Heroes Die
HEROES DIE.
But Caine's no hero. He's an assassin.
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. He is free.
At home on Earth, Caine is Hari Michaelson, a superstar whose adventures command an audience of billions. Yet he is shackled by a rigid caste society, bound to ignore the grim fact that men die on a far-off world for the entertainment of his own planet – 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.
Matthew Woodring Stover has created a spectacular, page-turning epic where a Jackal-type assassin maneuvers through a vivid Tolkienesque world. With a plot as driven as its main character and drawn against a setting as vivid as the very best in fantasy, Heroes Die is a brilliant feat of the imagination.
"A gritty, bloody, deeply touching work of genius." - Scott Lynch
"A heaping plate of kickass kickassery with a side of kickass sauce... Caine himself was a perfect anti-hero: tough, smart and ready to take part in a series of truly excellent action sequences, set in a world that's half science fiction, half fantasy and all brilliantly conceived and pulled off." - John Scalzi
Matthew Stover
Matthew Woodring Stover (born 1962) is an American fantasy novelist. Stover graduated in 1983 from Drake University and settled in Chicago. Stover is a student of the Degerberg Blend. This jeet kune do concept is a mixture of approximately twenty-five different fighting arts from around the world. This combat style influences the way Stover writes his fight scenes, for which he has won considerable acclaim. He lives in Chicago with artist and writer Robyn Fielder.
Stover is the acclaimed author of two fantasy novels, Iron Dawn and Jericho Moona, and two science-fiction and fantasy hybrid stories featuring a hero named Caine: Heroes Die and Blade of Tyshalle. Stover lists some of his prime influences as Roger Zelazny, Stephen R. Donaldson, and Fritz Leiber.
Stover is one of the most controversial authors in the Star Wars Expanded Universe. His three Star Wars novels are much more violent and morally grey than most other Star Wars works, which has earned him both fans and detractors.
Acts of Caine
Acts of Caine consists of four books. The current recommended reading order for the series is provided below.