- Paperback: 496 pages
- Publisher: Del Rey Books; Original edition (3 April 2012)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0345455894
- ISBN-13: 978-0345455895
- Product Dimensions: 15.5 x 2.6 x 23.2 cm
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 216,408 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
| |||||||||||||||
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Plus, get an extra £5 Gift Certificate when you trade in books worth £10 or more before June 30, 2012. Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. |
Product details |
More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
SOME LAWS YOU BREAK. SOME BREAK YOU.
AND THEN THERE’S CAINE’S LAW.
From the moment Caine first appeared in the pages of Heroes Die, two things were clear. First, that Matthew Stover was one of the most gifted fantasy writers of his generation. And second, that Caine was a hero whose peers go by such names as Conan and Elric. Like them, Caine was something new: a civilized man who embraced savagery, an actor whose life was a lie, a force of destruction so potent that even gods thought twice about crossing him. Now Stover brings back his greatest creation for his most stunning performance yet.
Caine is washed up and hung out to dry, a crippled husk kept isolated and restrained by the studio that exploited him. Now they have dragged him back for one last deal. But Caine has other plans. Those plans take him back to Overworld, the alternate reality where gods are real and magic is the ultimate weapon. There, in a violent odyssey through time and space, Caine will face the demons of his past, find true love, and just possibly destroy the universe.
Hey, it’s a crappy job, but somebody’s got to do it.
AND THEN THERE’S CAINE’S LAW.
From the moment Caine first appeared in the pages of Heroes Die, two things were clear. First, that Matthew Stover was one of the most gifted fantasy writers of his generation. And second, that Caine was a hero whose peers go by such names as Conan and Elric. Like them, Caine was something new: a civilized man who embraced savagery, an actor whose life was a lie, a force of destruction so potent that even gods thought twice about crossing him. Now Stover brings back his greatest creation for his most stunning performance yet.
Caine is washed up and hung out to dry, a crippled husk kept isolated and restrained by the studio that exploited him. Now they have dragged him back for one last deal. But Caine has other plans. Those plans take him back to Overworld, the alternate reality where gods are real and magic is the ultimate weapon. There, in a violent odyssey through time and space, Caine will face the demons of his past, find true love, and just possibly destroy the universe.
Hey, it’s a crappy job, but somebody’s got to do it.
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
There are no customer reviews yet on Amazon.co.uk.
5 star
4 star
3 star
2 star
1 star
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
15 reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Schrödinger's Caine
9 April 2012
Format:Paperback
To say I'm a big fan of Matthew Stover's Acts of Caine series may be to understate the case. When I read Heroes Die and Blade of Tyshalle (the first two books in the series and the Acts of Violence and War, respectively) a dozen years or so ago, they had a profound influence both on my life and on the course my reading would take over the following decade or so. And so it was that I was extremely excited when Caine Black Knife, the first half of the Act of Atonement, was finally released in 2008. And, like a number of fans, I was entertained by that volume but also a bit disappointed. While action-packed, it often lacked the intensity, the scale, and the escalation of stakes that had helped make the first two books so gripping. Further, it featured few of the recurring characters that fans have come to love, and more, being only the first part of an Act, its cliffhanger conclusion was a bit unsatisfying -- all the more so considering the insanely epic finales of both previous books. So when Caine's Law, the conclusion to the Act of Atonement and possibly the final novel in the series, was released, I was both excited and a bit anxious.
I should have trusted Stover. This novel is more than a return to form after Caine Black Knife: it's a magnificent novel, on par with the first two books in the series. Picking up where Caine Black Knife left off, it not only continues that story but, with its nonlinear narrative (and some divine intervention), utterly encompasses it, consumes it, subsumes it, and makes it more than it had been. Which is to say: not only is Caine's Law a better novel than Caine Black Knife but, having read them both, Caine Black Knife is a better novel than it had been on its own. All those characters whose absence was noted in Caine Black Knife return here, in greater or less capacities, and several wonderful new characters are introduced. A number of Stover's recurring tropes and motifs -- the nature of identity, the struggle of people against gods, the intimate versus the abstract, and more -- and favorite lines return, but he continues to grow as a writer and their incorporation into the story is always fresh and exciting. While the action (and by action I mean violence) is not as nonstop as in Caine Black Knife, it is more compelling -- things got pretty nasty in that book -- and the pacing here is actually better than in the previous book, sustained by plenty of Stover's clever dialogue and thoughtful twists, all building toward a fabulously satisfying conclusion. In the end, while the third book in this series is not as good as the first two novels, the third Act, taken as a whole, happily takes its place alongside them.
While I heartily recommend this novel, I must point out that it does not stand alone; it is not, as they say, a good jumping on point for new readers. To get the most out of this novel -- and, possibly, simply to avoid being totally lost -- you definitely need to have read at least Caine Black Knife and preferably all three of the earlier novels before this one. So do yourself a favor and get to reading.
I should have trusted Stover. This novel is more than a return to form after Caine Black Knife: it's a magnificent novel, on par with the first two books in the series. Picking up where Caine Black Knife left off, it not only continues that story but, with its nonlinear narrative (and some divine intervention), utterly encompasses it, consumes it, subsumes it, and makes it more than it had been. Which is to say: not only is Caine's Law a better novel than Caine Black Knife but, having read them both, Caine Black Knife is a better novel than it had been on its own. All those characters whose absence was noted in Caine Black Knife return here, in greater or less capacities, and several wonderful new characters are introduced. A number of Stover's recurring tropes and motifs -- the nature of identity, the struggle of people against gods, the intimate versus the abstract, and more -- and favorite lines return, but he continues to grow as a writer and their incorporation into the story is always fresh and exciting. While the action (and by action I mean violence) is not as nonstop as in Caine Black Knife, it is more compelling -- things got pretty nasty in that book -- and the pacing here is actually better than in the previous book, sustained by plenty of Stover's clever dialogue and thoughtful twists, all building toward a fabulously satisfying conclusion. In the end, while the third book in this series is not as good as the first two novels, the third Act, taken as a whole, happily takes its place alongside them.
While I heartily recommend this novel, I must point out that it does not stand alone; it is not, as they say, a good jumping on point for new readers. To get the most out of this novel -- and, possibly, simply to avoid being totally lost -- you definitely need to have read at least Caine Black Knife and preferably all three of the earlier novels before this one. So do yourself a favor and get to reading.
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Stover just keeps surpassing himself
16 April 2012
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Seriously, I don't understand why Matthew Stover isn't famous. This is the guy who has taken sword & sorcery to the next level, combining the atmosphere and action of RE Howard, the plotting of ER Burroughs, and the subtlety and modern sensibility of Moorcock. Why is he putting food on the table writing Star Wars novelizations instead of working on the screenplay for the latest big-screen Caine epic starring somebody like Jason Stathan, Vin Diesel, or Daniel Craig?
Be that as it may, Stover is still doing original work, and "Caine's Law" is yet another triumph for Stover. The "Acts of Caine" series started out strong with "Heroes Die" and has just built with every installment (although to be fair, while the first two books in the series stood very well alone, "Caine Black Knife" and "Caine's Law" feel like two halves to a single novel). Caine Black Knife dispensed with linear time, cutting back and forth between "mature" Caine and Caine at the beginning of his career. Stover is like a juggler, who keeps adding one more spinning plate, right up until the moment when he seems to lose it and they are all coming crashing to the floor--only to somehow pull of a conclusion conclusion that seems both elegant and inevitable. I think, with this novel, that he has managed to bring the story of Caine to such a conclusion--although it wouldn't surprise me if he some day comes up with a way to up the ante yet again.
Readers new to Stover's work should begin with "Heroes Die" to get the full impact of the series. Fortunately, second and long out-of-print book in the series, "Blade of Tyshalle," is now available for Kindle, (although a physical copy will cost you a pretty penny even used, unless you are lucky enough to find it new on the shelf of a bookstore as I did a few years back).
If you haven't read the series at all, "Acts of Caine" is a fantasy pretending to be science fiction pretending to be fantasy. Set in a corporate-dominated dystopian near future with a rigid caste system, a "gate" is discovered to an alternate world with medieval technology where magic actually works. So, naturally, we turn it into a reality show, sending "Actors" with surgically implanted recording devices over to the alternate world to foment trouble and have violent adventures for the entertainment of the masses on our world. Becoming an"Actor" is one of the few ways for the lower castes to make it big, and "Caine" (real name in our world, Hari Michaelson) begins as one such aspiring Actor.
Those of...er..."delicate" sensibilities should be warned that this is very much postmodern sword & sorcery. It is often graphically violent (Stover has clearly done enough martial arts to write some very believable fight scenes). Stover's protagonist Caine is more anti- than hero, and his language is realistically larded with profanity, as befits a character who grew up in a violent slum.
Anybody with a serious appreciation of the genre absolutely must give Stover a try.
Be that as it may, Stover is still doing original work, and "Caine's Law" is yet another triumph for Stover. The "Acts of Caine" series started out strong with "Heroes Die" and has just built with every installment (although to be fair, while the first two books in the series stood very well alone, "Caine Black Knife" and "Caine's Law" feel like two halves to a single novel). Caine Black Knife dispensed with linear time, cutting back and forth between "mature" Caine and Caine at the beginning of his career. Stover is like a juggler, who keeps adding one more spinning plate, right up until the moment when he seems to lose it and they are all coming crashing to the floor--only to somehow pull of a conclusion conclusion that seems both elegant and inevitable. I think, with this novel, that he has managed to bring the story of Caine to such a conclusion--although it wouldn't surprise me if he some day comes up with a way to up the ante yet again.
Readers new to Stover's work should begin with "Heroes Die" to get the full impact of the series. Fortunately, second and long out-of-print book in the series, "Blade of Tyshalle," is now available for Kindle, (although a physical copy will cost you a pretty penny even used, unless you are lucky enough to find it new on the shelf of a bookstore as I did a few years back).
If you haven't read the series at all, "Acts of Caine" is a fantasy pretending to be science fiction pretending to be fantasy. Set in a corporate-dominated dystopian near future with a rigid caste system, a "gate" is discovered to an alternate world with medieval technology where magic actually works. So, naturally, we turn it into a reality show, sending "Actors" with surgically implanted recording devices over to the alternate world to foment trouble and have violent adventures for the entertainment of the masses on our world. Becoming an"Actor" is one of the few ways for the lower castes to make it big, and "Caine" (real name in our world, Hari Michaelson) begins as one such aspiring Actor.
Those of...er..."delicate" sensibilities should be warned that this is very much postmodern sword & sorcery. It is often graphically violent (Stover has clearly done enough martial arts to write some very believable fight scenes). Stover's protagonist Caine is more anti- than hero, and his language is realistically larded with profanity, as befits a character who grew up in a violent slum.
Anybody with a serious appreciation of the genre absolutely must give Stover a try.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
And now for something completely different
16 April 2012
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
As always, Stover delivers something unexpected.
This wasn't the book I had anticipated after finishing Caine Black Knife. The groundwork laid during that book had led me to expect something similar to Blade of Tyshalle for the follow up. While CL matches BOT in breadth, depth and complexity, it is an entirely different sort of book altogether and I can only admire Stover for the vision to conceive of such a move and the talent to make it work.
The themes of this book and DBK was not the battle against insurmountable odds (which BOT already covered) but finding resolution and some kind of peace. Stover could well have tried writing a bigger, badder BOT, but I respect the route he chose.
It was a deep book, but it lacked the intensity of HD and BOT. From the beginning, I hadn't the slightest doubt that Caine would pull through and come out on top. Gone were the last minute alterations in plan that featured in HD and BOT when Caine had to improvise to counter his foes.
Still I can't count those as faults. The book was exactly what Stover wanted it to be and for that, it's worthy of five stars. While BOT remains my favorite of the Acts of Caine, CL is an extraordinary book and worthy of several re-reads.
This wasn't the book I had anticipated after finishing Caine Black Knife. The groundwork laid during that book had led me to expect something similar to Blade of Tyshalle for the follow up. While CL matches BOT in breadth, depth and complexity, it is an entirely different sort of book altogether and I can only admire Stover for the vision to conceive of such a move and the talent to make it work.
The themes of this book and DBK was not the battle against insurmountable odds (which BOT already covered) but finding resolution and some kind of peace. Stover could well have tried writing a bigger, badder BOT, but I respect the route he chose.
It was a deep book, but it lacked the intensity of HD and BOT. From the beginning, I hadn't the slightest doubt that Caine would pull through and come out on top. Gone were the last minute alterations in plan that featured in HD and BOT when Caine had to improvise to counter his foes.
Still I can't count those as faults. The book was exactly what Stover wanted it to be and for that, it's worthy of five stars. While BOT remains my favorite of the Acts of Caine, CL is an extraordinary book and worthy of several re-reads.
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
