Blade of Tyshalle [Paperback]

I'm not going to go into a long summary of the story, but suffice it to say, BLADE OF TYSHALLE blends Fantasy and Science Fiction into an exemplary piece of speculative fiction. Briefly, Hari Michaelson (aka Caine) is a broken man due to events in HEROES DIE. Overworld where his known as Caine has become a tool of the Studios here on Earth. Overworld is a fantasy-type world populated by ogres, thaumaturges (wizards/sorcerers), elves and the like. Studios send their best actors to Overworld so people can live along their adventures. The nature of these adventures is similar to Virtual Reality, people can pay, like they do for a movie, to watch the actor's adventures as the actors run through their adventures.

What this book is really about is more complex-conflicting personalities on different worlds, supreme characterization, internal dialogue that is genuine, sticking to your beliefs and struggling, inching toward sunlight with every breath-and all that just describes Caine. Hari/Caine fights against himself, his family and the studios trying to ruin his beloved Overworld, home of his adventures and his life. The action is amazing, the characters are some of the most "real" and fleshed out that I have ever read. The supporting characters are just right, there aren't too many and the detail they are given is just right. The `villian' Ma'elKoth is one of the better "villains" in SF today. I give the quotes to villain because at many points through the story, Ma'elKoth does things that you or I would do given the situation, he is a guy you can like, that's what makes him scary. The issues here are not black and white, just like real life.

To sum up, this is an INTENSE read that comes to a completely satisfying conclusion. This book left me winded and smiling after reading it, as if I just spent a few hours working out in the gym. So far, this is the best book I've read this year. Though the book is ended cleanly, you get a sense that Stover may have some more Overworld Tales up his sleeve. I for one would welcome them.

Definitely an author to watch, his other books include the previously mentioned and excellent HEROES DIE as well as IRON DAWN and JERICHO MOON. Also a forthcoming novel in the Star Wars NEW JEDI ORDER series.

"Blade of Tyshalle" is, in some ways, very similar to "Heroes Die." It focuses on Hari Michaelson, and his alter-ego, Caine, as he fights against impossible odds to save his family from threats on both Earth and Overworld. It includes action, dungeons, desperate last stands, and so on. However, this book spends a lot more time on other characters, including Shanna/Pallas Ril, Hari's wife; Ma'elKoth, who goes by Tan'elKoth for much of the book; Raithe, a young Monastic dedicated to killing Caine; Kollberg, Hari's old nemesis, raised up from his exile to the Labor Pool; and Kris/Deliann, the Changeling Prince of the elves. Also, Earth has become more directly involved with Overworld, to the point of creating an enclave of technology, and later releasing an incurable virus to justify an armed invasion, in the name of "restoring order;" this changes the rules of the game.

The plot is even more intricate than in "Heroes Die," but the story also contains much more social commentary and philosophy. There are many brief, odd, semi-mythic interchapters, which, once you figure out which character corresponds to which mythic figure, provide a handy road map for the rest of the book.

After I finished "Blade of Tyshalle," I wasn't quite sure what I thought of it. I let it sink in for a few days, then reread the book. I knew I liked the action and the characters, and the way the loose ends from the first book, particularly the much-vaunted "black flow" were finally resolved, but I wasn't sure about the philosophy and social theory, or about the balance among the various elements of the book.

I think, finally, that "Blade of Tyshalle" is a very, very good book. It is also, unquestionably, a flawed book, from which several plot and character complications -- and fifty to a hundred pages -- could profitably have been trimmed. But it made me think, it involved me emotionally, it convinced me it was worth the money I paid for it, and it hooked me enough that I have already reread it three times. I definitely recommend both the book, and Stover.

Just make sure you have an open mind, and a strong stomach.

Caine is simultaneously a selfish, vicious, amoral mass-murderer and the freest, noblest, least dishonest character in the story. Stover never loses sight of either aspect of his gritty fantasy Batman; when it looks like Caine is getting a bit too much authorial glad-handing, Stover shows us what a ... he is. When it looks like he's being too much of a ..., some of the twisted nobility is allowed to creep back in. Caine is a construct that Stover alternately tortures, dissects, and celebrates-- only idiots would make the mistake of assuming that Caine is some sort of wishful authorial projection. Caine is Stover's demonstration of how simplistic dualities-- Good vs. Evil, Right vs. Wrong, Order vs. Chaos-- so easily break down when confronted with the complexity that even a single human being displays.

Too many fantasies treat blood, sex, violence, and adventures as something distant from the reader, something so unlikely and improbable that they can be enjoyed abstractly. *Blade of Tyshalle* uses brutality and suffering to move the reader closer to the story, to draw a line between the reader's life and the lives of everyone in the novel.

The true heart of "gritty" fantasy isn't blood and gore, it's the examination of genuine human characters rather than idealized ciphers. That's why *Blade of Tyshalle* hurts so much and excites so deeply.