of monsters, while saving humankind from total annihilation on numerous occasions. But in Devil Said Bang, he finally assumes the role he was destined for: as the new Lucifer, ruler of the Underworld.

Combining outrageously edgy humor with a dark and truly twisted vision, Richard Kadrey has once again delivered a masterful amalgam of action novel, urban fantasy, and in-your-face horror that will delight a wide range of readers—from Christopher Moore and Warren Ellis fans to the devoted adherents of Jim Butcher, Charlaine Harris, Kim Harrison, and Simon Green.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Richard Kadrey continues to knock them way the hell out of the park.” (Cory Doctorow, boingboing.com )

“Richard Kadrey’s ‘Sandman Slim’ series is one of my favorite sets of fantasy books from the last few years.” (John Scalzi )

“Allow me to both love this series for its feel of crossing hard-boiled crime pulp with H.P. Lovecraftian fantasy, and hate the author for being so damn good at it.” (Bookgasm )

“The most irreverent, darkly comedic, and downright cool installment to date. …The action-packed and bombshell-laden blend of dark fantasy, crime fiction, and Hellish sitcom is utterly readable. (Publishers Weekly )

From the Back Cover

Getting out of hell is just the beginning

What do you do after you've escaped Hell, gone back, uncovered the true nature of God, and then managed to become the new Lucifer?

Well, if you're James Stark, you have to figure out how to run Hell while also trying to get back out of it . . . again. Plus there's the small matter of surviving. Because everyone in Heaven, Hell, and in between wants to be the fastest gun in the universe, and the best way to do so is to take down Lucifer, a.k.a. James Stark.

And it's not like being in L.A. is any better—a serial-killer ghost is running wild and Stark's angelic alter ego is hiding among the lost days of time with a secret cabal who can rewrite reality. Starting to care for people and life again is a real bitch for a stone-cold killer.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 416 pages
• Publisher: Harper Voyager; First Edition first Printing edition (August 28, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 9780062094575
• ISBN-13: 978-0062094575
• ASIN: 0062094572
• Product Dimensions: 7.4 x 5.5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (114 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #80,178 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Richard Kadrey is a writer living in San Francisco. He is the author of dozens of stories, plus five novels, including Metrophage and Butcher Bird. His Wired magazine cover story, "Carbon Copy," was made into one of the worst movies of 2001. It starred Bridget Fonda. Sorry, Bridget.

Kadrey created and wrote the Vertigo comics miniseries Accelerate, which was illustrated by the Pander Brothers. He plans to do more comic work in the near future.

He is written and spoken about art, culture, and technology for Wired, The San Francisco Chronicle, Discovery Online, The Site, SXSW, and Wired for Sex on the G4 cable network.

He is also a fetish photographer.

He has no qualifications for anything he does.

Amazon Author Rankbeta 

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#46 Overall (See top 100 authors)

#3 in Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Fantasy

#3 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy

#5 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy

#10 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Contemporary

#12 in Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Contemporary Fiction

#3 in Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Fantasy

#3 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy

#5 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy

#10 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Contemporary

#12 in Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Contemporary Fiction

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

52 of 63 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars The Ebook is fixed now. August 30, 2012

By yep

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

If you downloaded the defective ebook like me, be aware that the publisher has now fixed the ebook. I just re-downloaded it (after getting a refund for the first download) and all the content is there.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars REALLY disappointing September 27, 2012

By F. Woll

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

This book was almost jarring in how different it was that the earlier books. It was abrupt, violent (violent for the SAKE of being violent is boring), and made little sense. There were leaps of logic and gaps of time that were unexplained. Events peter out, or just...go away. Entire plot lines are seemingly discarded. At the mid-point, the story abruptly shifts back to earth. And...that's it for hell. The earth plot feels totally tacked on, with no sense of threat, but a definite sense of, "huh???". It's as if the author was unable to figure out where the hell story plot line should have gone. Story threads from the earlier books are just dropped, forgotten, or simply discarded.

Sandman Slim was also completely unlikable in this one. I get that he's an antihero. But in this, he's just a jerk, for no reason other than....he's a jerk. Did I mention that he's a jerk?

The first book in the series was really entertaining. This one was not. A complete chore to get through. My final thoughts are that the author just kind of ran out of mental gas, and tired of the character and universe he created. In that case, he probably should have stuck with it as a trilogy, and gone on to something else.

Really, really disappointing. I reserve one-star reviews for things I flat out loath. These review is a 2-star, and this book was just...bad.

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Oh oh. The new Satan is bored out of his skull September 4, 2012

By E. A. Lovitt HALL OF FAMETOP 100 REVIEWER

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

The blood-soaked hero of this urban fantasy series, James Stark a.k.a. Sandman Slim spent the second third of his life in Hell's equivalent of the Roman Coliseum, then the next few years (Sandman Slim: A Novel and "Kill the Dead: A Sandman Slim Novel) wishing he were back in Hell instead of in Los Angeles. In the third book in the series, Aloha from Hell: A Sandman Slim Novel, Stark not only returns to Hell, he takes over Lucifer's old job. But as soon as he settles in to the Lightbringer's former palace in "Devil Said Bang," he begins to wish he were back in Los Angeles.

There's no satisfying some guys.

It isn't the squalid, crime-riddled, burned-out streets of Pandemonium or the occasional attempted assassination that are bothering Stark, it's the long, boring meetings with his top Hellion minions. The new Satan is so bored out of his skull, he's reading Epicurus and Franz Kafka. He's in violent agreement with the latter philosopher, who once said: "Every revolution evaporates and leaves behind only the slime of a new bureaucracy"--even the revolt of the Fallen against God.

So how is Stark going to escape from Hell's boring bureaucrats and back to the squalid, crime-riddled, burned-out streets of Los Angeles? About the only thing that could pass as a plot in "Devil Said Bang" is Stark's attempt to swap locations, yet again. Once he's back in LA, the author has to come up with a whole new story line involving killer ghosts, aliens, and a bunch of folks called 'dreamers' who are holding reality together. It's pretty obvious Kadry didn't bother with an outline before writing this Sandman Slim installment. He just made it up as he went along.

Luckily, he's got a wonderful imagination that frames itself for the most part, in newer, more grotesque ways of offing his characters and destroying the planet (I still haven't forgiven him for torching the Garden of Eden.) And he still writes some of the rawest, most original prose in the genre. One of my favorite lines in "Devil Said Bang" occurs when someone asks Stark what he believes in:

"I believe we're going to be dead a lot longer than we're alive, so anything you like you should do to excess. I believe America lost its soul when they took the big-block V-8 out of Mustangs. I believe Hollywood should stop remaking 'A Star is Born.'"

I believe I'll read the next installment in the adventures of Sandman Slim, in spite of this book's lack of plot.

NOTE: I bought the hardcopy version of "Devil Said Bang" from Amazon, and didn't have any problems with missing text (as far as I can tell).