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3.95 AVERAGE
3.95 AVERAGE
3.5 stars
If like me you read Heroes Die and were expecting the same amount of bad assery from Blade of Tyshalle you'd be somewhat disappointed. It's not like the book is terrible but it's so vastly different from what you'd expect after reading the first Act of Caine book.
Although Blade of Tyshalle does have the signature bad ass action sequences that i've come to associate with the series, this book is more philosophical than the first one. You find characters searching for meaning for their actions, life.. Discovering and learning to accept themselves which really i have to say was not necessarily a bad thing. It definitely made me raise my eyebrow like umm TF is going on but i wouldn't have minded so much. Ultimately what didn't endear me to this book as the first one did, was that i felt Stover went out of his way to make this book as difficult as possible to understand. This isn't simply something that occurs just in book 2, even in book one you'd be hard pressed to figure out how the magic works (mind view ish and channelling the flow stuff) however what makes that easier to overlook are the action sequences. Book 1 is basically straight forward, no messing around action so magic is few and far between. Book 2 though has got magic in droves and let me tell you it's sort of hard to follow.
Then the bulk of the scientific jargon that was in the book. My thoughts on putting purely scientific stuff is books is this - DON'T!! Chances are even if you do decide to do a little research to know what the heck is going on in the book you're still not even going to understand what the heck you're reading.
Considering though that the book was able to keep me spell bound up until close to the end i'd say it wasn't a bad book, i just wasn't able to appreciate some parts of the plot due to the lack of understanding with the whole magic/ god ish and all that scientific jargon. So in the end i liked this addition to the series but i didn't love it.
A large part of the story was a lot of metaphysical hocus pocus though. It kinda lost me. A lot of the narrative was very convoluted and bloated. It's a large part as to why I did not like Blade of Tyshalle as much as I expected to.
But my favourite part was the characters. One of the things I adore about these books is the absolute intolerance for cardboard characters. Stover always surprises me with the realism and depth of even the less important characters, the variety of perspectives presented. It's all done in such a grounded manner. It's easy to make a character simply evil to fit the plot but there is true skill in crafting characters that contain true depth and still cannot reconcile themselves with each others' creeds and causes; the conflict that ensues is genuine and compelling.
Chris Hansen (lmao such a choice set of names) was a great addition. I love him and Caine. But then also nothing is more freeing than realising your own autonomy and taking a path outside of the previously set precedents because it is what feels right for you. I feel that.
My favourite part is the insight into Caine. His POV was the most enjoyable part of the book. He's happy as long as he is running far away from his childhood of horrors. His character development was magnificent. You can be pushed beyond your breaking point and come out the other side inexplicably alive and standing but put together with the broken pieces of your former self. It's a marvel. This is really a deeply optimistic book. It articulates the random chaos of existence. The chance occurances and events that coincide and turn out unexpected. Meaning is found only looking back. You just gotta cope.
Also best case ending for Pallas and Caine honestly. Fucking sad that they were so utterly incompatible, but this ending with Pallas joining the river and Caine getting closure from her is probably the best ending for them, long term. Perfect. I wanna see what bullshit he gets up to in the next book, having embraced himself and what he really wants out of life. The only truly fucked casualty is Faith. I have a bad feeling about her; magically traumatised children usually turn out pretty weird. Her character was also shittier, basically a walking plot device--but it's not that glaring so I won't complain.
If you read Heroes Die then this should go without saying: there's a lot of violence and gore in this. It's not for the faint of heart. I think it's even more severe and gruesome than in Heroes Die, and there is even more heinous sexual violence (like in Heroes Die, much of the violence is perpetrated by the protagonists, but the sexual violence is only perpetrated by the villains). If there's a squeamish bone in your body, stay away.
If you enjoyed Heroes Die you probably already want to read this book so I won't say much about it, other than that it involves a massive threat to Overworld. There's also much more about Earth than there was in Heroes Die, including a lot more of "worlds colliding" with the two worlds affecting one another more.
