[.ca] Blade of Tyshalle (ISBN 0345421442)

From Amazon.com:
Blade of Tyshalle hits like a sledgehammer to the face. Here's a taste of this thickly boiling stew of fantasy, horror, and science fiction: Kollberg chewed on the finger, worrying it, cracking the bone like a dog sucking marrow; he turned his head to one side, wedged the finger back between his molars, bit down again, and yanked his head from side to side until the bone splintered at the knuckle and he could rip it free. Blood sprayed, and Kollberg fixed his lips to the wound, sucking greedily. Imagine an earth overloaded with faceless billions scrambling for the scraps of the unimaginably wealthy few. The only way to climb out of the gutter comes through training for Reality TV to the nth degree: actors train in special academies, are implanted with broadcast equipment, and get transferred to Earth's sister world, called Overworld, where all the trappings of high fantasy exist for real. There are tiny, winged fairies on Overworld. They carry yard-long lances of razor steel. The dwarves magically flow stone to entomb their enemies. Back on earth, viewers experience full-body simulations of the actors' heroic adventures. But the billions hunger for more than entertainment. Overworld tempts them with its pure air, its unexploited resources, its living space, and its sweet, clean water. Their hunger begets a blind god. And Kollberg, the god of human appetites, sends his weapons to Overworld--bulldozers for the land and a plague of fatal, frothing madness for the people. Enter Hari Michaelson, the actor formerly known as Caine. Since the events of Stover's Heroes Die, in which Caine squared off against the god Ma'elKoth, a new religion has sprung up--Cainism. The Children of Ma'elKoth persecute the Cainists, but that particular war is small potatoes next to the bouts of unstoppable death about to be unleashed as earth's high-tech weaponry takes on the fiery thaumaturges of Overworld. Hari/Caine, his old friends, and his bevy of mortal enemies surge and clash and take unbelievable beatings, spiritual as well as physical. And the faceless billions learn nothing of trust, sacrifice, or redemption. Blade of Tyshalle: gods, myths, human weakness, and the tool that is pain. You've been warned. --Blaise Selby

www.SFReader.com Review:
Review by Lynn Nicole Louis I was about halfway through Blade of Tyshalle when SFReader.com posted a review of Heroes Die, the prequel. I read Heroes Die when it was released; it had generated some good press and I enjoyed it quite a bit. Blade of Tyshalle is a good read, not quite as good as the first (IMO), but still several cuts above the processed tapioca pap smeared all over the pages of the fantasy novels one finds on the shelves these days. Both books are compelling in a way that's hard to describe. It's as though you're on a hill with a good view of a train track, along which runs a loaded passenger train. You know it's out there and you know it's coming, but you don't know when. And you also know it's going to wreck. It's going to jump the rails and crack like an egg thrown against a brick wall, spraying bodies and blood and screaming wounded all over. So there you wait, trapped in a state of horrific anticipation of what's to come and helpless to do anything about it. Welcome to a Stover book. Be warned! This isn't a feel-good fable, a Tolkenesque story of noble, high cheek-boned heroes journeying through a land of magic and beauty in a war of Good vs. Evil. There's a lot of death and violence here, graphically and gorily described, and more profanity than you'd find in the locker room of a losing football team at halftime. It's written for adults, which can't be said about the majority of stuff out there today. If you like your fantasy gritty, bloody, and down in the dirt (or worse), you'll find a home here. Lynn Nicole Louis Read the full review at www.SFReader.com

More of a good thing?:
I enjoyed very much the first 'Caine' novel, which left me wanting more! Then suddenly there was more! I found myself strangely hesitant; just how could there be more? The first novel leaves the main character damaged goods. Trepidations, experiences of too many cheats over the years from novels, tv, movies, even comic books. But, there was no cheat! No cheats. Very refreshing, and a little hard to read, you almost wish the author would have cheated. If he had, then we readers would have been cheated. Everything is as it should have been, the ending is worthwhile in all aspects, and fits the world it takes place in. Even if most of us are fighting the 'good' fight, I wonder how often we think to ask ourselves if we are fighting the 'right' fight. I could read these two novels again!

Much darker than Heroes Die, and more relevant:
Blade could work on its own, I suppose, but it will resonate much more if you've read Heroes first. The first book is, in comparison, a more straightforward, easier read. It's a love story. Blade, on the other hand, expands our field of view, and suddenly Hari's Earth is more than just a setting, it's got a will of its own. Sometimes it's shockingly violent, much more so than Heroes Die. If you haven't read either, you probably aren't guessing nearly high enough on the gruesome scale. More difficult than the violence is the dark helplessness that overwhelms the middle third of the book. The book is infinitely rewarding by the end, as a lot of the darkness is explained and that suspicion that it was all gratuitous disappears. It's brilliant and invigorating if you've got the stomach.

Forget the follow up:
I tried, really I did. After the success of "Heroes Die" I assumed Stover would provide a comparable sequel, he did not. This book is about 400 pages too long, the characters are simply a re-hash of the previous novel, the plot is seemingly complex but wasteful, the action is lacking, the philosophy is strained (and not helped by the constant use of the f-bomb), the author simply tried a new approach to making a good novel but his original formula should not have been altered. This novel is so bad that I feel it actually tarnishes the previous work "Heroe's Die". Stover has his strengths and he needs to stay with the simple, violent, seething id that is encompassed by Caine. Forget about Blade of Tyshalle, find some old George RR Martin while we all wait for A Feast for Crows.

Amazing:
As a long time fan of Stephen Erikson, George R.R. Martin, and Tad Williams, I can't believe how little publicity this book and Heroes Die gets from the fantasy and sci fi community. I fell upon this one by pure chance and started reading and then I couldn't stop. I actually read blade of tyshalle before heroes die. The combination of character depth, violence, futuristic world and fantasy world, and confusion as to who the bad guy is, is what really made this book a masterpiece of modern fantasy. The author isn't afraid of breaking your heart or hurting his main character to develop the plotline. There's humor as well and ironic situations. The prime villain Ma'Elkoth who isn't really a villain boggles the reader as to what his nature really is. What is this character that thinks it is everything, is God, and then is brought back to "our world" where he lives as a sort of philosopher. He's actually endearing. It's all really weird but refreshing after the linear plotlines and boring fiction that one finds out there. I spend so much time going from series to series dying to find a new "Malazan book of the Fallen" or "Otherland" and in these two books I found something close, something I wouldn't want to live without having read :) It's modern fantasy.