Shovel Ready by Adam Sternbergh

I mistakenly read the Spaceman books out of order, starting with Near Enemy first, for some ridiculous reason. But as soon as I cracked this opened I realized that although the series shares common themes and characters they're in fact suitable as stand-alone stories. In the 1st Spademan book we learn who David Spademan is, or rather used to be and who he has now become. Reduced to taking on the ever popular but slightly challenging role as hit-man. A used-to-be bed hopper, since recovered, he spent all of his time and money tapping into the limnosphere. The next big thing. Where most people live out twisted fantasies, Spademan chose to just float in a vast, black void. Emptying his mind and life all all the noise and strife. Oh, how envious I am of that.

The story felted very balanced, and evenly paced. I especially enjoyed how Sternbergh chose to type his lines and dialogue.

Very quick.
Very short.
Packing a huge punch to the face.

Shovel Ready gives us a detailed account of how the world was before and after the Dirty Bomb dropped. How New York changed into a giant dirty dread-head hippy commune. And those with money did exactly what I would assume they'd do should anything like this ever really happen. They ran away and hide themselves from the world instead of offering their support to rebuild.

Another great aspect is how deeply religious this story gets, about halfway through the book. Considering an Evangelist hired him to do a job that caused Spademan to experience a moral dilemma and reflect most of his recent life choices, I thought it spoke truthfully about how much blind faith the masses put into figureheads of religion instead of just following their own feelings. Preachers are dangerous creatures.

Anyway, Spademan kicks lots of ass, get his handed to him a few times and eventually gets the job done. Done as in he can walk away from the job satisfied, however hilariously off track he was with his initial target. This is turning out to be a pretty great series. I hope Sternbergh puts out more Spademan novels in the future.

I am without a doubt giving this debut novel a 5 out of 5.

For more information of Shovel Ready or David Sternbergh please visit his Goodreads page.