Take a photo of a barcode or cover
A review by lanko
Night Winds by Karl Edward Wagner
5.0
Today gritty and edgy novels have a dominant presence in Fantasy. So after reading about characters like Jorg Ancrath, Ramsay Bolton or Glokta and Bayaz, or novels like Beyond Redemption and the Night Angel Trilogy or even the bleak and depressive atmosphere of the Farseer Trilogy, I thought I had an understanding of the current power of these dark stories. Or what evil was or could be.
Enter Solomon Kane. And the word to describe him: Evil.
Based on a certain biblical myth, Kane is cursed with immortality, condemned to walk the world feared, hunted and despised. So after his immemorial terrible deed, Cain, I mean, Kane, roams the world and lives throughout the ages, doing or observing, or both, what humanity has to offer.
Right on the first story (which has a choppy structure, but everything gets so much better afterwards), Kane kills a noble lady-savior barbarian with a sword that grants protection against sorcery.
Kane is the anti-Conan. He is the anti-hero. He is evil. And right there this symbolic "fight" shows what he came for.
My favorite passage is when Kane is giving writing advice to a poet with writer's block:
"What if instead of some long-dead artist's never-finished vision of unearthy beauty, you found yourself trapped in an unhallowed nightmare from which some fever-poisoned madman awoke shrieking? The dark muse cares not whether her dreams portray ethereal beauty or mindless horror."
The poet formed an easy smile:
"If I wanted to write poems on sunshine and flowers and love, this might worry me. But you know my thoughts well enough. I'll weave my verses for the night, sing of the dark things that soar through nameless abysses - unfold the poetry of the macabre, while others prattle about little things. [...] True beauty lies in the dark side of life - in death, in the uncanny - in the grandeur of the unknown. The pure awareness of beauty is as overwhelming an emotion as blind fear; to feel inexpressible love is as soul-wrenching a sensation as to know relentless terror. When fired to the ultimate blaze, the finest emotions become one intolerable flame, and ecstasy and agony are inseparable."
Holy crap. I wish I could use that as my signature.
Since it's based on the pulp fiction of Howard's Conan, the style does show a bit of aging, despite being written almost 40 years later.
There's a lot of head hopping sometimes (or is this what they call Omniscient POV?), Kane loves to refer to himself by name in third person, and by the nature of the genre, a lot needs to be described through dialogues.
But those things are extremely minor. Kane is so much bigger than life. He may even look pragmatic, and sometimes you might even sympathize with him, then comes the nasty and evil revelation.
There's nothing really graphical on his stories, but it has such a grim, dark and hopeless atmosphere when you read it and when you really search between the lines and the meanings. Since Kane is immortal and lives centuries or millenniums, there are huge gaps in time, all left for you (or another of his books) to fill.
Solomon Kane would walk in Westeros, the Broken Empire, the Six Duchies, the First Law world like if he is in Disneyland. He would rule them all.
There's all that's needs to be said.
Read the two most liked reviews for this book. They will convince you about Kane. They totally sold it to me, and I totally bought it. And I'm glad I did it.
Enter Solomon Kane. And the word to describe him: Evil.
Based on a certain biblical myth, Kane is cursed with immortality, condemned to walk the world feared, hunted and despised. So after his immemorial terrible deed, Cain, I mean, Kane, roams the world and lives throughout the ages, doing or observing, or both, what humanity has to offer.
Right on the first story (which has a choppy structure, but everything gets so much better afterwards), Kane kills a noble lady-savior barbarian with a sword that grants protection against sorcery.
Kane is the anti-Conan. He is the anti-hero. He is evil. And right there this symbolic "fight" shows what he came for.
My favorite passage is when Kane is giving writing advice to a poet with writer's block:
"What if instead of some long-dead artist's never-finished vision of unearthy beauty, you found yourself trapped in an unhallowed nightmare from which some fever-poisoned madman awoke shrieking? The dark muse cares not whether her dreams portray ethereal beauty or mindless horror."
The poet formed an easy smile:
"If I wanted to write poems on sunshine and flowers and love, this might worry me. But you know my thoughts well enough. I'll weave my verses for the night, sing of the dark things that soar through nameless abysses - unfold the poetry of the macabre, while others prattle about little things. [...] True beauty lies in the dark side of life - in death, in the uncanny - in the grandeur of the unknown. The pure awareness of beauty is as overwhelming an emotion as blind fear; to feel inexpressible love is as soul-wrenching a sensation as to know relentless terror. When fired to the ultimate blaze, the finest emotions become one intolerable flame, and ecstasy and agony are inseparable."
Holy crap. I wish I could use that as my signature.
Since it's based on the pulp fiction of Howard's Conan, the style does show a bit of aging, despite being written almost 40 years later.
There's a lot of head hopping sometimes (or is this what they call Omniscient POV?), Kane loves to refer to himself by name in third person, and by the nature of the genre, a lot needs to be described through dialogues.
But those things are extremely minor. Kane is so much bigger than life. He may even look pragmatic, and sometimes you might even sympathize with him, then comes the nasty and evil revelation.
There's nothing really graphical on his stories, but it has such a grim, dark and hopeless atmosphere when you read it and when you really search between the lines and the meanings. Since Kane is immortal and lives centuries or millenniums, there are huge gaps in time, all left for you (or another of his books) to fill.
Solomon Kane would walk in Westeros, the Broken Empire, the Six Duchies, the First Law world like if he is in Disneyland. He would rule them all.
There's all that's needs to be said.
Read the two most liked reviews for this book. They will convince you about Kane. They totally sold it to me, and I totally bought it. And I'm glad I did it.