Matthew Woodring Stover

Oh, Kratos, what have they done to you? After all the hours I have spent playing your video games, and replaying your video games, and eagerly anticipating future video games, I feel as though I know you. While your methods were questionable, your pursuits were always honorable ones, your entreaty reasonable. Plus your blind fury, unquenchable blood thirst, uncontrollable rage, and your blatant disregard for anything barring your path made for very satisfying gameplay.

So what happened? What show more did they do? They created this haphazard novelization of your quest to slay the god of war, Ares; which stiffly recounts the events of the first video game. The major events are there; the battle with the hydra, the ruin of Athens, the search for Cronos, the Temple of Pandora, all that. They even added some extra goings on, Athena's reasoning for favoring you, why various gods decide to bless you with their powers, and other explanations for the events in the game. That's all fine and good, but...but it's not YOU.

You do not whisper prayers to the gods before a battle, you defy them. You do not rescue Greek soldiers, you're a Spartan. You're a machine, an uncaring one with only one goal, one reason for existing. That is you, and the Kratos found in these pages is not the Kratos I know. Where is the anger? Where is the defiant, insolent, bullheaded Spartan I know and love? He is not here.

What purpose, then, does this book serve? It would be an atrocity for someone to experience the God of War story for the first time through it, and those who have played the game will surely be disappointed. So why? It is nothing but a ruse, a way to cash in on the name of our favorite tragic hero, and a poor one at that. I heartily recommend avoiding the book unless you are desperate for a fresh dose of Kratos...and even then, I'd encourage resisting the craving. show less

http://www.saltmanz.com/blog/2006/10/books-read-acts-of-caine.html

The first book I read by Matthew Stover was the Star Wars book, "Traitor". I whipped through it in 2 nights, and it still remains my favorite of all the many Star Wars novels. It was also the only Stover novel I'd read. That changed when I read good things about some of his original novels, and found two of them at Half-Price Books shortly thereafter. They're the first two books in a series called "The Acts of Caine".

The first show more book, called "Heroes Die", stands on its own as an excellent adventure story, but also sets the stage for the second book. The story takes place on a future Earth, where the human population has fallen into a caste-based society, and the popular entertainment of the time is "first-handing" Adventures. You see, through a process called the Winston Transfer, professional Actors are able to be transported off to a parallel Earth called "Overworld" -- a land populated with dragons, elves, dwarves, and ogres, and where magick works. The Actors' thoughts and perceptions are then transmitted back to Earth for their fans to experience.

Hari Michaelson is the most popular Actor of his time, specializing in particularly exciting and violent Adventures in his role as the assassin, Caine. His wife on Earth is also another famous Actor, who plays the freedom fighter Pallas Ril, and when a magick spell cuts her off from her connection to Earth, Caine is sent in to save her.

That much of the plot is fairly straightforward, but there are plenty of twists and turns along the way. Not only must Hari contend with the Imperial forces in Overworld's capital city of Ankhana, but also with the heads of the entertainment Studio he works for. In fact, Caine is only allowed to go after Pallas by consenting to kill the new ruler of Ankhana, the self-proclaimed god Ma'elKoth.

The story itself is incredibly dark and violent, the text laced with profanity. Definitely not for a lot of people, but it's never really gratuitous because humanity's love of violent entertainment is one of the book's big philosophical points. And there is a lot of philosophy in here; for all the f-bombs and blood and guts, Stover definitely has something to say in "Heroes Die", and manages to give the reader something to think about, as well as a rip-snortin' adventure. show less

I have nothing bad to say about this novel except that it is a scaled down and streamlined version of the previous two novels. Assume you're taking our favorite badass, Caine, and developing a subplot that was teased in the previous novel about the Black Knife Clans, where Caine was made a blood-brother to a bunch of orcs, and run with it.

We've got the backstory where he made enemies of them when he was just starting out as as an Actir making huge ratings and long after that, indeed, several show more years after the events of the previous novel, where he takes on yet another god while being hounded by another that *loves* him. *shudder*

It's quick and it's fun and it has everything we love while reading Caine, including a bit more of him from first person, of which we had a taste in the previous, but not a lot. That means we can get lied to. A lot. Which is fine, because we can always fall back on Caine's Laws to know exactly where he stands.

Some characters are so well known that they become a force of nature. That's where Caine stands for me, too. I know I'm not alone.

This novel is a straight character novel, so don't expect huge revelations and twists like in the previous two. The scale is much, much reduced, but that doesn't mean it isn't fun. It's more in the nature of a great action novel with a beloved character we all know well, doing what he does best.

Kick-ass.

The best part is, for all it's apparent normalcy in a fantasy field that is full of similar feels, it's *still* better than most. I could read this stuff forever. It's just that good. :) show less

A thoroughly enjoyable piece of high pulp. Matthew Woodring Stover's 1998 fantasy novel won't be winning any awards for classiness, but it's one of those books you read at a tear and with no thought for anything else. An interesting but peculiar mix of fantasy and sci-fi – in a dystopian, rigidly caste-ridden future, people pass their time watching – or rather the sensory VR experience of 'first-handing' – the real-stakes adventures of Actors in a parallel universe which seems to be show more every fantasy RPG brought to life. Why this alternate universe has magic in it is never really explained, but as you quickly get caught up in the story it never really matters.

The book follows the superstar Actor known as Caine as he navigates conspiracies at home in the dystopian caste society and also the blood-and-guts magical adventures of the 'Overworld' – a mix of Westworld and The Hunger Games with lashings of ultraviolence and classic fantasy narm. Looking back on it now, having finished the book, the plot doesn't seem particularly remarkable or innovative, but it's told with a real storyteller's art and a moment-by-moment sense of immersion and anticipation.

The book has its flaws – the violence is overdone and exacerbated by rape fantasies and eye torture, and the culmination of the plot isn't as mind-blowing as other reviews would have you expect – but it's really a lot of fun to chew on. Some of the story is told with exceptional skill – I'm thinking of the initial meeting between Caine and Ma'elKoth (pg. 191 onwards) – and it's a robust example of the genre, a lazy-Saturday-afternoon sort of book. It may be indulgent but it's certainly worth indulging. show less