Heroes Die

by Matthew Woodring Stover

Paperback, 1999

Status

Available

Call number

813

Publication

Del Rey (1999), Mass Market Paperback, 560 pages

Description

Fantasy. Fiction. Science Fiction. HTML:A man shouldn�t die with no understanding of why he�s been murdered Renowned throughout the land of Ankhana as the Blade of Tyshalle, Caine has killed his share of monarchs and commoners, villains and heroes. He is relentless, unstoppable, simply the best there is at what he does. At home on Earth, Caine is Hari Michaelson, a superstar whose adventures in Ankhana command an audience of billions. Yet he is shackled by a rigid caste society, bound to ignore the grim fact that he kills men on a far-off world for the entertainment of his own planet�and bound to keep his rage in check. But now Michaelson has crossed the line. His estranged wife, Pallas Rill, has mysteriously disappeared in the slums of Ankhana. To save her, he must confront the greatest challenge of his life: a lethal game of cat and mouse with the most treacherous rulers of two worlds . . .… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member slothman

What do you do when your physicists have figured out a way to access parallel universes, and they discover another Earth where the laws of physics permit magic and the usual collection of elves, dwarfs, ogres, and trolls abounds? Well, if you’re the dystopian future that Stover depicts, you train

a bunch of actors to blend into the culture, wire them up for telemetry, and send them in to stir up trouble to create bread-and-circuses entertainment for your downtrodden masses.

Our anti-hero, Hari Michaelson, is the Actor (in a world with a rigid caste system) who plays Caine Black Knife, the top assassin in the parallel Earth called Overworld. His estranged wife is in trouble: her telemetry signal has been lost, and she has only a limited amount of time to get back to Earth before the physics of parallel universe travel scramble her atoms. And she’s caught up in heavy-duty intrigue.

Stover has a real stay-up-late page turner here, with gritty violence and convoluted intermeshed betrayals as characters play each other off against others. The drama works at multiple levels, with Hari’s struggle to rescue his wife as well as their own battles against unjust societies in both universes.

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LibraryThing member bibliojim

This book was a blast! Total enjoyment. Don't think twice about buying or taking the time to read it. It is best bought as action literature, not serious literature, but the characters are very well-drawn and you really pull hard for the hero to win, i.e. not to die like the title says. I wish I

could find several books like this to read every year, but they just aren't that common! Judging from this book alone, this author should be far more widely read.

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LibraryThing member LauraLulu

Fast paced, gritty writing style and great fight scenes. But that was all it was. The characters were two dimensional and completely unsympathetic. I need character development and motivations as much--if not more--than gritty & action packed. I need to like the main character--he doesn't have to

be perfect, in fact, I prefer it if he's not. But I didn't give a rat's patootey about Hari/Caine--he was a self-absorbed dickhead.

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LibraryThing member JeremyPreacher

It was peculiar to read this after having read The Blade of Tyshalle, but long enough after that I couldn't remember all the details. It's an interesting book - the concept is great, the contrast between the third-person "real world" parts and the action-packed "actor" parts is remarkably

effective, and if the villains rely a bit much on puppy-kicking for their character development, it's at least in keeping with the gritty over-the-top nature of the world.

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LibraryThing member crazybatcow

The book has an interesting concept. The 'realities' are not really spelled out until quite a ways in, though, so you have to just go with the flow until, all of a sudden, the setting makes sense. Of course, the book doesn't present a "future" that could be possible - like some types of sci-fi

where you can see how technology could advance to the point that humankind could reach the described future - the fantasy component is too much for that, but as long as you can suspend disbelief, the story's setting/reality makes enough sense.

It is pretty violent and quite mature (language and actions, no sex though). It is kinda like a dark noir fantasy vigilante story. You might like this book if you like the kind of "human darkness" found in Joe Abercrombie's books: where men are very very bad, and nobody really calls them on their very bad behavior until the HERO steps in. My only problem with the book, actually, is that I think it went on a bit too long, and there was just a smidge too much political commentary on the state of the world (with the suggestion that the path it's following will result (socially) in where this book takes us). Maybe the moral in this story is "true", but I still prefer my butt-kicking to come without lectures.

It has a tone very similar to Richard Morgan's Altered Carbon series - and a kinda similar setting... but Morgan's is less "fantasy" based and quite a bit more sexually graphic. I'm going to read the rest of the series.

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LibraryThing member NineLarks

What a refreshing story to read. It reads a little bit similar to Glen Cook's Black Company or Lynch's Lies of Locke Lamora because of the bloody descriptions of battle, intricate plot lines and very detailed first person perspective.

Hari Michaelson is an Actor who lives in a vaguely dystopian

world where there's a caste system. As an Actor, he becomes Caine in the Overworld - a bare-fist fighter that goes on real adventures for others to experience. Overworld is a separate world where elves, ogres, and magic exist. He is conscripted to kill a veritable god in the Overworld, all for the sole purpose of saving his wife. Expect betrayal, deadly plots, and strange feats of magic.

Now. I absolutely loved reading through this book. It has everything that i hope for: great character development and understanding of what the author is attempting to portray and doing it well. There is character growth, there is great dialogue for the characters, there is brilliant side characters as well as protagonists. Specifically, Caine is great as a protagonist because he is a hero who doesn't shy away from getting his hands dirty, all for the sake of his greater purpose (saving Shanna). It's rather akin to Harry Dresden from the Dresden Files. Balls enough to face a god and give a snappy retort, pure motives, willingness to cut a few people open for that pure motive, and just a whirlwind of action that follows his movements. Fantastic.

And oh man, the romance. Usually I hate romance because authors can't seem to get it right - either too lovey-dovey in an action book, or unnatural, too cliche, annoying interactions that don't fit the characterization, and other reasons. But Stover hits the nail with their interaction. Burning embers from Caine and a bit of fire from Shanna. Never boring, always interesting, and never sacrificing the story or the plot for romance. Instead, because Caine makes love his purpose, it opens the book up to let Caine beat up dukes and guards for the sake of advancing the romance plot as well. Quite adept of the author.

Perhaps my only mild regret would be for the antagonist. That was the only unbelievable part of the story - when Caine pulls a fast one over a god in a few paragraphs. Not likely. Not to mention, I wish there was a little more backstory to this god. it would have given a bit more clarity to the story. So in the end, the change in Caine was a little too abrupt for me to believe - from being a fighter to a logical planner and thinker. I wish there was more time to develop that transition, but I get it... it's an action novel. Not likely.

I love the world. I have never seen anything similar to this in any books I've read - or taken to this level. Just figuring out how the world works (both worlds!) was entertaining and kept me interested. Stover didn't waste any time boring the reader with background and extensive details. He just plops you straight into action and expect you to read the context clues. That's the best kind of writing, and he did it well because there was enough context to figure it all out. Major props.

I do have to say, there weren't that many twists. But the action was fast paced enough for me to enjoy every bit of the ride.

Four stars (so, so close to four and half stars, but I just can't give books that don't make me really think new thoughts higher than four stars. I enjoyed the book thoroughly, but I'm not left with anything to chew on.) Recommended for anybody who loves action-packed science fiction. If you've read the Dresden Files, Lies of Locke Lamora, The Black Company, or thing similar to these books, you'll definitely love this one.

note: don't expect an anti-hero in this novel, despite how it first may sound.

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LibraryThing member NineLarks

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LibraryThing member AltheaAnn

An interesting meld of sf/cyberpunk and fantasy. Exciting and well-plotted.

In a near-future Earth, government control has produced a strict caste society. Hari Michaelson has struggled up from a Labor position, with the help of a rich patron, to become one of the most famous men on Earth - but he

is still only an Actor, subservient to those above him. But when he is performing as Caine, sent through a breakthrough in physics to the Otherworld of Ankhana, where elves, ogres, wizards and thieves abound, he can almost be free. And he can take out his aggressions in bloody hand-to-hand combat, murdering for the entertainment of his audience, linked-in to sense his every feeling...
But now his estranged wife, also an Actor, is lost in Ankhana, and the time clock is running out before she dies a horrible death. Can Caine succeeed over the political and magickal intrigues of Ankhana, and the even more diabolical plots of his Studio back home, who keep trying to create a more entertaining story, and save the woman he loves?"

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LibraryThing member SpaceandSorcery

I stumbled on this by pure chance in a book blog announcing that the four volumes of Mr. Stover's Acts of Caine series were being printed in a new edition - otherwise I might never have learned of their existence, even though the first one dates as far back as 1998. So I'm very grateful to that

blogger for this exceptional discovery.

Heroes Die literally held me in thrall from page one: there is a rhythm to this story, and to the author's storytelling, that captures the reader in a spell-like hold, and never lets go. The main reason for it comes from Stover's way of plunging you straight into the heart of the action – no explanation, no background details. The story is all that matters, and the characters' journey, the rest can be inferred from context.

This is to me a very healthy – and very flattering – attitude: the author's faith in his readers' intelligence and power of extrapolation. The unspoken contract that nothing will interfere with the storytelling, and with the readers' immersion in the world unfolding under their eyes.

Or rather – worlds. The action encompasses two different settings and two different genres – science fiction and fantasy – both flowing seamlessly into one another: on one side there is a future Earth, a bleak place where a rigid caste system rules society and where the ultimate form of panem et circenses keeps the less fortunate... distracted; on the other a parallel world, Ankhana, a medieval-style society accessible from Earth through a sort of portal and where actors relocate to enact entertaining "Adventures" that are directly relayed to the lucky ones in form of virtual reality and to the others as second-hand rental.

Hari Michaelson is a star: his character Caine, a ruthless assassin, is a sure seller, a guarantee of entertainment and therefore of income and prestige for the Studio handling him. Stardom sits heavily on Hari's shoulders, though: the same callousness that helped him rise from the lower castes, and made him famous, cost him the estrangement from his wife, another actress, and now makes him doubt himself and the choices he made. Such doubts are cast aside when the Studio informs him that Pallas Ril (his wife's character) has gone off-line and needs to be rescued: if contact is not re-established, in less than a week the recall mechanism will bring her (or rather her formless remains) back to Earth.
With the clock ticking, Hari/Caine must save his wife and at the same time affect the political status of Ankhana, where a powerful man – calling himself a god – holds sway over the world and has launched a hunt for his enemies, the dangerous Aktiri....

Tension never lets go in this book, the stakes get higher and higher as the story unfolds and becomes more complicated with many twists and turns, carried by a host of vivid, believable characters and by the protagonist Caine, a man that's larger than life and full of flaws at the same time. The quest at the heart of the story is just as important as Caine's inner quest to find his real self, the man behind the mask – both that of the actor playing a role, and that of the man searching to overcome his boundaries.

A fascinating, gripping tale that kept me awake late at night more than once. Mr. Stover owes me a great deal of lost sleep, yet I'm not holding that against him: on the contrary, I'm more than ready to repeat the experience with the other books in the series.

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LibraryThing member jercox

Dystopian world escaping into entertainment - similarities to the Hunger Games, more brutal. Fast paced and compelling action, hard to put down. Some of the violence crossed over with unnecessarily unpleasant sexual deviancy.

LibraryThing member JasonMehmel

I've been a fan of Stover's since reading his Revenge of the Sith novelization.

Unencumbered from playing within a franchise, Stover's writing goes into some very interesting places. His action scenes are often the thing most people praise, and I'd agree, but the the intensity of the violence,

coupled with the ideas at play in this book, create some very potent character moments that stick with you after reading. Moments shift from politics, to philosophy, to straight action, and it's all interesting.

Not to mention the overarching concept: people in a futuristic Earth travelling to an alternate dimension as 'actors' having fantasy adventures that are recorded from their first person perspective, for the entertainment of people at home. This creates a fascinating frame and continuous concept on the nature of fiction and reality, how things can be crafted as a story, and our own fascinations with violence and drama.

Stover's ability to both utilize the recursive nature of this concept and allow his characters to recognize and transcend these frameworks is possibly the most powerful and useful idea in the whole book.

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