Sandman Slim
#3364.06 in the official ranking · full ranking
Books 12 books Status Complete 2009–2021 Reading commitment High Richard Kadrey Last reviewed 2026-10-13
Overview
Sandman Slim follows James Stark, a magician who claws his way out of an eleven-year exile in Hell, where he was sent, and left to survive as a gladiator, by the magical circle that murdered his girlfriend, and returns to a Los Angeles crawling with angels, demons, and old grudges. Across twelve novels published between 2009 and 2021, he works as a supernatural fixer and reluctant monster-hunter, repeatedly dragged into schemes involving Heaven, Hell, and every corrupt power in between, in a noir-inflected voice that treats the apocalypse as just another Los Angeles Tuesday. Richard Kadrey's hard-boiled first-person narration and blend of urban fantasy with crime-novel structure have made the series a touchstone of the genre, and it has been optioned for television adaptation more than once without a series yet reaching production.
Urban fantasy, Dark fantasy · For Adult
Core Canon: Reading Order (12 works) counts toward ranking
Sandman Slim Richard Kadrey
| Work | Year | Internal chron. | Canon | Rating | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Sandman Slim | 2009 | 1 | core | 3.95 (37,674 ratings) |
 | Kill the Dead | 2010 | 2 | core | 4.08 (21,409 ratings) |
 | Aloha from Hell | 2011 | 3 | core | 4.03 (17,526 ratings) |
 | Devil Said Bang | 2012 | 4 | core | 4.05 (13,183 ratings) |
 | Kill City Blues | 2013 | 5 | core | 4.13 (10,468 ratings) |
 | The Getaway God | 2014 | 6 | core | 4.19 (8,035 ratings) |
 | Killing Pretty | 2015 | 7 | core | 4.12 (6,484 ratings) |
 | The Perdition Score | 2016 | 8 | core | 4.17 (5,117 ratings) |
 | The Kill Society | 2017 | 9 | core | 4.20 (4,360 ratings) |
 | Hollywood Dead | 2018 | 10 | core | 4.30 (3,740 ratings) |
 | Ballistic Kiss | 2020 | 11 | core | 4.13 (2,964 ratings) |
 | King Bullet | 2021 | 12 | core | 4.15 (2,577 ratings) |
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.
Quick answers
- How many books are in Sandman Slim? Sandman Slim's Core Canon is 12 books.
- What is the reading order for Sandman Slim? Publication order, starting with Sandman Slim. Full list and years in the Core Canon table above.
- Is Sandman Slim finished? Complete (2009–2021).
- How much reading does Sandman Slim take? High reading commitment (estimated from 12 Core Canon books).
- How is Sandman Slim ranked? #336 in this site's official ranking, based on 133,537 reader ratings across 12 Core Canon books. See the full ranking for how this is calculated.
Why is it ranked #336?
Ranked #336 in the official ranking.
- Average reader rating of 4.06 across 12 core books.
- Backed by 134k reader ratings.
- Less than 0.01 behind #335, His Dark Materials (a finer tie-break level decides the order).
- Below the top-10 average of 4.46.
Why explore this universe?
Well rated · 12 books · Complete · 134k ratings · Ranks #336 overall
Good choice if you want a long-running urban fantasy universe that's already finished, so there's no wait for the next book.
Reading order
Publication order (12 Core Canon books)
- Sandman Slim (2009)
- Kill the Dead (2010)
- Aloha from Hell (2011)
- Devil Said Bang (2012)
- Kill City Blues (2013)
- The Getaway God (2014)
- Killing Pretty (2015)
- The Perdition Score (2016)
- The Kill Society (2017)
- Hollywood Dead (2018)
- Ballistic Kiss (2020)
- King Bullet (2021)
Documented internal/story chronology is recorded for every Core Canon book here, and matches publication order exactly, with no divergence to show separately.
Awards (verified)
- No awards found for this universe.
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Suggestions computed from what Sandman Slim and each of these worlds have in common on record (subgenre, audience, shape, reading commitment and score), not a documented narrative connection.
- The Iron Druid Chronicles Urban fantasy / Comic fantasy · Complete · High commitment · 4.21
- October Daye Urban fantasy · Ongoing · High commitment · 4.20
- Chronicles of Elantra Urban fantasy / Epic fantasy · Ongoing · High commitment · 4.17
- Alex Verus Urban fantasy · Complete · High commitment · 4.17
Official resources
Research details
Ranking metrics: weighted average 4.06 across 133,537 ratings on 12 Core Canon books. See Why is it ranked here? above for the full breakdown, or the full ranking.
How do we know this?
Admission: Canon extension: Sandman Slim (Richard Kadrey) accepted 2026-09-13
Sources: (see source tier definitions)
- Wikipedia: Sandman Slim Tier 2
- Fantastic Fiction: Sandman Slim Tier 3
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Kadrey
Last reviewed: 2026-09-13
Rule: Core Canon = the twelve main-sequence novels (2009-2021), a complete, closed series. “Devil in the Dollhouse” (2012), a novella slotting between the third and fourth novels, is classified Expanded.