
Heroes Die
The First of the Acts of Caine
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Narrated by:
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Stefan Rudnicki
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By:
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Matthew Stover
About this listen
Audie Award Nominee, Fantasy, 2013
Renowned throughout the land of Ankhana as the Blade of Tyshalle, Caine has killed his share of monarchs and commoners, villains and heroes. He is relentless, unstoppable, simply the best there is at what he does.
At home on Earth, Caine is Hari Michaelson, a superstar whose adventures in Ankhana command an audience of billions. Yet he is shackled by a rigid caste society, bound to ignore the grim fact that he kills men on a far-off world for the entertainment of his own planet - and bound to keep his rage in check.
But now Michaelson has crossed the line. His estranged wife, Pallas Rill, has mysteriously disappeared in the slums of Ankhana. To save her, he must confront the greatest challenge of his life: a lethal game of cat and mouse with the most treacherous rulers of two worlds.
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Critic reviews
It is pretty violent and quite mature (language and actions, no sex though). It is kinda like a dark noir fantasy vigilante story. You might like this book if you like the kind of "human darkness" found in Joe Abercrombie's books: where men are very very bad, and nobody really calls them on their very bad behavior until the HERO steps in. My only problem with the book, actually, is that I think it went on a bit too long, and there was just a smidge too much political commentary on the state of the world (with the suggestion that the path it's following will result (socially) in where this book takes us). Maybe the moral in this story is "true", but I still prefer my butt-kicking to come without lectures.
It has a tone very similar to Richard Morgan's Altered Carbon series - and a kinda similar setting... but Morgan's is less "fantasy" based and quite a bit more sexually graphic. I'm going to read the rest of the series. The narration is very good.
A rather dark and violent fantasy
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Best Anti-Hero ever! Love this series.
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Great book
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Really. Really. No seriously, its really good.
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Love this series
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What I liked:
The characters were written well enough to make you care about them.
Story was fairly fast paced and kept you entertained.
The conflict in both worlds was engaging and interesting.
What I disliked:
The "fantasy" side of the story was violent, but not truly dark or gritty.
There wasn't much development of the mythology or magical system.
Some of the dialog was nearing childish and caused me to loose my suspension of disbelief.
I'd put this in my "pass the time" category. Not sure if I'm going on the sequel yet.
Enjoyable, but not outstanding.
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Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?
Yes, as long as it is one of my friends who enjoy scifi/fantasy, because it has well developed characters and an interesting story line.Have you listened to any of Stefan Rudnicki’s other performances before? How does this one compare?
I have heard him several times before and always enjoy his narration.Great series opener
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Would you consider the audio edition of Heroes Die to be better than the print version?
Wouldn't know. Good audio version. Narrator if fantastic.Which character – as performed by Stefan Rudnicki – was your favorite?
Great performance. Love the voice. Puts the "Boom" behind the booming voice.Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?
Yes, but at 22hrs long some might want to take a nap in the middle.Any additional comments?
Good book. I'm used to "Epic Fantasy's" So not a ton of Character depth. All in All good read. Has the love, has the intrigue, but most of all has the great actionGood "Read"
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excellent book, will keep you hooked til the end.
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amazing amazing amazing
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