"Blade of Tyshalle" (Acts of Caine, Book 2) by Matthew Woodring Stover

Stover's work has been lampooned as "over-the-top" and "shallow wish-fulfillment violence" by a few self-satisfied snobs who didn't bother to actually read what he was writing. However, *Blade of Tyshalle* contains more deep reflection on the consequences of violence, and on the nature and the extent of personal responsibility for one's actions, than any other novel I've read in the past ten years. I expected to be enthralled (Stover is a past master of narrative mechanics and effective tension-building), but I didn't expect to be quite so moved. *Blade of Tyshalle* is an emotional and intellectual brick to the head, and the heart of it all (as Bob Urell has pointed out elsewhere in this review section) is its skillfully-crafted multi-level duality.

Caine is simultaneously a selfish, vicious, amoral mass-murderer and the freest, noblest, least dishonest character in the story. Stover never loses sight of either aspect of his gritty fantasy Batman; when it looks like Caine is getting a bit too much authorial glad-handing, Stover shows us what a ... he is. When it looks like he's being too much of a ..., some of the twisted nobility is allowed to creep back in. Caine is a construct that Stover alternately tortures, dissects, and celebrates-- only idiots would make the mistake of assuming that Caine is some sort of wishful authorial projection. Caine is Stover's demonstration of how simplistic dualities-- Good vs. Evil, Right vs. Wrong, Order vs. Chaos-- so easily break down when confronted with the complexity that even a single human being displays.

"Heroes Die" (Acts of Caine, Book 1) by Matthew Woodring Stover

This novel is set in a future were earth's resources are limited and world society has split into a rigid cast system based on the work you do, or what your parents do. Hari Michaelson is an actor and a world-wide superstar. In an alternative earth, known as the overworld, where magic works, he is also known as the assassin Caine where his "adventures" are eagerly watched by billions. When Hari's ex-wife, another actor, vanishes in the overworld Hari is drawn into saving her for what the studio on earth sees solely as another action-packed adventure, but for Hari it is much more importance than that.

This is both a brutal and brilliant novel. You really shouldn't like Hari/Caine. He's not a nice man by most accounts. He swears all the time (lots of the "f" word in this book), he'll kill you as soon as look at you and is outstandingly ruthless. Despite all this, he is a compelling and complex character and this novel easily pulls you from chapter to chapter.

Both the overworld and earth society have been given a great deal of thought in this novel, and both are equally richly detailed to provide a combination of Sci-Fi and fantasy in the one book. I hadn't expected this book to be so well written, based on the blurb on the back, and while I'm disgusted by some of the things Caine does, its also fascinating, a bit like watching a natural disaster on TV - and in effect that is what Caine is to the overworld as he keeps earth mesmerised as he navigates both the politics of home and the brutality of everyday life in the overworld.