Sandman Slim, various mid books
3.0 Stars
11-10-2023

*Extraordinarily* silly but also decently fun audio books. Sort of like Supernatural if it started off really dark and munchkinish, and then gradually relaxed and de-powered its characters. The series takes a very Lincoln-in-Bardo approach to the afterlife, with the whole cycle of injury->death->ghost->limbo->Hell/Heaven->Tartarus all being carried out by very specific people, entities, and processes. These processes then get messed with to a surprising degree through the series, which is again quite silly, but also apt, since if you're going to give the characters in your urban fantasy these theological levers you can't complain when they actually use them. By the end of book ~6 or so the after-life has been mostly rewritten, things calm down, and rather than facing off against Satan/God/Cthulhu the main characters are more worried about a Wolfram-and-Hart type investment firm. This might be the first time that I've seen an author actually take my advice and go from writing stories where the characters face a steadily escalating series of threats, and level it off to just tell more minor stories at a more constant and low-key level of threat. Now that I've received what I've been asking for, I'm not sure I actually want it? The books go into a bit of a doldrums as this de-powering happens, which the series may or may not pull out of.

Also of note, despite the main character being an absurd macho-cliche with the volume knob set to 11, the author of the book is just a normal progressive, and the author has been gradually chilling out the MC, having him learn to relate to others in a more well-adjusted fashion & pick up yoga and other healthier habits as the series goes on. The tears from the conservative fraction of his readership have been hilarious and are another positive quality of the series.