Matthew Woodring Stover

**Eldanuumea** · July 7th, 2003, 08:19 PM

I am nearly finished Heroes Die and looking forward to Blade of Tyshalle. Gosh, he's an exciting read! Thanks guys for bringing him to my attention.

**Shehzad** · July 7th, 2003, 09:41 PM

You're in for a real treat. A lot of people consider BoT a better book than HD. Even though it has less action per se, it is better written and has much better character development.

**Dominus** · July 12th, 2003, 01:43 PM

I'm right in the middle of BoT right now, and just realized that HD is connected to it and I didn't read it first. How screwed am I?

**Eldanuumea** · July 12th, 2003, 02:28 PM

Actually, Hon, I don't think it will hurt your experience of the books. After all, there is so much "backtracking" in the second book.
I loved both of them and wish there were more.

**Dominus** · July 12th, 2003, 04:32 PM

Good, I hate it when I do that. I swear, this is probably the third time that I've read a later book before the first book. Oh well, I'll get over it, hopefully.

**Shehzad** · July 13th, 2003, 01:14 AM

Originally posted by Eldanuumea

I loved both of them and wish there were more.

Hopefully, there soon will be...

**Dominus** · July 16th, 2003, 04:09 PM

Caine is now one of my top 5 most favorite characters.

**Shehzad** · July 16th, 2003, 06:03 PM

Join the club, Dominus. Otherwise I'l make you f******* drown in it...

**Bear** · July 16th, 2003, 09:55 PM

Finally got to read BoT, and I must say, I enjoyed it more than Heroes Die. Suprisingly more. Damn good book, added some great dimensions to the characters. So Stover does it again. Five thumbs up.

**Shehzad** · July 16th, 2003, 10:00 PM

That seems to be the key to BoT: the characters develop more depth to it and Stover's writing continues to improve. That's why I'm so keenly awaiting the next book in the series.

**Bear** · July 17th, 2003, 01:04 AM

Exactly. There was the other side to Caine that made him more human this go around.

*Spoilers*

I thought Stover handled Caine's frustrations from being crippled remarkably well. That could easily have come off as cheesy or trite, but Stover handled it just right.

*End Spoilers*

And another one of Stover's excellent qualities are his insights on violence. They're very dead on in most cases. I grew up in a not-so-nice neighborhood and I was surprised by how well he handled the topic in both these novels. Sure, it's a little glorified, but they don't call it fantasy for nothin'.

I'll definitely be in line for the next installment.

**Erfael** · July 17th, 2003, 09:26 AM

I just picked up Blade of Tyshale as my Barnes and Noble very surprisingly had it in stock. I'm not near the book now to check for myself, so is BoT a continuation of Heroes Die or a later book in a series or a standalone that happens to contain similar characters? Erf.

**Dominus** · July 17th, 2003, 01:19 PM

I just finished BoT about an hour ago. And as Caine would put it, "I thought GRRM was f****** hardcore, guess not." Someone has finally risen to the status that I place GRRM. I think there is nothing better than having a favorite author, and then having another author come and tie with them. Now, just waiting for B&N to call me so I can go get Heroes Die. Stover....more Stover.....