Kari C. reviewed on 1/26/2011 + 77 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 4

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Review: This book follows James Stark, who has just returned to Earth after being sent to Hell. He had fought in the arena in Hell, and served as a general assasain for his owner. When his old girlfriend is killed by the same group that sent him to Hell, he manages to escape so that he can hunt down and kill them. On his quest to find them he causes all sorts of havoc, makes new friends, new enemies and old friends into enemies. Oh, and has the opportunity to save the world.

Overall the story is good. I like all the various members of the magical world that we meant. Revelations about Stark's past are interesting.

However, while the story is interesting, Stark is very off putting. He doesn't care about anything except killing the group that sent him to Hell and killed his girlfriend, which results in lots of arguments with friends, potential allies, enemies and just about anything else he could get into an argument with. He has major impulse control problems - whenever he finds himself near one of the group that he's hunting he just goes straight for them with no thought or planning, something that gets very tiring after a while. If the obnoxiousness of Stark's impulse and anger issues could have been scaled back a bit he would have been a bit more likable and the book as a whole would have been more enjoyable.

Also, I just don't get the Sandman Slim thing - it's brought up about 3/4 of the way through the book like it was something he was calling himself, when he'd never heard it before. After that he doesn't hesitate to call himself that anytime he needs to threaten anyone. However, it didn't feel natural or even really feel like it was a name that belonged to him.

Overall, a good story with a grating main character. I'll read the second book and see if he mellows out a bit.

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