Image may be NSFW.
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Image may be NSFW.
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Shawn Speakman: You play in some pretty dark territory -- the alleys of Los Angeles, Hell, the wasted areas of society, pitting Stark against all manner of creatures. Where do you pull this darkness from? Is it inherent within you? Inherent in all of us?
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Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.Richard Kadrey is one of my favorite writers.
And James Stark aka Sandman Slim is one of my favorite characters.
The story of Sandman Slim is dark. It's gritty. It's frickin' hilarious. The situations that Kadrey puts Stark into are worth reading the entire series in a week—if not sooner. It begins with Sandman Slim. If you haven't read it, definitely give it a go if you like urban fantasy and the like.
Kadrey has just published his newest Sandman Slim book. It is titled Kill City Blues and I love the premise of this one!
Here is a bit more about it:
Another day, another apocalypse James Stark, aka Sandman Slim, has managed to get out of Hell, renounce his title as the new Lucifer, and settle back into life in L.A. But he also lost the Qomrama Om Ya, an all-powerful weapon from the banished older gods. Older gods who are returning and searching for their lost power. The hunt leads Stark to an abandoned shopping mall—a global shopping paradise infested with Lurkers and wretched bottom-feeding Sub Rosa families, squatters who have formed tight tribes to guard their tiny patches of retail wasteland. Somewhere in this kill zone is a dead man with the answers Stark needs. All Stark has to do is find the dead man, recover the artifact, and outwit and outrun the angry old gods—and natural-born killers—on his tail. But not even Sandman Slim is infallible, and any mistakes will cost him dearly.To celebrate the release of Kill City Blues, I decided to send Kadrey a few interview questions. Here they are! NEW RELEASE INTERVIEW: KILL CITY BLUES BY RICHARD KADREY Shawn Speakman: KILL CITY BLUES is newly published, your new Sandman Slim novel. For those people who haven't read the series, tell people about James Stark and why they should pick up the first novel, SANDMAN SLIM?
Richard Kadrey: Sandman Slim is about James Stark, a magician (not a David Copperfield Vegas magic man, but someone who can actually do magic) who is sent to Hell by a rival magician. When his girlfriend is murdered, Stark breaks out of Hell to get revenge on the people who sent him there and killed Alice. Along the way, he reluctantly saves the world.
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Richard Kadrey: People always ask me about why I write “dark” fiction. But it never seems dark to me. The places and images seems logical. Even beautiful. If you see my work as dark then you can just say that dark is where I live.
Shawn Speakman: Do you classify yourself in the "grim dark" area of the genre? Urban fantasy? Or something else?
Richard Kadrey: I don’t worry too much about classifications and gernes. Call the books urban fantasy. Call them supernatural noir. Or Horror thriller. Take a look and see if you like them. That’s how I find new books.
Shawn Speakman: What is in store for Stark in KILL CITY BLUES? Sounds like a shopper's nightmare to me!
Richard Kadrey: I wanted to take Stark out of his comfort zone in Hollywood, so I sent him to the beach town of Santa Monica, which he hates. I also wanted to write a haunted house book, but without a haunted house. So I made it a shopping mall. A really evil shopping mall, populated with the worst of LA’s magic and non-magic residents.
Shawn Speakman: You've received accolades from some of the best writers in the genre for Sandman Slim. What does that mean to you?
Richard Kadrey: A lot. I generally avoid what critics, but take seriously what other writers have to say about my work, both positive and negative. I trust other writers because they’ve been in the trenches and know how hard it is to create fiction that doesn’t suck.
Shawn Speakman: What hell are you putting Stark through in the next book? Share anything...?
Richard Kadrey: The next book is the culmination of the previous five. Stark will meet the old gods, Angra Om Ya, face-to-face and that confrontation will decide the fate of the universe.
Kill City Blues by Richard Kadrey is in fine bookstores now!
The mall will never be the same...