Blade of Tyshalle: A Review

Potzblitz. Da hat Amazon doch tatsächlich meinen Review zu Blade of Tyshalle abgelehnt. Naja, dann eben so:


First of all, let me get this off my chest: it's a f*cking travesty this book isn't in print while there's myriads of *u***** "fantasy" books about vampires and elves out there. F*c* that. I got an ebook reader just to be able to read this book. And boy was it worth it.

In my review of "Heroes Die", I called Stover "Abercrombie before Abercrombie". I'd like to refine that to "Stover was Abercrombie before Abercrombie (before Abercrombie tried to become Pratchett)". And yes, that's still true for "Blade of Tyshalle". You'll be hard pressed to find a book that's more vicious, more brutal and more bursting with martial arts action (you don't like martial arts action? Neither do I. But it's there, and it's good. So shut up and enjoy it, or Stover will come and give you some*).


Another writer that comes to mind when reading Stover is China Miéville (before Miéville tried to become Gaiman); like Miéville, Stover is a highly intelligent and educated person who likes to write sophisticated plots, likes to incorporate philosophy, and BOY does he like to let you know just how clever he is. But unlike Miéville, Stover thankfully never lets his showing off get in the way of his plot or of his book's readability.
Readability. Ah. Back to Stover's sharpest knife. I've already ranted about it in my review for HD, so I'll just tell you he still grabs you by the balls (or corresponding body parts) and drags you through an epic ... well, I can't tell you through how many pages because the f*cking book isn *u***** out of print. But he drags you through the book and doesn't let go. And in the end he gives you a good old legdrop in your nuts for laughs**. And you'll thank him and ask for more, because hell, that's how good he is. Matt Stover is a master storyteller on par with GRR Martin (yeah yeah, A Dance with Dragons sucks. Doesn't change that Martin is fantasy's best storytelling voice).

Well. If you like fantasy books, read it. It even has Elves (with sharp teeth). If you like BOOKS, read it. And if you only want to read three series before you die and you've already read the first four volumes of Song of Ice and Fire and Rothfuss' current opus, skip the f*cking rest and dig into the Caine series. It's THAT good. Even though no one seems to know it.

It makes me want to puke that there's not even a German translation for Heroes Die and that Blade of Tyshalle is out of print (just in case you didn't know), but that's life for you. Do your thing for justice today, buy Blade of Tyshalle and let your government representative know that you won't re-elect him until Blade of Tyshalle is in print again.

* Stover might not actually "come and give you some". For all I know, he might be one of those zen martial artists.
** Stover might not actually do that. It's just a metaphor.