FormCritic wrote:Misericorde is not a good story. It features Kane exhibiting a sort of multi-dimensional jumping talent that also appears in the modern Kane stories. Nobody has a chance against Kane because he jumps in and out of shadows and generally lords his complete superiority over everyone. It might have gotten good. I stopped reading.I missed your mini-review earlier, Mark.I disagree with your assessment though. I think Misiericorde is Wagner's finest Kane story, bar none. It may be one of the only PERFECT short stories he ever wrote. Everything works in this story....the conniving rich royal lady, Tamaslei; the sinister Vareishei clan and the gloomy, forbodding, unassailable Altharn Keep (An aside: If a set of baddies and a location have EVER cried out more for an adaption to a D&D campaign as this, I've never seen it, EXCEPT for Wagner's story Cold Light); the plotline, unique for a Kane story (Kane is hired to avenge a friend and find a stolen/lost crown by killing all four Vareishei siblings); the ironic statements Kane makes as he takes down the siblings one by one ("Your have committed only a few mistakes, but regrettably this is not an art in which one learns though experience"), the weird way Kane somehow steals the souls of the Vareishei and places them into jewels (glossed over in a few paragraphs, but deserves to also be used in a D&D campaign), and the ironic/twist ending I didn't see coming the first time I read the tale. Honestly, I can find hardly a word out of place...I actually love Kane's dialogue thoughout the story, especially when he is first taking the job and outlining his "moral code"....great stuff.Seriously Mark I trust your judgement on most things...but on this you are waaaaay off. I just read it for about the 100th time again last night to see if maybe I was missing something....About the ONLY complaint I have with the story is that basically Kane is invincible in this story, a talent not evidenced in earlier Kane tales. But I think that's partly the point of the tale....Kane is stronger than Wenvor, sneakier than Ostervor, more cunning than Sitilvon, and older than even Puriali suspects....they are a horrific clan of murderers, rapists, poisoners and torturers, but in the end, Kane is eternal, and Kane is simply better than them. I have never seen the multi dimensional jumping ability you state in this story...I think Kane is just damn sneaky, and as evidenced by the scene with Ostervor, he knows the secret passages of Altern Keep even better than they do (he's older than the Keep after all...maybe he's the one who built it?) and is able to take out all the siblings one by one because of it. Remember the story is one of the few NOT told from Kane's point of view....his unerring ability to appear at the right place at the right time shouldn't be mistaken for teleportation. He reminds me of Batman in the comics...Commissioner Gordon turns his back, he is talking to Batman, he turns around, Batman is gone. Batman didn't teleport away, he's just quick and sneaky, like Kane. Kane is a figure that lives in the shadows and edges of the world, and I think this story shows it better than most(he surprises Tamaslei at least twice but suddenly appearing in her room while she is elseways occupied). If nothing else the description of the Vareishei clan and their mountan fortress is one of the best setups Wagner ever used for a story....At First Just Ghostly starts out with an interesting 80's protagonist named Cody Lennox...right off the set of Miami Vice. (He even has a linen jacket and a five o'clock shadow beard.) Lennox is a bit too autobiographical, since he is a drunken horror novelist who is on his way to a convention in London. Then the protagonist meets Kane, who is a smug, know-it-all prat who pops in an out of space and time to mystify Lennox and bore the reader to death. Kane is opposed by Satan/Sathonys and there is no God...because Kane killed him. The fragment is aptly titled. Maybe Wagner could have fixed it had he lived.I don't know what happened to Wagner, as it's been said maybe it was the alcohol. But his ability surely degraded with stuff like this and the really crappy erotic horror. Writers like to use writers (or their lesser cousins, journalists) as protagonists because a writer is the coolest, smartest, most observant and sensitive character a writer can think of. For example, easily half of Stephen King's protagonists are writers and most of the other half are equally autobiographical to some extent.Yep, agree entirely. I never saw Lady in the Water by M Shamalamarama but doesn't he play a writer that is told by a superntural being he's destined to be the greatest writer in the world someday? MARY SUE....... What is almost worth the price of the book is Wagner's closing essay about why and how he created Kane....and the literary decisions he made in presenting the stories. Foremost is the explanation of why Kane characters talk like 20th century people. (Because that is how they sound to themselves...which makes excellent sense.)Wagner's essays in Twilight Zone magazine need to be collected....he was just plain incredible when it came to knowing the history of horror literature, backwards and forwards. EVerything I've read by him non-fiction wise is fascinating. He's one of the very few writers I've read that I would have loved to have just hung around all day to hear talk....All of this ignores that fact that the rest of Midnight Sun is just plain awesome reading. Kane is an original take on fantasy literature in which the villain is the hero. As Wagner points out in his essay, villains are more interesting than heroes. Kane cannot be thought of as an anti-hero because anti-heroes are usually dolts or too flawed to live. Kane is an evil dude who is usually just a bit less evil than whoever or whatever he is trying to rob/con/bring down/take over/curse. Kane is the ultimate amoral product of a man cursed to live forever...cmon, does any of us think after walking the earth a few thousand years we wouldn't be uncaring, soulless and jaded ourselves? I mean, Kane is older than freaking Dracula...and we know how that dude turned out.....Along the way, Kane fights enough lurid, bloody battles to sate the gore lust of any Conan reader. (Darkness Weaves was the next novel I read after finishing Tolkien at age 14. Parts of the story literally made me gag with delight.) Wagner has the distinction of all the Robert E. Howard fans of creating a character that exceeds his idol's work. Anyone who has ever suffered through a Brak the Barbarian story knows this is true...now there's a trivia question for fantasy readers!Darkness Weaves is just a great story, can't add to this....Reflections for the Winter of My Soul is possibly the best fantasy story ever written. (Your nominations are....?) Raven's Eyrie and Lynortis Reprise might challenge for the second and third spots. Cold Light is a nice tale of a D&D paladin gone wrong.
FormCritic wrote:Misericorde is not a good story. It features Kane exhibiting a sort of multi-dimensional jumping talent that also appears in the modern Kane stories. Nobody has a chance against Kane because he jumps in and out of shadows and generally lords his complete superiority over everyone. It might have gotten good. I stopped reading.
At First Just Ghostly starts out with an interesting 80's protagonist named Cody Lennox...right off the set of Miami Vice. (He even has a linen jacket and a five o'clock shadow beard.) Lennox is a bit too autobiographical, since he is a drunken horror novelist who is on his way to a convention in London. Then the protagonist meets Kane, who is a smug, know-it-all prat who pops in an out of space and time to mystify Lennox and bore the reader to death. Kane is opposed by Satan/Sathonys and there is no God...because Kane killed him. The fragment is aptly titled. Maybe Wagner could have fixed it had he lived.
Writers like to use writers (or their lesser cousins, journalists) as protagonists because a writer is the coolest, smartest, most observant and sensitive character a writer can think of. For example, easily half of Stephen King's protagonists are writers and most of the other half are equally autobiographical to some extent.
What is almost worth the price of the book is Wagner's closing essay about why and how he created Kane....and the literary decisions he made in presenting the stories. Foremost is the explanation of why Kane characters talk like 20th century people. (Because that is how they sound to themselves...which makes excellent sense.)
All of this ignores that fact that the rest of Midnight Sun is just plain awesome reading. Kane is an original take on fantasy literature in which the villain is the hero. As Wagner points out in his essay, villains are more interesting than heroes. Kane cannot be thought of as an anti-hero because anti-heroes are usually dolts or too flawed to live. Kane is an evil dude who is usually just a bit less evil than whoever or whatever he is trying to rob/con/bring down/take over/curse.
Along the way, Kane fights enough lurid, bloody battles to sate the gore lust of any Conan reader. (Darkness Weaves was the next novel I read after finishing Tolkien at age 14. Parts of the story literally made me gag with delight.) Wagner has the distinction of all the Robert E. Howard fans of creating a character that exceeds his idol's work. Anyone who has ever suffered through a Brak the Barbarian story knows this is true...now there's a trivia question for fantasy readers!
Reflections for the Winter of My Soul is possibly the best fantasy story ever written. (Your nominations are....?) Raven's Eyrie and Lynortis Reprise might challenge for the second and third spots. Cold Light is a nice tale of a D&D paladin gone wrong.
megnelwil wrote: with Manichean goodies and baddies littering the text,
FormCritic wrote:I always promise myself...one day I'm going to remember what "Manichean" means.
killjoy32 wrote:sorry but i am still a fan of the old perry rhodan novels. i think they are fab fun to read - i never tire of them.have also just finished reading glory road yet again.Al
Badmike wrote:Reflections is one of the best fantasy werewolf stories every written...and the coolest way to kill a werewolf I've ever read. Cold Light is another D&D scenario waiting to happen...both also show Kane in a different light than usual, more reflective and reactive, more pensive, less evil--- they both almost read like Conan tales if you ask me.Mike B.
FormCritic wrote: The Guns of Avalon.
serleran wrote:If you like Perry Rhodan, you might find this site interesting.
gyg wrote:Great film - Gregory Peck, David Niven et al. - didn't much like the sequel with Harrison Ford though.(just kidding)
sleepyCO wrote:Talk about a name from the past--I haven't seen a Perry Rhodan book/novel in a long time; the only book I've ever seen (German or English translation) was The Fortress of the Six Moons, and that I bought in a bookstore in New Mexico in the mid-1970's. (I do still have it, read it about once or twice a year, and still enjoy it.)Apparently, the original format is slightly different than a novel; this is listed as #13 in the series (the novel version is book #7 on the novel I have).Have you or anyone else run into the Rhodan series in any of the brick-and-mortar bookstores, or is it more available in the (shrinking number of) local booksellers? Melvin H.
sleepyCO wrote:Thanks serelan--found it and intend to read more about the series...curious if there has been any ideas about making a Rhodan movie for theatre or straight to DVD?
FormCritic wrote:OK...looked up Manicheanism online.Apparently, g026r wasn't joking. It is, literally, the teachings of Manes.
Mervyn Peake's gothic masterpiece, the Gormenghast trilogy, begins with the superlative Titus Groan, a darkly humorous, stunningly complex tale of the first two years in the life of the heir to an ancient, rambling castle. The trilogy continues with the novels Gormenghast and Titus Alone, and all three books are bound together in this single-volume edition.The Gormenghast royal family, the castle's decidedly eccentric staff, and the peasant artisans living around the dreary, crumbling structure make up the cast of characters in these engrossing stories. Peake's command of language and unique style set the tone and shape of an intricate, slow-moving world of ritual and stasis: "The walls of the vast room which were streaming with calid moisture, were built with gray slabs of stone and were the personal concern of a company of eighteen men known as the 'Grey Scrubbers'.... On every day of the year from three hours before daybreak until about eleven o'clock, when the scaffolding and ladders became a hindrance to the cooks, the Grey Scrubbers fulfilled their hereditary calling."