Heroes Die
A Fantasy Novel
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4.6 • 65 Ratings
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- $6.99
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- $6.99
Publisher Description
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 . . .
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
After two fantasy novels (Iron Dawn; Jericho Moon), Stover combines fantasy and SF in this vigorous adventure story. Our world has developed a hyper-rigid, occupation-based caste system in which the reading of freedom-based philosophy, from John Locke to Robert A. Heinlein, is punished. For entertainment, people participate vicariously in recorded Adventures from the Overworld, an other-dimensional realm of sword and sorcery with its own repressive government. On Earth, Hari Michaelson is the most popular Actor in Adventures; in Ankhana, with its rich palaces and criminal slums, he is known as Caine, the Blade of Tyshalle, famous assassin and warrior. Tired of killing, Hari agrees to return to the Overworld, driven to save his estranged wife, Pallas Ril--Actor and sorceress, unable to return to Earth due to a powerful spell--and ordered by the Studio to kill the tyrant Ma'elKoth. Stover's writing throughout is unoriginal but vivid, and his story is well plotted (though relentlessly violent), with numerous noteworthy secondary characters, from Hari's father to Kierendal, the non-human manager of a vice-den in the Overworld's Alien Town. Hari begins as a stereotyped cold-blooded killer but develops credibly, gaining a sense of moral responsibility and realizing that his true enemies are not on the Overworld but within the Studio that directs his life for its profits. Stover's fans and those who like their fantasy/SF tinged red should enjoy this energetic tale. Author tour.
Customer Reviews
Incredible
Very original story. It’s fantasy, medeivel sci-fi, Hollywood all rolled in one was very pleased
A Knockout Thriller
I was sick of popcorn fantasy, and was ready to write off the entire genre, when I found Heroes Die. Caine is an incredible anti-hero of incredible emotional depth, and the events that follow him, and the ones that he precipitates, are astonishing in their scope and description. The writing is beautiful and raw, like Faulkner and Bruce Willis, like Oscar Wilde in a gunfight.
I've loaned this book to dozens of people, men and women, feminists and rednecks, fast food workers and grad students -- not once has anyone disliked this book.
Unless you're lame, you will love it.
Amazing
Very well written, if blindingly violent. Stover takes out the good and the bad and inserts a grey area pragmatism that is at times shocking in its simplicity.
Not for the faint of heart the writer manages to make Caine both the most honest hero and the most brutal; both to the reader and to Caine himself.