King Bullet is the 12th and self-professed final book in the Sandman Slim UF series by Richard Kadrey. Released 17 Aug 2021 by Harper Voyager, it's 303 pages and is available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats. Paperback due out summer 2022. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately.
This is a full-bore double barrel action filled explosion of gore and violence from start to finish. It's quite possibly even more over the top than the previous books in the series. LA is in ruins, the law enforcement and municipal infrastructure are stretched so thin (or just non-existent) that they've given up even the pretense of control. There's a semi-zombie/psycho pandemic ravaging the population and Stark's the only guy who's still trying to save his friends.
As the other books, it's a character driven ensemble narrative with Stark at the wedge point of the phalanx with his misfit, dead, dying, weird, human and non-human friends and cohorts ranged behind him, trying to save a world which emphatically doesn't want to be saved from its own doom. Fans of the series will already be familiar with the level of language and graphic content; readers who haven't read any of the previous books will need to be aware of the extreme non-stop gore and violence. I sometimes play a mental game with myself and keep a body count as I'm reading and in this instance, I gave up a couple chapters into the read.
Although it's undoubtedly possible to read this one as a standalone, that would be a recipe for frustration, since the cast of characters is so large and has so much interconnected back history. I would strongly recommend reading at least the first book before tackling this one for readers who aren't familiar with Stark and his back-story.
The author and publisher have provided disclaimer warnings about self-harm, suicide, and PTSD. I would add to the above list: sexual and physical violence, extreme body horror, and societal collapse (and all that entails). I am assuming that most readers will know (hopefully only in the abstract) what autophagia means, but if not just remember that from the Greek auto = self and phagia = eat/consume. (Probably best not to look it up online).
Four stars. I did feel like this was a more formulaic effort than the previous few books, but the author is adept enough and experienced enough and just plain talented enough, that this is an eminently readable, cinematic conclusion (?) to the series. This is not for readers who object to graphic violence in their UF/noir books. Fans of A.D. 2000, Judge Dredd (NOT the movies), etc, will find much that is blackly humorous and enjoyable. Just read the first couple books in the series to get the dramatis personae fixed for context before tackling this one.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
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