Book Review: The Acts of Caine: Heroes Die by Matthew Woodring Stover

Gritty fantasy. It's not something I have a lot of experience with, but its existence makes several different kinds of sense. Most of the fantasy that I've read in my life follows a group of adventurers that play by the rules, be it their own or those set up by society. They have codes of honor, a strict sense of morality, an oath they must bear for the rest of their lives. The villains are usually just the same, save for the fact that they kill people for selfish gain. So, it's odd to finish a book and not quite know who the villain was, who the hero was, and who really came out on top as the victor.

It was an interesting ride, one that I should've taken a long time ago.

Heroes Die is set on dystopian Earth and Overworld, depending on how you look at it. Earth has been overtaken by a rather harsh caste system, and the main form of entertainment is the exploitation of a parallel dimension (Overworld) where elves, dwarves, dragons, fairies, and magics are very real. Earth trains up people called Actors, who are then transfered to Overworld to seek out bloody fame and fortune through Adventures, which can then be resold as "movies" of sorts. Caine is the best and most popular Actor of that generation, and he wants out of the game. But just when he thinks he's out...

His estranged wife, an Actor herself, is disappears in Overworld and the Studio has no way to bring her back to Earth. What's worse, due to the way she was transfered to Overworld, if she isn't found within the next week, she'll fall out of sync with that dimension, and will subsequently be torn through various parallel dimensions where humans have no right to exist. It's a death sentence of the worst sort. So, Caine goes back in, with the caveat that he must kill Ma'elKoth, the self-appointed Emperor of the human Empire in Overworld.

There's a lot going on in this book.

It has betrayal, gang wars, regicide, torture, incest, human sacrifice, decapitations, disembowelment, rape, mindrape, soulrape, prostitution, necrophilia... and I'm still gonna sit down here and recommend this book to you. Let me tell you why.

Most fantasy stories that you will read will play things very safe. For all intents and purposes, fantasy is a genre that always tries to be dignified. It tries to portray life as something cleaner, funner, happier. It often portrays a place you'd want to escape to. Fantasy has become Utopian fiction, in a way, and it's caused the entire genre to ruthlessly cannibalize itself. Stover pulls a one-eighty on all of that, and just kinda lets you sort it out for yourself.

On the one hand, you have an adventure that I can only compare to those of Conan. It's full of that bloody, primal fury that will have fans of good action almost clapping as they read. It's also written (for the most part) with a voice of eloquence and obvious intelligence (again, much like Conan), which allows for a really immersive trip into Overworld. But beneath all of that, there is quite a bit of social commentary: in that this is a violent book about violence. Caine's actions, good or ill, are all as a direct result of the dreaded "supply and demand" system. He's there because people demand it, and in return, he supplies the blood.

The main conflict Caine faces with this (besides overthrowing the Empire) is to show that the Studio and its executives and their consumers do not own him. He's a worker, he does a job, but he's not a slave.

If Karl Marx could write fantasy, I suspect it would turn out like Heroes Die.

The moral dilemmas are not in short supply here, and the repercussions don't die with Caine's enemies. All of Caine's actions come around to bite him in the ass at some point. This is a book that will make you think if you'd like to, but it's also a book that you can enjoy for the action, the over-the-top scenes of violence, and it'll make you wonder whether or not you should have enjoyed it as much as you did.

He's doing this for you, after all.

Heroes Die lacks the subtle touch of Stover's later works, but that was probably on purpose. Stover can be poetic when he wants to, life-changing if he's bored, and can show you a universe you didn't know existed if you open yourself to what he's really saying. There's a of that here, but it's buried deeper than I would've liked it to be. Overworld itself is the real accomplishment here, as well as the introduction of Caine, a character I am eager to pursue through his next few books.

Read this book if you want to see what fantasy's like when life gets in the way.