Richard Kadrey's Sandman Slim starts out as if it's going to be a Count of Monte Cristo take-off. Our hero has escaped from Hell, where he was unjustly imprisoned for 11 years, to seek vengeance on the circle of mages who trapped him there. But Kadrey switches gears several times, and the result was a novel that surprised me a few times, even if it never rises above total pulp.
I expected to like St Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves very much, since the short stories are very much in the vein of Kelly Link's -- fantasy stories which leave you wondering what happened, and seem to stop before the actual end of the story. Instead, these stories showed me how much art is in Link's choice of where to stop -- they often feel like they're stopping at an arbitrary place, but feel complete anyway. Karen Russell, on the other hand, often seems to just peter out, like the story just ran out of gas. This isn't so true of the last three stories, and the last one in particular feels absolutely complete, so if the stories are in chronological order of writing, I guess it's something she worked on.
Other than the endings, the stories are great. Moody, beautiful writing, well-realized characters in a very short space, everything you could ask for. If only she had better endings...
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