Richard Kadrey has 14 audiobooks on Listento.it, narrated by 3 narrators, with an average listener rating of 4.6★ across 172 ratings. The most-rated is Sandman Slim.
Sandman Slim
Summary
When he was 19, James Stark was considered to be one of the greatest natural magicians, a reputation that got him demon-snatched and sent downtown - to Hell - where he survived as a gladiator, a sideshow freak entertaining Satan's fallen angels. That was 11 years ago. Now, the hitman who goes only by Stark has escaped and is back in L.A. Armed with a fortune-telling coin, a black bone knife, and an infernal key, Stark is determined to destroy the magic circle - led by the conniving and powerful Mason Faim - that stole his life. Though nearly everything has changed, one constant remains: his friend Vidocq, a 200-year-old Frenchman who has been keeping vigil for the young magician's return. But when Stark's first stop saddles him with an abusive talking head that belongs to the first of the circle, a sleazy video store owner named Kasabian, Stark discovers that the road to absolution and revenge is much longer than he counted on, and both Heaven and Hell have their own ideas for his future.
©2009 Richard Kadrey (P)2009 Brilliance Audio, Inc.
Hollywood Dead: A Sandman Slim Novel
Summary
Life and death takes on an entirely new meaning for half-angel, half-human hero James Stark, aka Sandman Slim, in this insanely inventive, high-intensity 10th supernatural noir thriller in the New York Times best-selling series. James Stark is back from Hell, trailing more trouble in his wake. To return to LA, he had to make a deal with the evil power brokers, Wormwood - an arrangement that came with a catch. While he may be home, Stark isn’t quite himself...because he’s only partially alive. There’s a time limit on his reanimated body, and unless Stark can find the people targeting Wormwood, he will die again - and this time there will be no coming back. Even though he’s armed with the Room of 13 Doors, Stark knows he can’t find Wormwood’s enemies alone. To succeed, he’s got to enlist the help of new friends - plus a few unexpected old faces. Stark has been in dangerous situations before - you don’t get named Sandman Slim for nothing. But with a mysterious enemy on the loose, a debt to pay, and a clock ticking down, this may truly be the beginning of his end....
©2018 Richard Kadrey (P)2018 HarperCollins Publishers
Ballistic Kiss
Summary
"I loved where Kadrey started with this series, but I love where he's going even more." (New York Times best-selling author Cory Doctorow) Sandman Slim is back in Los Angeles and kicking more supernatural ass in this inventive, high-octane pause-resister - the next to last volume in the popular and acclaimed fantasy adventure series from New York Times best-selling author Richard Kadrey. As the battle between warring angels continues, James Stark is focused on seemingly simpler matters now that he’s resurfaced on earth: an invasion of ghosts. LA’s Little Cairo neighborhood has suddenly been overrun by violent spirits, and Thomas Abbott knows if anyone can figure out why they’ve appeared - and how to get rid of them - it’s Stark. Armed with the Room of Thirteen Doors, Stark quickly learns that the answer may reach back to the 1970s and the unsolved murder of small-time actor, Chris Stein. As he begins to dig into the cold case, another area of Stark’s life takes an unexpected turn when he becomes entangled with Janet, a woman he saved during the High Plains Drifter zombie attack. Janet’s brush with the living dead hasn’t quenched her thirst for danger. She’s an adrenaline junkie and a member of The Zero Lodge - a club that promises “there’s zero chance you’ll get out alive”. The Lodge attracts thrill seekers who flock to perilous events such as night walks through the LA Zoo - with its deadliest animals uncaged. Joining the lodge to be with Janet, Stark makes a pair of crucial discoveries that could decide the fate of LA and Heaven itself. To prevent the Little Cairo haunting from consuming the city, Stark must piece together the connections between the Lodge and a missing angel last seen in a Hollywood porn palace. But while he may dispatch the ghosts, Stark knows that without his help, the bloody war in Heaven could rage forever.
©2020 Richard Kadrey (P)2020 HarperCollins Publishers
Kill the Dead
Summary
James Stark, a.k.a. Sandman Slim, crawled out of Hell, took bloody revenge for his girlfriend’s murder, and saved the world along the way. After that, what do you do for an encore? You take a lousy job tracking down monsters for money. It’s a depressing gig, but it pays for your beer and cigarettes. But in L.A., things can always get worse. Like when Lucifer comes to town to supervise his movie biography and drafts Stark as his bodyguard. Sandman Slim has to swim with the human and inhuman sharks of L.A.’s underground power elite. That’s before the murders start. And before he runs into the Czech porn star who isn’t quite what she seems. Even before all those murdered people start coming back from the dead and join a zombie army that will change our world and Stark’s forever. Death bites. Life is worse. All things considered, Hell’s not looking so bad.
©2010 Richard Kadrey (P)2010 Brilliance Audio, Inc.
Aloha from Hell
Summary
In Sandman Slim Stark came back from hell for revenge. In Kill the Dead he tackled both a zombie plague and being Lucifer’s bodyguard. Once again all is not right in L.A. Lucifer is back in Heaven, God is on vacation, and an insane killer mounts a war against both Heaven and Hell. Stark’s got to head back down to his old stomping grounds in Hell to rescue his long lost love, stop an insane serial killer, prevent both Good and Evil from completely destroying each other, and stop the demonic Kissi from ruining the party for everyone. Even for Sandman Slim, that’s a tall order. And it’s only the beginning.
©2011 Richard Kadrey (P)2011 Brilliance Audio, Inc.
The Perdition Score
Summary
Sandman Slim returns in a stunning, high-octane thriller filled with the intense kick-ass action and inventive fantasy that are the hallmarks of New York Times best-selling author Richard Kadrey. The request from Thomas Abbot, the Augur of the Sub Rosa council, couldn't come at a better time for James Stark, aka Sandman Slim. For a man who's most recently met Death - and Death's killer - a few months of normal life is more than he can handle. He needs a little action, and now Abbott wants Stark and Candy to investigate the disappearance of a young boy - and help uncover council members who might be tied to Wormwood's power brokers. Stark's plans change when he meets a dying angel who gives him a vial of a mysterious black liquid that could be a secret weapon in the ongoing war between angels who want to allow human souls into heaven and rebel angels willing to die to keep them out. When one of Stark's closest friends is poisoned with the black liquid, Stark and Candy have to go to the only place where they might find a cure: hell. But standing in their way are the damned souls who, even after death, still work for Wormwood. The secret deal they've struck with the rebel angels is darker than anything Stark has encountered. The fate of not only the world hangs in the balance but also the souls of everyone in it. Stark has to find a way to break the stalemate in the angel war, score the Perdition cure for the black poison, and make it back to LA in one piece - where an old enemy waits to finish him once and for all.
©2016 Richard Kadrey (P)2016 HarperCollins Publishers
The Kill Society
Summary
Sandman Slim returns in this stunning, high-octane ninth thriller in the series, filled with the intense, kick-ass action and inventive fantasy that are the hallmarks of New York Times best-selling author Richard Kadrey. Sandman Slim has been to Heaven and Hell and many places in between, but now he finds himself in an unknown land: the far, far edge of the Tenebrae, the desolate home of the lost dead. Making his way inland with nothing but his unerring instinct for trouble to guide him, he collides with a caravan of the damned on a mysterious crusade, led by the ruthless Magistrate. Alone and with no clue how to get back home, he throws in with this brutal bunch made up of human souls, Hellion deserters, rogue angels - and Father Traven. Slim didn't land in Tenebrae by chance. His little stunt of trying to open Heaven has set off a tsunami across the universe. Now the afterlife is falling apart because of the ensuing warfare. And when Heaven finds out Slim is close by, the angels put a fat bounty on his head. It's one thing to ride with a ferocious criminal pack across the treacherous plains - it's another to do it when everyone in the land of the dead is itching to keep you there permanently. But Slim's not too worried. He's been fighting cosmic forces bent on destroying Heaven, Hell, Earth, and him for years. A pack of vicious bounty hunters, vengeful angels, and dangerous enemies with friendly smiles isn't going to stop him fixing the chaos he's caused...one way or another.
©2017 Richard Kadrey (P)2017 HarperCollins Publishers
Killing Pretty
Summary
Sandman Slim investigates Death's death in this hip, propulsive urban fantasy through a phantasmagoric LA rife with murder, mayhem, and magic. James Stark has met his share of demons and angels, on Earth and beyond. Now he's come face to face with the one entity few care to meet: Death. Someone has tried to kill Death - ripping the heart right out of him - or rather the body he's inhabiting. Death needs Sandman Slim's help: He believes anyone who can beat Lucifer and the old gods at their own game is the only one who can solve his murder. Stark follows a sordid trail deep into LA's subterranean world, from vampire-infested nightclubs to talent agencies specializing in mad ghosts, from Weimar Republic mystical societies to sleazy supernatural underground fight and sex clubs. Along the way he meets a mysterious girl - distinguished by a pair of graveyard eyes - as badass as Slim: She happens to be the only person who ever outwitted Death. But escaping her demise has had dire consequences for the rest of the world... and a few others. For years Slim has been fighting cosmic forces bent on destroying heaven, hell, and Earth. This time the battle is right here on the gritty streets of the City of Angels, where a very clever, very ballsy killer lies in wait.
©2015 Richard Kadrey (P)2015 HarperCollins Publishers
Kill City Blues
Summary
Audie Award Finalist, Fantasy, 2014 Another day, another apocalypse.... James Stark, aka Sandman Slim, has managed to get out of Hell, renounce his title as the new Lucifer, and settle back into life in L.A. But he also lost the Qomrama Om Ya, an all-powerful weapon from the banished older gods. Older gods who are returning and searching for their lost power. The hunt leads Stark to an abandoned shopping mall - a global shopping paradise infested with Lurkers and wretched bottom-feeding Sub Rosa families, squatters who have formed tight tribes to guard their tiny patches of retail wasteland. Somewhere in this kill zone is a dead man with the answers Stark needs. All Stark has to do is find the dead man, recover the artifact, and outwit and outrun the angry old gods - and natural-born killers - on his tail. But not even Sandman Slim is infallible, and any mistakes will cost him dearly.
©2013 Richard Kadrey (P)2013 HarperCollinsPublishers
The Getaway God
Summary
Sandman Slim must save himself - and the entire world - from the wrath of some enraged and vengeful ancient gods in this sixth high-octane adventure in the New York Times best-selling series. Being a half-human, half-angel nephilim with a bad rep and a worse attitude - not to mention temporarily playing Lucifer - James Stark, aka Sandman Slim, has made a few enemies. None, though, are as fearsome as the vindictive Angra Om Ya - the old gods. But their imminent invasion is only one of Stark’s problems right now. LA is descending into chaos, and a new evil - the Wildfire Ripper - is stalking the city. No ordinary killer, The Ripper takes Stark deep into a conspiracy that stretches from Earth to Heaven and Hell. He’s also the only person alive who may know how to keep the world from going extinct. The trouble is, he's also Stark's worst enemy - the only man in existence Stark would enjoy killing twice.
©2014 Richard Kadrey (P)2014 HarperCollins Publishers
Devil Said Bang
Summary
What do you do after you’ve escaped Hell, gone back, uncovered the true nature of God, and then managed to become the new Lucifer? Well, if you’re James Stark, you have to figure out how to run Hell while also trying to get back out of it... again. Plus there’s the small matter of surviving. Because everyone in Heaven, Hell, and in between wants to be the fastest gun in the universe, and the best way to do so is to take down Lucifer, a.k.a. James Stark. And it’s not like being in L.A. is any better — a serial-killer ghost is running wild and Stark’s angelic alter ego is hiding among the lost days of time with a secret cabal who can rewrite reality. Starting to care for people and life again is a real bitch for a stone-cold killer.
©2012 Richard Kadrey (P)2012 Brilliance Audio, Inc.
Devil in the Dollhouse
Summary
James Stark, a.k.a. Sandman Slim, has a new job, but being the new Lucifer in town gives fresh meaning to the word "Hell." Especially when he hears of hideous massacres near a haunted fortress out on Hell's frontier. As far as Stark's concerned, the more dead Hellions, the better, but he still has to prove that no one screws with Sandman Slim. And facing creatures so terrible even Hell does not want them is no cakewalk, even for Lucifer.
©2012 Richard Kadrey (P)2014 HarperCollins Publishers
The Grand Dark
Summary
“A stand-alone heavy hitter that’s more in line with recent deviants like Chuck Wendig’s upcoming Wanderers (2019) and Daniel H. Wilson’s The Clockwork Dynasty (2017). Tonally, this lush novel is closer to Scott Lynch’s pirate fantasy The Lies of Locke Lamora (2006), but technologically it resembles the near-future dystopias of Cory Doctorow or China Miéville [...] Wildly ambitious and inventive fantasy from an author who’s punching above his weight in terms of worldbuilding - and winning.” (Kirkus (starred review) From the best-selling author of the Sandman Slim series, a lush, dark, stand-alone fantasy built off the insurgent tradition of China Mieville and M. John Harrison - a subversive tale that immerses us in a world where the extremes of bleakness and beauty exist together in dangerous harmony in a city on the edge of civility and chaos. The Great War is over. The city of Lower Proszawa celebrates the peace with a decadence and carefree spirit as intense as the war’s horrifying despair. But this newfound hedonism - drugs and sex and endless parties - distracts from strange realities of everyday life: Intelligent automata taking jobs. Genetically engineered creatures that serve as pets and beasts of war. A theater where gruesome murders happen twice a day. And a new plague that even the ceaseless euphoria can’t mask. Unlike others who live strictly for fun, Largo is an addict with ambitions. A bike messenger who grew up in the slums, he knows the city’s streets and its secrets intimately. His life seems set. He has a beautiful girlfriend, drugs, a chance at a promotion - and maybe, an opportunity for complete transformation: a contact among the elite who will set him on the course to lift himself up out of the streets. But dreams can be a dangerous thing in a city whose mood is turning dark and inward. Others have a vision of life very different from Largo’s, and they will use any methods to secure control. And in behind it all, beyond the frivolity and chaos, the threat of new war always looms.
©2019 Richard Kadrey (P)2019 HarperAudio
Butcher Bird
Summary
Spyder Lee is a happy man who lives in San Francisco and owns a tattoo shop. One night an angry demon tries to bite his head off before he's saved by a stranger. The demon infected Spyder with something awful - the truth. He can suddenly see the world as it really is: full of angels and demons and monsters and monster-hunters. A world full of black magic and mysteries. These are the Dominions, parallel worlds full of wonder, beauty, and horror. The Black Clerks, infinitely old and infinitely powerful beings whose job it is to keep the Dominions in balance, seem to have new interests and a whole new agenda. Dropped into the middle of a conflict between the Black Clerks and other forces he doesn't fully understand, Spyder finds himself looking for a magic book with the blind swordswoman who saved him. Their journey will take them from deserts to lush palaces, to underground caverns, to the heart of Hell itself.
©2007 Richard Kadrey (P)2013 Audible, Inc.