Everything Everything Box

Sometimes, if you're very lucky, a book that you had no idea you wanted finds its way to you. Way back in 2009, that book was Richard Kadrey's Sandman Slim. The advance reader copy showed up on my desk and I picked it up because the cover intrigued me. I was hooked from the very first sentence ("I wake up in a pile of smoldering garbage and leaves in the old Hollywood Forever cemetery behind the Paramount Studio lot on Melrose...")  

I wrote this review for Indie Next:

How a book this dark can be this much fun to read is just one of many things that will amaze you about Sandman Slim.  After surviving eleven years in Hell - literally - Stark is ready for vengeance on the magicians who killed his girlfriend and sent him there.  If he happens to avert the Apocalypse while he's doing it, that will be icing on the cake.  Good Omens meets Raymond Chandler! 

And then I wrote it out on a shelf talker, and we sold 117 copies of the Sandman Slim mass market. Yes, I am bragging. (Okay, a few other people, like William Gibson, Charlaine Harris, Holly Black, and Kim Harrison loved it too.)

The Sandman Slim series continued: Kill the Dead, Aloha From Hell, Devil Said Bang, Kill City Blues, The Getaway God, Killing Pretty. All great. #8, The Perdition Score, is due out June 28 of this year.
 

Just in case that wasn't enough, Kadrey has also written a fantastic stand-alone, The Everything Box, that's the first in a new series, and it comes out tomorrow, April 16, 2016. It's a must for anyone who enjoys action-adventure with a humorous edge. It's been compared to Christopher Moore, Donald Westlake, and Matt Ruff, all of which are apt if you need to contextualize it; but Kadrey's wild imagination and unique voice make The Everything Box completely new and thoroughly entertaining. Here's what I wrote for Indie Next:

The Everything Box

Richard Kadrey

Voyager

Coop is a thief whose immunity to magic lets him specialize in stealing magical objects - until he steals a box that could trigger the Apocalypse. Now fallen angels, supernatural law enforcement officials, rival doomsday cult leaders and just plain criminals all want the box, and expect Coop to get it for them. Can Coop keep himself and his friends alive - and will there still be a world left for them to live in if he does? Kadrey is a master of edgy humor, complex plotting, and nonstop action with a paranormal edge, and The Everything Box is an engagingly dark delight to read!
 
Note: I have now tried approximately 75 times to give this post a consistent font all the way through, and I've given up. 

 

The View From the Cheap Seats

This book doesn't come out until May 31, 2016, but the author just posted on Twitter that he's very nervous about it, so I'm posting my Indie Next review here now. 

Neil Gaiman is an unparalleled storyteller, and his nonfiction writing is every bit as compelling and thought-provoking as his fiction. His curiosity and enthusiasm keep the reader interested, whether he's writing about his cultural influences - books, bookstores, writers, artists, musicians - or his friends, or issues of social justice. His attitude of inclusion and encouragement and his championing of those he admires leave the reader feeling positive. I loved The View From the Cheap Seats!

(Note: I originally typed this title as The View from the Cheap Sheets.  Nothing Freudian about that. )