I'm on page 158 and very much enjoying 'Aloha from Hell', the 3rd installment in Richard Kadrey's 'Sandman Slim' series. Given my sensibilities, (borderline Nouveau Victorian) I really shouldn't like the Sandman Slim novels at all, but I love them. The books are told in the 1st person present tense. In the first novel, the hero, Stark has returned from the gladiatorial arenas of Hell to wreck vengeance on the former friend who sent him "Downtown" and murdered his girl through the arcane magics with which they'd all dabbled. The narrative is base, raw, brutal and profane, (in both the scatological and ecclesiastical sense); but the author, remembered something that another author (who's dreary werewolf novel I recently put aside), did not. Kadrey remembered to bring "The Funny." (The hero, snarks cleverly throughout), and the humanity, (He's brought some his troubles on himself, and knows it. But we can understand why a guy might be pissed enough to think about going autoclave on God, the angels and the entire planet) Stark's got the means and motive to crisp the universe. Instead he starts helping dive bar owners, picking fights with dead things, and generally being a reluctant, but stand-up-guy, kind of monster.

I won't go plot of the 2nd or 3rd books. I'll just suggest that if you've found my taste to be like your own on Good reads; pick up a copy of the first book, 'Sandman Slim' by Richard Kadrey. If you like that one, you'll find that number 2 in the series, Kill the dead, is more good stuff, and it's looking like number 3 is right there with them.

Have fun! ( )

So much better than book 2. I was about to give up on this series. Now I can't wait to see what book 4 has in store for us. ( )

As always the story inevitably succumbs to the typical clichée issues as all series seem to do eventually.
Something that distinguished this series from most others was that the contrary MC kept his contrariness at least somewhat believable. If he said no to a thing that usually actually meant no. MCs like that are very hard to write because it's very tricky to get your main character to follow the plot if he just doesn't respond to or blocks the incitive incidents.
The author has apparently given up on this from this book onwards. There already were a few somewhat minor cases of unbelievable character decisions that contradicted previous convictions but especially at the end of this book as well as the very beginning of book 3.5 the author completely gave up trying to make any sense at all in this aspect.
The author wants the plot to go a certain way even though it's completely against the MC's nature and this inevitably erodes character consistency and believability.

Many aspects that were a bit corny but very entertaining in moderation went more and more overboard the further I got in the series. This book totally went over the top with the dry and shallow humor as well as the badass factor among other stuff. It's just too much of a good thing. ( )

This series is getting a bit tiresome, and I'm losing track of not only the characters but also the landscape. Still keeps moving along, but where? ( )

I appreciate Kadrey's wit and imagination, but this one just droned on for too long, especially once Stark was in hell. How many busted roads and burning palm trees really need repeated mentions, after all? ( )