The Perdition Score
core novel 2016 Sandman Slim
Record
| First published | 2016 |
|---|---|
| Original language |  EN |
| Work type | novel |
| Canon status | core |
| Reader rating | 4.17 (5,117 ratings, collected 2026-09-13) |
| First-edition ISBN | 9780062373267 |
| Internal chronology | 8 |
Synopsis
In the eighth novel, Sandman Slim is assigned by a council leader to look into that leader's rivals at Wormwood Investments, a task that starts as routine surveillance and quickly turns into something far more dangerous. When a dying angel passes Stark a strange, potent substance shortly before his alchemist friend is poisoned with the same material, Stark is forced to travel back into Hell in search of a cure, this time accompanied by his girlfriend and one of his own ancestors rather than facing the underworld alone. The trip forces him to reckon with both the political machinations of Wormwood and the deeper, older dangers of Hell itself, as the substance behind the poisoning turns out to be tied to schemes larger than a simple corporate rivalry.
Where it sits
- Universe: Sandman Slim
- Series: Sandman Slim core; position 8 of 12 in the series' recorded order
- Author: Richard Kadrey
Notes
- From the series record (Sandman Slim): Complete 12-novel urban-fantasy sequence (2009-2021) following James Stark, a magician who escaped an eleven-year exile in Hell to hunt down the people who murdered his girlfriend and sent him there, working cases across a supernatural Los Angeles. "Devil in the Dollhouse" (2012), a novella slotting between books 3 and 4, is kept out of Core as companion material, not one of the twelve main-sequence novels.
Neighbouring works
Publication order and internal chronology are tracked as two separate orderings, but they resolve to the exact same sequence for this book, so one combined line is shown instead of two identical ones.
- Reading order, within the series Sandman Slim: position 8 of 12: previous Killing Pretty (2015) · next The Kill Society (2017)
Sources
- Wikipedia: Sandman Slim
- Fantastic Fiction: Sandman Slim
- https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-06-237326-7
- Des Moines Public Library catalogue (Harper Voyager first edition)
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