[Jacquin]

I think there's a little more to it than that. The whole reason Caine is the most popular actor is because of his tendency to extreme violence, every adventure gets progressively more dangerous and violent. The only way the studio could guarantee more violence was to set Caine against Ma'el Koth and to sabotage him at every stage the way they did. Either way they won. If Caine won then it would be his biggest sales yet, if he didn't then they were sure to sell more than ever before as you got to see the legendary Caine finally meet his match.

What they didn't bank on however was the fact that Caine was trying to change and was only there in the first place to save Shanna. He repeatedly didn't kill when he normally would have and as the book progresses he slowly comes to the realisation that violence isn't the only answer.

J

[kegasaurus]

Originally posted by kegasaurus
Haven't read the book yet, but is this fantasies equivalent to the Great Gatsby?

Combined with 'the Running Man.'

[Rob B]

Originally posted by Jacquin

What they didn't bank on however was the fact that Caine was trying to change and was only there in the first place to save Shanna. He repeatedly didn't kill when he normally would have and as the book progresses he slowly comes to the realisation that violence isn't the only answer.

J

Well said! :D;)

[Shehzad]

You nailed it, J!

[Sammie]

Oh ok, i can't BITE my lip anymore. That second paragraph is a TOTAL rip-off of what I said to him about HD the other night - and he knows it.

*frowns at J*

I want my credit!! :(

[Shehzad]

Sammie: I credit you with it....!

[Sammie]

Whoo hoo! Now let's make them all read BoT, so we can REALLY rant. A few things get QUITE twisted around, in that one...

[Shehzad]

Originally posted by FitzFlagg
Sammie, I think you've got with why Caine's mission was to kill Ma'elKoth. It is also another illustrative point of how the Studios want as much bloodshed as possible. Ma'elKoth was also getting too powerful for the Studio, he was beginning to suspect something strange was going on thus the Aktir hunt after the SWAT Team (or whatever it was) stormed his throne-room with automatic weapons.

This gets to something I was saying earlier: the real villain of the piece was not Ma'ElKoth but rather Kohlberg. Berne was merely a dangerous loose cannon.

[Rob B]

Originally posted by Shehzad


This gets to something I was saying earlier: the real villain of the piece was not Ma'ElKoth but rather Kohlberg. Berne was merely a dangerous loose cannon.

Good point about Berne - I think he was almost the embodiment of Chaos. He also was on the complete extreme regarding how far Caine could have progressed had he not chosen to solve his problems with tools other than violence. I think there even was a scene (or two) where Caine was remarking to himself about this--that he didn't want to become like Berne.

Kollberg was the villian yes, but sort of the equivalent of the Dark Lord who served the evil powers of the Studio. That's a bare-bones simplification but close to the point, I guess.

Throughout the novel Kollberg pushes Hari into acting more like Caine, providing the temptation of the Devil for Hari to give into the darker workings of his Caine persona.

There is a somewhat logical comparison to The Running Man, but outside of the surface comparisons, there isn't much else. Wonder how Stover would react to being compared to a B-quality version of one of Stephen King's lesser works?

[Shehzad]

Originally posted by FitzFlagg


There is a somewhat logical comparison to The Running Man, but outside of the surface comparisons, there isn't much else. Wonder how Stover would react to being compared to a B-quality version of one of Stephen King's lesser works?

He'd kick @$$, most probably.


Kollberg was the villian yes, but sort of the equivalent of the Dark Lord who served the evil powers of the Studio. That's a bare-bones simplification but close to the point, I guess.

Kind of like Saruman to Sauron?