SABBATH by Nick Mamatas – Review

I received this book for free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

SABBATH by Nick Mamatas – ReviewSabbath by Nick Mamatas
Published by Tor Books on November 19 2019
Genres: Adult, Fantasy
Pages: 304
Format: Finished hardcover
Source: Publisher
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four-stars

The nitty-gritty: Sinners rejoice! Mamatas’ latest is a big, brash, bawdy tale of sin, violence and laugh-out-loud humor, complete with time travel, swords, angels and art galleries. 

“I thought Jewish people didn’t believe in the afterlife,” said Jennifer.

“I thought Russian Orthodox girls didn’t believe in fucking strangers, or experimenting with lesbianism and then breaking girls’ hearts six months ago,” said Miriam.

Nick Mamatas seems to be one of those writers who never writes the same thing twice. Having now read three of his books, I can safely say that Sabbath is completely different from anything else of his I’ve read. I had a bunch of fun with this book, and if you don’t mind raunchy humor, blood and guts—and heads—flying through the air, sex, drugs and a bit of philosophizing, then I guarantee you will too.

Hexen Sabbath is an eleventh century warrior who dies in battle, but is miraculously brought back to life and transported to current day Manhattan by an angel named Albathar. Albathar tell him that the world will end in seven days, unless Sabbath can find and kill the human personifications of the seven deadly sins, who are currently walking around Manhattan and getting ready for the big event. Sabbath is completely out of his element, having been whisked a thousand years into the future, but Albathar has given him instant Wikipedia-like knowledge of the present day so he can understand what’s going on around him. He’s also imprinted a magical tattoo on Sabbath’s arm that shows a map of the city, a countdown clock, and seven dots of light that represent the seven sins. 

Armed only with his trusty sword and a whole bunch of muscles, Sabbath begins to follow the lights on his arm and hunt down the sins. Reluctantly joining him on his quest is a young art gallery owner named Jennifer and her friend Miriam, who stumble into Sabbath’s orbit almost by accident. Time is ticking, and the end of the week is rapidly approaching. Can Sabbath save the world in time, or will the temptations of modern day sins be too much for him?

The plot of Sabbath is pretty straight forward, and you know what you’re getting into when you dive in. Sabbath has only seven days to kill each of the deadly sins—Sloth, Lust, Wrath, Envy, Greed, Gluttony and Pride—and I loved the way Mamatas gave unique characteristics to each one. Sloth is an office worker, Wrath is a cage match fighter, and Gluttony runs a Franco Russian fusion restaurant, for example. Then there’s Pride, who turned out to be a very well done and only lightly camouflaged version of a certain U.S. President. It was great fun to watch Sabbath try to kill them, especially when the sins are trying their best to talk or fight their way out of being killed. Sabbath’s task includes lopping off their heads and bringing them back to Albathar, and the heads themselves end up being part of the action in some very funny ways. There’s also a reference to the movie 8 Heads in a Duffel Bag, a cheeky nod from the author that made me laugh out loud.

And speaking of laughing out loud, this book was funny. I knew going in that it was going to have lots of sex and graphic violence, but I had no idea I would love the wry and sarcastic tone of the story so much. Mamatas’ humor is both subtle and in-your-face, and this combination really worked well for me. The author skewers all sorts of trendy topics, including art, politics, social media and more, and he smartly uses the seven sins to do a lot of his dirty work for him.

Sabbath turned out to be a surprisingly sympathetic character. The irony of the set-up is that Sabbath himself has sinned in every way possible, and now he must defeat all the sins in order to save the world. Sabbath has also been told by a witch that he is destined to die on a Sunday—hence, his name, I’m assuming—which allows him to live dangerously on all the other days of the week. This was a running gag throughout the story that allowed him to survive some nasty attacks, and honestly it shouldn’t have worked as well as it did. And yet. I also loved the way past and present collide in this story. Sabbath knows nothing of the modern world—except for the knowledge bestowed on him by Albathar—and it was pretty entertaining to watch him come up against club hoppers and politicians. He seems to take everything in stride, though, and never wavers from his belief that he will be saved at the end of his ordeal. I also really liked Jennifer’s character, although the book is fairly short and I feel like Mamatas just barely scratched the surface with her character development. Although her first few scenes didn’t impress me—she literally jumps into bed with Sabbath as soon as she meets him—she redeems herself with some surprising depth and strength of character later in the story.

The final showdown was bat-shit crazy but in a good way. Things come to a head (sorry, I’ve been waiting to use that pun since I started writing this review!) in big and surprising ways. The violence and action are over-the-top, but I didn’t expect anything less. Is “farcical violence” a thing in fiction? If not, it should be, because Mamatas wrote one of the funniest violent action scenes I’ve ever read. The ending dips into philosophical musings and took a turn I wasn’t expecting, but nevertheless, I thought it worked perfectly.

And through all of this, Nick Mamatas’ writing simply shines. This book is tightly written, and his prose is a joy to read. This is definitely my favorite of his books so far, and I look forward to seeing what he’ll do next.

Big thanks to the publisher for supplying a review copy.

Posted November 25, 2019 by Tammy in 4 stars, Reviews / 27 Comments

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27 responses to “SABBATH by Nick Mamatas – Review”

  2. Laurie Harris

    Damn, you come up with the BEST books to review! You’re definitely dangerous for my TBR pile, lol

    Reply
  4. sjhigbee

    Thank you for a storming review, Tammy. You find the quirkiest books and this one sounds like a glorious mash-up – it doesn’t hurt that a chunk of that mash-up is humour, as these days I think we need to take our laughs where we can find them!

    Reply
  5. Sarah

    This looks like a lot of fun! I’m not sure I’m in the mood for it right now- but I think I’ll add it for the future when I am i the mood (because I will be someday- when I’ve read 3 too many deep thinking dense philosophical and serious books). lol

    Reply
    • Tammy

      It’s definitely one of those “mood” books. You have to be in the mood for raunchy humor for sure!

      Reply
    • Tammy

      Sorry about that! For some reason my spam filter picked up your comment. Not sure why, I need to keep a better eye on it:-)

      Reply
  12. Barb @ Booker T's Farm

    You’ve sealed the deal. I just purchased this for my Kindle. Now I can’t wait! I’ll have to admit that it was hard not to get a physical copy because that’s one of my favorite covers of the year.

    Reply

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