This book is true to form... If you like the other Sandman Slim books you will like this one too.

Death has gone missing... people aren't dying. And instead of being at death's doorstep... Death comes to Sandman Slim's. This book develops the Sandman Slim character, it goes into how he deals with loss, in more ways than one. It is interesting, well paced, and makes sense within the universe Richard Kadrey created.

If you like supernatural mystery noir, this is the series for you. It has it all... humor, blasphemy, sex, drugs, rock-n-roll, and a tougher than nails protagonist with a heart of gold underneath his impenetrable exterior. ( )

Aside from a couple of gruesome scenes, this one's somewhat tamer than the earlier ones. Is our boy settling down? ( )

My Thoughts:
The thing I like so much about this series is, other than the bad-ass-ness that is, is the real-ness of the world building. I can so totally believe that god is broken into little pieces of himself. Like he gave birth to himselves by breaking up into smaller parts of him. He can't grow anymore bigger so he broke up. Totally believable. I mean at some point in his life, he can't get any bigger than he already is. So maybe the next logical step in his evolution is to give birth to himselves. And so appealing to me because that would explain so many shit in the world. This is one of the many reasons why I am such a fan of this series. I also kinda really like the idea of an anti-hero who kicks ass! :)

This book also have the most solid plot in the entire series that I could remember. Investigating a murder with a twist, nice plot! Ok, so there never was much of a plot in any of the books in this series, but this one got more than the others. But, for some reason, I find this book really slow... and I could not find the reason why because the story telling quality is as good as it always has been... maybe it's me being slow. I think another factor contributing to this book being slow is the fact that the introduction to the main plot is very long. As in, half-the-book-worth long, of introduction. That gets tiring...

Empirical Evaluation:
Story telling quality = 4.5
Character development = 5
Story itself = 4.5
Writing Style = 4.5
Ending = 4.5
World building = 5
Cover art = 2.5
Pace = 2
Plot = 4.5
Narration = 4.5

Overall Rating: 4.5 out of 5 ( )

Sandman Slim (a/k/a James Stark) is back at his video store, having sacrificed his ability to shadow travel to save the world in Book #6, and trying to cope with his Jade girlfriend Candy (Chihiro) nows looks Asian to evade her arrest. Death shows up in a dead body and is stashed in Stark's store with Kasabian. Unlike the prior novels, when Stark battles cosmic forces bent on destroying Heaven, Hell, and Earth, in this novel, he needs to figure out who tried to kill Death and how to get Death him back to work, especially when people all over the world stop dying making the resolution urgent. Stark effectively transitions to a detective, and much of the mayhem upon which he built his fame is suppressed. Hopefully, Mr. Kadrey will let him loose next time. Hint, hint...
( )

To be honest I was concerned how the story would go after the events of the last book. While not the best book in the series, it was kind of like picking up the latest version of your smart phone, a few things done different, but very familiar, with some new tweaks and features. Can't wait to see how the "new" bad guys develop. ( )