Kill the Dead

Sandman Slim, Book 2

By: Richard Kadrey

Narrated by: MacLeod Andrews

Length: 13 hrs and 20 mins

Publisher's summary

James Stark, a.k.a. Sandman Slim, crawled out of Hell, took bloody revenge for his girlfriend’s murder, and saved the world along the way. After that, what do you do for an encore? You take a lousy job tracking down monsters for money. It’s a depressing gig, but it pays for your beer and cigarettes. But in L.A., things can always get worse.

Like when Lucifer comes to town to supervise his movie biography and drafts Stark as his bodyguard. Sandman Slim has to swim with the human and inhuman sharks of L.A.’s underground power elite. That’s before the murders start. And before he runs into the Czech porn star who isn’t quite what she seems. Even before all those murdered people start coming back from the dead and join a zombie army that will change our world and Stark’s forever.

Death bites. Life is worse. All things considered, Hell’s not looking so bad.

More mayhem? Try another eerie earful of Sandman Slim.

©2010 Richard Kadrey (P)2010 Brilliance Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Profane, intensely metaphoric language somehow makes self-tortured monster Stark sympathetic and turns a simple story into a powerful noir thriller." ( Publishers Weekly)

Moral compass broken. It's dead reckoning now!

Narrator makes a great book an absolute stone cold killer! You feel what he feels, and then you go numb as he does, what humanity he had ripped out and replaced with something far simpler, leaner, crueler. Plus, zombie-hunting pornstars may come close to toppling Harry Dresden's benchmark of riding a zombie T-Rex through the city center of Chicago.

High plains drifters (zombies) abound.

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes, it is a fast paced interesting book with lots of punk attitude.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Kill the Dead?

The zombie havoc in LA was well done. Also, the little girl ghost was really creepy.

What does MacLeod Andrews bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

he just has the attitude of this series down pat. He also has a great range of voices and makes the whole greater han the sum of its parts.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

No.

Any additional comments?

Two things I generally don't like are stories about time travel or zombies. In this case the author made a zombie story that was actually interesting and fun. You can't go wrong with this book or the series as a whole.

How did that happen?

great overall performance. I cringed every single time the narrator kept calling the video store Max Overload instead of it's actual name, Max Overdrive. small error in delivery, but I stands out like a sore thumb.

I can describe this book perfectly in one sentence.

“The Dresden Files” meets “Dead Pool”. I usually hate it when someone describes books this way but this fits nearly perfectly. Not very original, but definitely entertaining.

lurved it

Solidsnake is back with another amazing performance narrating. The story is a fun ride frz+ 1om start to finish.

perfect narrator

I have read the series before and was a bit skeptical about hearing someone narrate it. Luckily, he does a better job bringing Stark to life than I envisioned. I recommend the series, the writer and the storyteller.

Diagnosis: Bi-Polar disorder, call the Alchemists!

If you could sum up Kill the Dead in three words, what would they be?

No Zombie Angels.

Would you be willing to try another book from Richard Kadrey? Why or why not?

This book was the decider for continuation; I look forward to the rest of the series. I wanted to ensure both the writing and the performance were consistant - they are. There is the protagonist we know, and an insight into his inner workings in this book. The manner in which we learn these things is through interesting plot devices.

Did the narration match the pace of the story?

There were a few slow spots in the story, but I think the narration was consistent throughout. There may have been a few times when it was hard to tell who was speaking, but rewinding cleared that up easily enough.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

When a story is good, you want to hear what happens next - not unique to this book. Although, there where a spot or two that offered a lull in the action to pause and consider what was just read, and digest the contents, I took those occasions to rewind the section and stop the audio. I would take the proffered break and return for more giving sufficient momentum [the rewind] to get right back into the action.

Any additional comments?

I may have liked the first book better, but that is no reflection on this one. Kadrey immerses the listener in his [Slim's] dystopic environment in such a way that you revel in the muck and mire, then pause to wash it off and return to reality. I don't always agree with the plot twists, but it is undeniable that they always work themselves out in the end.I will be reading more of the series if I wasn't clear on that point.

Hurrah for Sandman Slim!

I liked the first book in this series, but LOVED the second book and am downloading the third. The first book was action packed and fun, but no real character development. This book was much better and I am really excited for this series. Funny, witty, never boring and clearly moving into new stories - not just the same story told over and over with slightly different flavors. Definitely try this series.

Spaghetti Zombie Noir, Over the top goodness

This is why I hate working with other people. They see things. I don't look, so I don't set off traps. Curiosity didn't kill the cat, other people did.

Oh Stark, you're still so full of warm fuzzies and snark as you were in the first, Sandman Slim . And you're obviously still a little shithead as you were before. Carry on, good sir.

Kill the Dead is a solid sequel to the ongoing series of the many adventures of James Stark to see how much the denizens of Hell, Heaven, and Earth can screw him and his friends over. Known as Sandman Slim, the boogeyman of boogeymen and killer of monsters, Stark ain't doing so hot after the first book. It seems that within the 6 months that have passed since the first book, and saving L.A. (and the world, but L.A. is the best shit hole on this planet so it obviously means a lot to Stark) on New Years Eve has left Stark basically licking his mental wounds and seeing how much of a jerkwad he can be to his friends and loved ones as he falls deeper and deeper into depression.

It seems that Alice's death has finally hit home, and Stark's way of apology for inadvertently getting her murdered is to drink and smoke himself to death. Well, as much death as a half-angel/half-human can do to themselves. What will it take to pull his head out of his ass and start to pay attention again? Oh, I dunno, maybe a zombie free-for-all down the streets in the City of Angels?

I definitely enjoyed the "monster" for this second book, the zombies or "zeds and zots", or however you'd like to refer to the undead. Either way, Stark stumbled across a plot to unleash a literal plague of zombies on Los Angeles, but for what? What or who is the driving force behind these bumbling lurkers?

The zombie twist is clever. This is no "head shot" and boom, the undead are deader. They are complex creatures and need to be handled with care, with a single bite or scratch dooming the recipient to becoming a lurker themselves. I really appreciate that. I'm so used to seeing zombies that are easily disposed of, or maybe they need direct contact with the blood stream to spread the disease, but I thought Kadrey took a good trope and gave it its own twist to stand out and be unique from its fellow zombie books.

But this isn't really a zombie book. This is an exploration of Stark, his personal and innermost thoughts and how he's handling life after crawling his way back up. It's about politics, dealing with the Golden Vigil and Lucifer, with the population of "magical creatures" that make up the seedy underbelly of L.A. It's about depression and anger, trying to get over a loved one and making up for past mistakes. And it's about the gore. How many dead things can Stark kill? Let's count...

Again, the humor and one liners are over the top with the right amount of cheese. If spaghetti-noirs were a thing, this would be the cover-boy for spaghetti-noirs. As it is, it's still pretty dark and morbid but the humor comes in to lighten the load a bit and make it more manageable. There were more than a few moments where I laughed out loud at some remark Stark made. He really is a little shit.

And again, MacLeod Andrews knocks it out of the park with his voice as the narrator for Kill the Dead. His voices are distinct and easily to tell who is speaking as well when Stark is speaking versus thinking to himself and who his comments are direct towards. He also did a pretty passable Eastern European accent for one of my absolute favorite characters, Brigitte. Then again, I'm an uncultured American so I'll just have to say it at least sounded good to my ears. He is absolutely one of my favorite narrators due to the gravel and rasp of his voice, it truly adds to Stark's character and image.

I didn't rate this 5 stars because while I enjoyed myself thoroughly and will continue to dance my way through the series, I felt it didn't pack quite enough "oomph" at each of the twists or reveals, and that's okay. It was some serious solid story telling with great action and characters, but there were one or two parts where I felt things dragged a little. It was also a little more complicated to listen to in comparison to the first one due to the amount of names that were flung around so sometimes it was hard to keep track of who was who and who was supposed to be dead.

Having Mason as Stark's antagonist for the series and the overall "Big Bad" gives me the fuzzies because I hate this dude and I love the interactions Stark and Mason have. There will for sure be some more major dustups occurring between them, and just because Mason is 'downtown', doesn't mean he'll stay there for long. Stark may have the key to Hell, but Mason is clever enough to find his own way back to Earth.

And because it wouldn't be a review of mine unless I left a little bit of poetry at the end from Kasabian, my second favorite buttnugget in the series.
"Fuck you twice. I'm not taking name abuse from someone named Sandman Slim. That sounds like a diet shake with roofies." I'm telling you, pure poetry.

Wicked humor, Nonstop Action, Remarkable Narration

What did you love best about Kill the Dead?

Kadrey's writing at its best. Such a fantastic roller coaster ride filled with gritty no nonsense, back talking, loveable monsters you can't help but root and cheer for. This is pure brilliance. Macleod Andrews's performance is top notch, bringing Kadrey's cast of wicked do gooders jumping off the page.

What other book might you compare Kill the Dead to and why?

I wish it had an equal, because I'd be gobbling that one up to. This is a truly unique take on heaven & hell, God and Lucifer, Angels, Hellions, Demons, and Zombies. What Harry Potter did for Fantasy, Sandman Slim does for Noir Gritty Macabre Pulp Fiction.

What does MacLeod Andrews bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Macleod Andrews brings everything to the table in the Sandman Slim series. He gives every character a nuance and unique voice, his versatility and acting is pure brilliance.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

Too many moving moments to list without spoiling this fantastic story.

Any additional comments?

I would be utterly shocked and amazed if one of the big networks or studios doesn't pick up this series for the long haul.