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You are here: Home / Books / Recommended Reading / Recommended Reading #3: Revenge, Served Satanic

Recommended Reading #3: Revenge, Served Satanic

by Major Major Major Major|  October 13, 20182:51 pm| 45 Comments

This post is in: Recommended Reading

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Hello and welcome to Recommended Reading, the feature where we talk about books! In honor of October, and the impending election, I would like to recommend a book about clawing your way out of Hell to exact revenge on the people who sent you there: Sandman Slim (Sandman Slim #1), by San Fransiscan Richard Kadrey.

It tells the story of Stark, a sorcerer brut and member of Southern California’s hidden, magically-attuned society. His erstwhile friends banish him to Hell, and after ten years of gladiatorial combat, he murders his way out seeking vengeance.

But he wonders: are Los Angeles, and this mission, really all that different from his last decade?

It’s a bloody good read, with some of the best hard-boiled imagery that I’ve ever come across.

When I was Downtown, I learned a lot about making threats. Make them big. Make them outrageous. You’re never going to kick someone’s ass. You’re going to pull out their tongue and pour liquid nitrogen down their throat, chip out their guts with an ice pick, slide in a pane of glass, and turn them into an aquarium.

Oh, and there’s loads of old movie references, if that’s your thing. (More quotes, the kind that might make even certain commenters blush, can be found at Goodreads.)

I’m usually loath to recommend the first book in a series, but it works as a standalone. Four out of five stars, seasonally appropriate. Content warning, extreme violence and Satanism.


What are some of your favorite pieces of revenge porn? What else have you been reading? I’m on book 1.5 of Peter F. Hamilton’s Night’s Dawn trilogy.

As always, if you’re going to buy anything, go through the Balloon-Juice Amazon Affiliate link (or support your local bookstore)!

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Reader Interactions

45Comments

  1. 1.

    TaMara (HFG)

    October 13, 2018 at 2:56 pm

    M4 – Can I jump on your thread to let people know we have another Author In Our MIdst tomorrow? Seems a good place to let our avid book readers know. Thanks for letting me intrude. Carry on. ?❤

  2. 2.

    Major Major Major Major

    October 13, 2018 at 3:00 pm

    @TaMara (HFG): Oh those are always fun!

  3. 3.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    October 13, 2018 at 3:01 pm

    I’m reading Madeleine Miller’s CIRCE. Lots of revenge in that one! It’s very well written

  4. 4.

    schrodingers_cat

    October 13, 2018 at 3:05 pm

    Mahabharata is the best piece of revenge porn. Draupadi the wife of Pandavas avenges her insult by washing her hair in the blood of those who insulted her in public.

  5. 5.

    oatler.

    October 13, 2018 at 3:05 pm

    Fritz Leiber wrote a great Frisco horror novel called “Our Lady of Darkness.”

  6. 6.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    October 13, 2018 at 3:10 pm

    If ya’ll want somewhere to throw some money at here it is

    https://twitter.com/dodo/status/1051171459349938176

  7. 7.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    October 13, 2018 at 3:15 pm

    My book recommendation and I feel it is highly topical since it is about Russia and dictatorship

    Stalin waiting for Hitler

    https://www.amazon.com/Stalin-Waiting-1929-1941-Stephen-Kotkin/dp/1594203806

    Found it a real eye opener. Stalin really does have his good and utterly horrible sides. But, as the book shows, creating a dictatorship requires hard work, and that’s not Trump.

  8. 8.

    Bob Collins

    October 13, 2018 at 3:16 pm

    I’ve read all ten Kadrey Sandman Slim novels. Clearly I think they are worth reading, some novels a bit stronger than others, but always funny, sexy, scary, irreverent, and inventive.

  9. 9.

    m.j.

    October 13, 2018 at 3:18 pm

    I read Sandman Slim some years ago after reading Wil Wheaton’s gushing praise for the book. I was disappointed. The premise seemed promising, but it’s filled with these achingly hackneyed Mickey Spillane similes that were too much to bear.

  10. 10.

    Poptartacus

    October 13, 2018 at 3:20 pm

    I’m reading stormys book Full Disclosure
    It’s very chucklelishous She’s had a interesting life and I’m not yet to the orange monster part

  11. 11.

    J.

    October 13, 2018 at 3:25 pm

    Am I allowed to recommend my own books? Well, I’m going to do it anyway. :-) If any of you like a good cozy mystery and/or love Sanibel Island, check out A SHELL OF A PROBLEM and SOMETHING FISHY. They are the perfect weekend reads. Fun detective fiction, set on a beautiful, tropical island, with quirky characters.

  12. 12.

    cain

    October 13, 2018 at 3:25 pm

    Any book by Tad Williams.

  13. 13.

    J.

    October 13, 2018 at 3:26 pm

    @Poptartacus: Thanks for reminding me! I need to check it out. Good to hear it’s a fun read.

  14. 14.

    Tony Jay

    October 13, 2018 at 3:31 pm

    I’m going to have to read through Hamilton’s ‘Nights Dawn’ again soon. I enjoyed it the first time around but I’m sure I must have missed a lot powering on through. So much good stuff in there, and all quite optimistic about our space-dwelling future, even given the crazy shit that goes down and what the protagonists discover about the way things really are.

    I did enjoy the revenge porn of Stephen Fry’s ‘The Stars Tennis Balls’, which, I’m ashamed to admit, I got a massive way through before I realized it was his take on a much older classic of self-destructive vengeance. I could read his prose all day, just as dexterous and smooth on the page as he is on TV.

  15. 15.

    FelonyGovt

    October 13, 2018 at 3:32 pm

    Major Major Major Major, I want to thank you for recommending William Gibson to me. I’m currently reading my fourth book by him, Peripheral.

  16. 16.

    Suburban Mom

    October 13, 2018 at 3:33 pm

    @J.: And I need a fresh supply of mysteries to carry on business trips, so I just ordered the first one. I’m looking forward to reading it.

  17. 17.

    Major Major Major Major

    October 13, 2018 at 3:33 pm

    @FelonyGovt: Oh that one’s great once you figure out the structure.

  18. 18.

    FelonyGovt

    October 13, 2018 at 3:36 pm

    @Major Major Major Major: Good to know. I’m struggling with it a bit so far, but I’m only about 25 pages in.

  19. 19.

    Gelfling 545

    October 13, 2018 at 3:39 pm

    I’m reading the 6th novel in this series now. Lately I prefer the fictional hell to the world of Trump.

  20. 20.

    Major Major Major Major

    October 13, 2018 at 3:40 pm

    @FelonyGovt: I think it took 50 or 100 for me ? can also read the very beginning of the Wikipedia article.

  21. 21.

    japa21

    October 13, 2018 at 3:48 pm

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: It was great meeting you and Mr. DAW today. Any luck selling any other books?

  22. 22.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    October 13, 2018 at 3:51 pm

    @japa21: We sold two more–one Wind Reader and one of the earlier book. I was pleased. People coming into a library to borrow books aren’t a natural audience to buy one.

    We enjoyed meeting you too. It was kind of you to come and then buy a book!

  23. 23.

    WaterGirl

    October 13, 2018 at 3:52 pm

    @J.: My sister and her husband try to go to Sanibel every year. I just sent her birthday gift or this would have been the perfect choice.

    I added them to my Amazon “save for later” so I can get them for her sometime.

  24. 24.

    J.

    October 13, 2018 at 3:53 pm

    @Suburban Mom: Thank you so much! It’s a perfect airplane read. (FYI The first book is good, the second one is better.)

  25. 25.

    J.

    October 13, 2018 at 3:54 pm

    @WaterGirl: Thanks! Yeah, people who like Sanibel love the books. (They’ve been the bestseller on Sanibel for months, since they came out.)

  26. 26.

    Jeffro

    October 13, 2018 at 4:13 pm

    I saw “Sandman” and started to go all Neil Gaiman fanboi here…ah well…

    A little OT but more appropriate here than anywhere else: how is this guy NOT Floriduh Man?

  27. 27.

    Major Major Major Major

    October 13, 2018 at 4:17 pm

    @Jeffro: Gaiman is a fan of the series though!

  28. 28.

    Thursday

    October 13, 2018 at 4:21 pm

    Night’s Dawn was really good. My only complaint is I had quibbles about the ending, and was kinda tired of a couple characters by the end. Still a solid work. If you haven’t, make sure you give his Commonwealth series a shot too.

  29. 29.

    Jeffro

    October 13, 2018 at 4:42 pm

    @Major Major Major Major: Oh well there is that…=)

  30. 30.

    dm

    October 13, 2018 at 5:31 pm

    The Count Of Monte Cristo is the ultimate in revenge porn, with a bit of “living well is the best….” mixed in. I had to audiobook it though. Is that cheating?

    Circe is on the queue, along with The silence of the girls, as another view of the Odyssey (while I’m at it, check out Robert Graves’ Homer’s daughter and Margaret Atwood’s The Penelopiad).

  31. 31.

    Mike J

    October 13, 2018 at 6:10 pm

    Kadrey’s daily pulp covers are one of the few good things on twitter.

  32. 32.

    Robert Sneddon

    October 13, 2018 at 6:20 pm

    Charlie Stross’ new Laundry novel, “The Labyrinth Index” is coming out October 30th[1]. I’m really tempted to spoiler it but I can’t (I’m a pre-reader for his stuff). It’s mostly set in the US this time round, with a really odd premise.

    [1] Charlie got his author copies delivered to his flat a couple of days ago. Charlie is in Canada at the moment on a well-deserved vacation. I got to carry the boxes of books up three flights of stairs to his flat since I was there at the right time, watering his carnivorous plants and sorting through the mail.

  33. 33.

    wonkie

    October 13, 2018 at 6:34 pm

    I love Charles Stross’s Laundry files.

    I also love even more Ben Aaronovitch’s Rivers of London series. I read them over and over.

    I have read a lot of Kadry’s books including four or five Sandman Slim novels. Pulp fiction. Fun if you take them at that level and don’t expect more.

    However The Butcher Bird is a level better. It’s a book I love for the visuals and the characters. So don’t let a dislike of the Sandman Slim novels stop you: go for The Butcher Bird anyway.

  34. 34.

    NeenerNeener

    October 13, 2018 at 6:49 pm

    Hmmm…I’ve read most of the Sandman Slim books and lumped them under “Urban Fantasy” but I guess they are revenge porn as well. And thinking of Sandman Slim reminds me of Mike Carey’s Felix Castor books, which Carey left hanging about 10 years ago, and Harry Connolly’s Twenty Palaces series, which his publisher lost interest in and canceled. Carey occasionally mentions wanting to finish up the Castor novels on his blog, but other projects seem to keep getting in the way. I would drop everything to read a new book in either series.

  35. 35.

    Obvious Russian Troll

    October 13, 2018 at 7:02 pm

    Aaronovitch has a new book coming out in November (according to Amazon, which is not always accurate). I’m looking forward to both this and the new Laundry Files book.

    I’m also looking forward to more time to read the damn things (and to write my own), but that should be coming soon.

  36. 36.

    Mike J

    October 13, 2018 at 7:16 pm

    @Robert Sneddon: Love his stuff. Next time you see him, ask him why he blocked me on twitter. I’ve never tweeted at or about him.

  37. 37.

    chris

    October 13, 2018 at 7:38 pm

    Good stuff here, some I’ve never heard of. M4, can you put these posts in the Quick Links thingie? I’d make a list but then I’d probably lose it. Thank you in advance.

  38. 38.

    Marcus

    October 13, 2018 at 7:55 pm

    Each October, I reread “A Night In The Lonesome October” by Roger Zelazny and illustrations by Gahan Wilson. If those two names don’t get your interest, I don’t know what will – aside from having as characters; Jack the Ripper, Sherlock Holmes, Dracula, The Wolf Man, and references to The Old Ones. 31 Chapters, one for each day of the month. Some folk I know read it to each other, alternating night after night, until the final chapter.

  39. 39.

    Eric Schneider

    October 13, 2018 at 8:10 pm

    Ah yes, that’s a good book. :)

  40. 40.

    Heidi Mom

    October 13, 2018 at 8:47 pm

    I’m reading, in fiction, Lethal White by “Robert Galbraith” and, in non-fiction, The Killing of Crazy Horse by Thomas Powers. Both are excellent.

  41. 41.

    Torrey

    October 13, 2018 at 9:19 pm

    I really enjoyedAll Those Explosions Were Someone Else’s Fault by James Alan Gardner, particularly at this political moment. The basic conceit is that vampires, werewolves, etc., have been hiding in the shadows all these centuries when it suddenly dawns on them that they have something they can monetize: they can give anyone exceptional powers by making the person a vampire, werewolf, etc., like themselves. For, of course, a huge amount of money. And within a couple of decades, almost all of the extremely wealthy are “Darklings” with extraordinary powers, which seems like it ought to go well for them. Except for some people the Darklings hadn’t counted on, along the lines of “those meddling kids.” Gardner introduces the book in Scalzi’s “The Big Idea” (Nov. 10/2017).

  42. 42.

    Steeplejack

    October 13, 2018 at 9:43 pm

    @Mike J:

    Some popular and/​or well-known Twitter people use automated block lists to get rid of trolls and A-holes. You probably got swept up in a faulty list.

  43. 43.

    MattF

    October 14, 2018 at 12:04 am

    I’ve read all of Kadrey’s Sandman books– the series starts out strong, but then after the first two or three (for reasons I won’t mention because spoilers) sort of collapses. The most recent one is pretty good, so maybe Kadrey has figured it out.

  44. 44.

    piratedan

    October 14, 2018 at 2:39 am

    I think Zelazny’s Amber series qualifies pretty well too…

  45. 45.

    JimV

    October 14, 2018 at 9:18 pm

    Read it all the way through, but haven’t looked for any more by that author. I’ll give it 2.5 stars. Tastes vary. It didn’t seem that original to me (escapees from Hell has been done) and I didn’t like the characters much.

    P.F. Hamilton’s “Reality Disfunction” and “Neutronium Alchemist” were very good, albeit with a weakish ending. “Pandora’s Star”, “Judas Unchained”, and “The Great North Road” are on my all-time favorites list. The later stuff doesn’t seem to have as much energy.

    I just gave a nephew Michael Connelly’s “Echo Park” and “The Drop”. There’s another in the series between those two but more of a sequel feeling (more in common) with those two. “Echo Park” is probably MC’s most dramatic novel. I’m surprised it hasn’t been made into a movie, but I guess screen writers tend to like their own crap better.

    All the characters in the above recommended books seemed real to me–not people like I know, but too detailed and consistent and original not to be real. That’s my main criterion these days. I tried to read an Agatha Christie novel once. Pure cardboard characters in my estimation. (But what do I know? Just what I like.)

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