∎ Download Blade of Tyshalle Matthew Woodring Stover 9780345421432 Books

Blade of Tyshalle Matthew Woodring Stover 9780345421432 Books

Download As PDF : Blade of Tyshalle Matthew Woodring Stover 9780345421432 Books

Blade of Tyshalle Matthew Woodring Stover 9780345421432 Books

*No Spoilers*
I enjoyed the first book in the series - it was fast moving with lots of action, a compelling (if occasionally 2 dimensional) main character, and an interesting premise. However, this book barely seems as if it belongs in the same series.

Apart from a few isolated sections, there's much less action. The main characters are far less compelling. And overall it's just plain confusing and disjointed. The novel jumps from place to place, time to time, and character to character sometimes without a clear connection among them. Much of the book gets mired in the characters inner musings over things that don't always appear to have a clear connection to the plot. And worst of all, it's not clear what exactly the antagonist of the story is, what motivates him, and how he's related to the overall world of the story.

Overall, despite a few good scenes, I was very disappointed with this one and will not be continuing on the journey.


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Blade of Tyshalle Matthew Woodring Stover 9780345421432 Books Reviews

Until "Blade of Tyshalle" (follow up to "Heroes Die") I'd never read a novel that was such an amazing mix of speculative fiction and fantasy, and before reading Matthew Stover, didn't think anyone could pull it off without leaving the reader jarred and dissatisfied with both genres. But Stover more than succeeds and continues to do so throughout the his entire Caine series, which is a brilliant blend of dystopian science fiction (set in the near all-too-believable bleak future) and fantasy (on an epic Grimdark scale).

This second time around, Michaelson isn't only a star antihero, but is also one who doesn't always manage to beat the machine he rages against. In "Blade" he has many unpleasant, humbling surprises in store for him. His protagonist Hari Michaelson (AKA Caine) is complicated, violent, messy, ethical, and oddly humane. Stover's narrative structure flows brilliantly, chapters alternating between Michaelson's life in the "real" world and Caine's life on Overworld, a parallel universe to Earth that's a bit like Middle Earth on meth, where Michaelson is Caine, actor and assassin extraordinaire. But if Caine were just an assassin, his character and the novels wouldn't be anywhere near rich and complex as they are. Instead, Michaelson/ Caine is a real flesh & blood man, with an estranged wife he loves, friends of a sort he protects in the mode of enlightened self-interest, and more convoluted plots and plans underway than any review can or should mention.

After I finished "Heroes Die," I bought the next novel "Blade of Tyshalle" without even taking a break, though you could jump right in with "Blade." It has a creepier, more dissonant feel to its narrative than "Heroes Die," but I consider this one of its strong points. You won't be reading a novel that's "just" a continuation, but a book with all new aspects and ideas, let alone new plot, of course. Stover is an author who evolves and stretches himself artistically with every book, and this is one of the things that makes him a personal favorite. I just reluctantly finished book four, "Caine's Law," because I didn't want the series to end. Rarely has an entire series gripped me the way this one has.

Along with Caine, I highly recommend two earlier novels by Stover set in the ancient world ten years after the fall of Troy, "Iron Dawn" and "Jericho Moon." Somehow, Stover manages to turn the Marion Zimmerman Bradley "Mists of Avalon" paradigm on its head, giving us two books that are an original blend of historical fiction and fantasy. Their protagonist is a tough, resourceful Pictish warrior Barra and her two companions, an Athenian veteran of Troy, Leucas, and Kheperu, an exiled Egyptian ex-priest and con man. How these novels were not instant successes, I'll never know, but I think that Stover in 1997 simply may have been way ahead of the "strong women in historical/ fantasy" curve so prevalent today. But unlike a lot of what's being publishing today in this genre, Stover's Barra novels are GREAT, and she's a worthy predecessor to Caine.

Any reader who's a fan of Joe Abercrombie, Richard K. Morgan (both his sci-fi series with Takeshi Kovacs and "The Steel Remains" fantasy series), and/ or George R R Martin will LOVE Stover's books. Stover's name deserves to mentioned in the same breath as these other literary geniuses, and "Blade of Tyshalle" continues the series brilliantly.
Matthew Stover's Caine character is probably one of the most entertaining protagonists I have read in recent years, right up there with Locke Lamora. I would gladly read a bunch more novels like this one. The story of Caine/Hari Michaelson was set up masterfully in the first book, and in this one, the story goes even more hardcore. Hari trying to come to terms with losing everything he knew about himself, and becoming massively different from the first book was great, because while he had gone from being a supercrazy badass to being a wheelchair bound shell of his former self, he still had the same mind. The plot gets a little deeper into some of the setting, which is nice because I was a big fan of Ankhana and was glad to see more of it.

If you enjoyed Heroes Die(And you should enjoy Heroes Die, it was fantastic), you will like this story. More of the same, but that could not be more of a good thing.
Wonderful, like the first book, although darker, sadder and more intense, a meditation on life, fight, death and destruction. Harri Michaelson is a cripple, a bitter aftertaste on the hero he used to be. He looses everything, and somehow the loss helps him understand who he really is. It's about masks all characters wear several masks, some to separate them from the world outside, some to protect their true self within and the Blade of Tyshalle is all about stripping them mercilessly and painfully, off. Is is worth saving a world when the person you love is dead? Do we value the past more than the present? Are we who we are meant to be? What is the suffering of the world compared to the sacrifice of a single child? Do we want the world to be a better place and at what cost? How fare heroes when the ramp lights are off? Those and more cross the book, with no attempt for right or wrong answers, Stover lets the reader choose. Loved it.
The second book in Matthew Stover's brilliant Acts of Caine series. Like the first, "Heroes Die" it's a brain-bending mix of dystopian SF and blood soaked sword and sorcery. And Caine is an absolutely kickass hero that you want to follow anywhere.
Stover's writing is some of the best I've ever come across, and he keeps getting better. All the books in this series are so dense with plot and detail that each time a new one came out, I wanted to reread the earlier books to make sure I remembered everything. And each book not only develops the characters and the world, but pushes the narrative structure harder as well,,until the last one, Caine's Law, is just an amazing ride.
I bought this copy for my son, who's deployed in the military. I had sent him the first one to see if he liked it. Like me, he loved it, and read it much faster than any of the other books I've sent him. So this one is now on its way to him, and I know he'll love it as much as I do.
*No Spoilers*
I enjoyed the first book in the series - it was fast moving with lots of action, a compelling (if occasionally 2 dimensional) main character, and an interesting premise. However, this book barely seems as if it belongs in the same series.

Apart from a few isolated sections, there's much less action. The main characters are far less compelling. And overall it's just plain confusing and disjointed. The novel jumps from place to place, time to time, and character to character sometimes without a clear connection among them. Much of the book gets mired in the characters inner musings over things that don't always appear to have a clear connection to the plot. And worst of all, it's not clear what exactly the antagonist of the story is, what motivates him, and how he's related to the overall world of the story.

Overall, despite a few good scenes, I was very disappointed with this one and will not be continuing on the journey.