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erenfrew 's review for:
Blade of Tyshalle
by Matthew Woodring Stover
Heroes Die would have done fine as a standalone book. The ending is your typical feel-good fantasy send-off: The villain is vanquished, the girl is won, the world is saved and the hero gets to go home to live happily ever after. Except not.
As one character remarks, "The problem with happy endings... is that nothing is ever truly over." This is the whole premise of Blade of Tyshalle. What happens when happily ever after doesn't work out. It shows us a Caine that has been reduced merely to crippled Administrator Hari Michaelson, and longs to go back to Overworld where he was larger than life.Unsurprisingly, he gets his chance, and not in the way that he expected.
I love this premise, and Stover generally does a good job answering his initial question. The plot is absolutely convoluted, but not as crazy as future installlments (looking at you, Caine's Law). Caine is still trying to prove to himself that he is really Hari Michaelson, so there is a lot of character growth as well.
Unfortunately, the book gets bogged down with some extended author filibusters. I generally like mixing philosophy with my fiction, and Stover does it better than pretty much anybody, but I felt like I was getting hit over the head with it at some points. It's all interesting philosophy, and eloquently written, so it doesn't destroy the story, but it does drag along at some points. The introduction of new characters like Kris Hansen/Deliann Mithondionne, T'Passe and Orbek is well-worth it though.
I didn't like this one as much as Heroes Die, but definitely worth reading overall. The audiobook is also amazingly well done.
As one character remarks, "The problem with happy endings... is that nothing is ever truly over." This is the whole premise of Blade of Tyshalle. What happens when happily ever after doesn't work out. It shows us a Caine that has been reduced merely to crippled Administrator Hari Michaelson, and longs to go back to Overworld where he was larger than life.Unsurprisingly, he gets his chance, and not in the way that he expected.
I love this premise, and Stover generally does a good job answering his initial question. The plot is absolutely convoluted, but not as crazy as future installlments (looking at you, Caine's Law). Caine is still trying to prove to himself that he is really Hari Michaelson, so there is a lot of character growth as well.
Unfortunately, the book gets bogged down with some extended author filibusters. I generally like mixing philosophy with my fiction, and Stover does it better than pretty much anybody, but I felt like I was getting hit over the head with it at some points. It's all interesting philosophy, and eloquently written, so it doesn't destroy the story, but it does drag along at some points. The introduction of new characters like Kris Hansen/Deliann Mithondionne, T'Passe and Orbek is well-worth it though.
I didn't like this one as much as Heroes Die, but definitely worth reading overall. The audiobook is also amazingly well done.