Everyone’s favorite chain-smoking abomination is back and this time Sandman Slim might be in over his head. Richard Kadrey’s latest installment in the Sandman Slim saga, Aloha From Hell, is the best one yet. Kadrey picks up a lot of the open plot points (including having to finally deal with Mason) and ends it in a logical (if not completely satisfactory) manner. So, let’s see what’ going on.
James (Sandman Slim) Stark has an angel in his head and a devil on his tail. Stark helped Lucifer leave Hell in the last book and now Mason has taken over. But Mason isn’t just happy with Hell, he wants to destroy Hell, Heaven and everything in between. Stark doesn’t think he’ll be able to do it, so he happily ignores the issue while he starts in a new relationship with Candy.
A chance meeting leads him to a exorcism gone wrong, and Stark is asked to find the demonic child. Revelations about the kid’s family and who is possessing him lead Stark to an inescapable conclusion. He’s going to need to go back to hell and take on Mason. But with Lucifer out of the picture and Hell in Mason’s control, it’s going to be difficult to sneak in and almost impossible to get to Mason. But Stark has a few tricks up his sleeve (and in his face as we find out). And the last third of the book is a thrilling chase across Hell with many characters thrown in and we get to see hints of what Stark went through his first time through Hell.
Overall, the book starts off a little slow, but the ending more than makes up for it. The first third of the book, while slow, does a lot to show how Stark has changed since he came back from Hell. He has many internal debates about whether he has lost his edge or not. And when he is forced into a situation where he has to go back to Hell, those discussions start taking on new importance as Stark has to slip back into his demon killing mode and he isn’t sure he can. And the ending does a good job resolving a lot of open issues while leaving enough story material for future books (Devil Said Bang coming out this fall). If you like your chain smoking demon hunters to be running around in Hell, then Aloha From Hell is definitely worth reading. Recommended.
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