3. The Sandman Slim Series By Richard Kadrey
starburstmagazine.comIf William Gibson, godfather of the modern genre novel, thinks your series is good (see the quote in the image) then it has to have some merit. The Sandman Slim series follows the story of James Stark, a slightly arrogant young mage who has natural amounts of great power, who messes around with magic he shouldn't and is betrayed by his mage pals, who then send him to Hell. He fights down there as a gladiator for 11 years before he escapes to get revenge on the people that put him down there and killed his girlfriend after he was gone. Stark isn't your typical protagonist. All his motivations are pretty selfish which he himself admits, it just so happens that they fall in line with saving the world most of the time. His nightmare version of L.A. is a fantastic locale for a TV series, sort of L.A. Confidential meets Devil May Cry. We'd have have Supernatural star Jensen Ackles as Stark, the character being Dean Winchester with the volume turned up to eleven. If the scuzzy, pulpy feel of the books were translated to the screen, you'd have a hit on your hands.