Richard Kadrey’s Sandman Slim (my review) was a fun over the top B-movie of a book about a guy who came back from hell to settle the score with his friends who put him there. Kadrey has created a fun over-the-top superhero of an undead villain. James Stark has angelic ancestry and demonic powers. His reflexes strength and healing are pretty much off the charts. And he’s back for another adventure in Kill the Dead. This time, with his revenge shtick done, he has new assignments working for the big baddies, the TSA and Lucifer. And what happens when zombies start coming out of the woodwork?

James Stark (aka Sandman Slim) has spent his time since he sent Mason down to hell working odd missions for the TSA to get drinking money and then going to his favorite bar and spending the money drinking. When Lucifer comes to town to oversee the movie being made of his life, he hires Stark to be his bodyguard. An attempt on Lucifer’s life sets Stark off into investigative mode and he comes across a zombie invasion, he partners up with a zombie killing porn star to save the world.

The book does a grand job setting Stark off on his mission and the introduction of our zombie killing porn star (who happens to go by the name of Bridgette Bardo) is a fun change of pace. Overall though, you can tell that this book, though fun, is just setting up the pieces for the final volume (Aloha From Hell). In a Reaper-esque thought process, Stark thinks Lucifer might be his dad. But when he finds out the truth, he also finds out that his life is going to get a lot more scary soon. Mason (who Stark sent down to Hell) is plotting with various and sundry demons to take over Hell. If he is successful, then that won’t be good for Stark…or the world.

The third book is looking to be a Season of Mists type story with the battle for the control of Hell and we all remember what Lucifer did in Sandman. Kadrey has upped the ante in this second book and I’m looking forward to the third book. His Lucifer is vulnerable and powerful and scary (exactly as he should be). And his zombie hierarchy is an interesting twist to the general zombie idea. Overall this is a fun, B-movie ride of a book. The writing itself is much improved from the first book and does a good job moving the story forward while making it somewhat standalone. Recommended.

This post is part of the thread: Sandman Slim – an ongoing story on this site. View the thread timeline for more context on this post.