“Grim Leaper” (Image)

Writer: Kurtis J. Wiebe | Artist: Aluisio C. Santos

In death, he finally found something to live for. Lou Collins is caught in a cyclical curse of violent, gruesome deaths and new beginnings in the bodies of strangers. With no clue why, Lou desperately searches for a way to break the curse and cross over peacefully to the other side. Then equally doomed Ella comes along. It’s a love story to die for.

This is a really weird comic… It’s a little tricky to review, too. For one thing, it’s not very long, so I’ll keep this review short in order to avoid telling you everything about it. It’s worth a look, though, if you have a short window of free time and you’d like to read something a little twisted, and quite original.

“Sandman Slim” by Richard Kadrey (Voyager)

Urban Fantasy the way it was always meant to be…

Life sucks and then you die. Or, if you’re James Stark, you spend eleven years in Hell as a hitman before finally escaping, only to land back in the hell-on-earth that is Los Angeles.

Now Stark’s back, and ready for revenge. And absolution, and maybe even love. But when his first stop saddles him with an abusive talking head, Stark discovers that the road to absolution and revenge is much longer than you’d expect, and both Heaven and Hell have their own ideas for his future.

Resurrection sucks. Saving the world is worse.

This is the first in Kadrey’s Sandman Slim series, and it’s taken me long enough to get to it. But I’m very glad that I have: it’s awesome. Brutal and grim, this is a very different UF novel, that shies away from the current trajectory of the genre while embracing some of its best tropes. I really enjoyed reading this novel.