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A review by tsunni
Heroes Die by Matthew Woodring Stover
adventurous
dark
tense
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
I was recommended this years ago; without that recommendation I probably wouldn't have finished.
To its credit, I think the core story is written very well for a testosterone action fest. Strip away all that I don't like about it and the writing and action do a really good job drawing me in while being easy to breeze through. The characters all serve their purpose and mostly feel generally unique, although very obvious and tropey; forgivable when I remember this was written in the 90s. The pacing and plot builds up nicely to a satisfying climax, and we get nice wrapup near the end that cleans up loose threads well. It's aged acceptably; it pushes boundaries in ways I don't like, and some of the characterizations are definitely very 90s titillation, but I don't think it does anything so unacceptable that you can't push through even now.
That being said, I feel like this is exactly the kind of grimdark that I dislike; take away most of it and the story isn't affected. None of the terrible content warning acts that are flippantly thrown at you as setting or background noise, not the storage containers of limbs and blood and guts or any scenes involving gore of various sorts, none of the terrible torturous acts performed on each other, sliding bodies through giant statues with sexual organs, the sexual predator/murderous inner thoughts of certain pov characters; none of it was necessary or had any impact on the plot. As I read I was constantly asking "why? what does this add to the story or the characters?" I don't think there was a good answer even once, and this was the book's biggest flaw. Maybe things were different back when it was written, but now I don't feel like there's any excuse to have this level of gratuitous content just to have it.
I honestly didn't even hate the book or felt any strong emotions toward it at the end; I just finished it feeling puzzled by it. I don't think this is a book I could recommend to anyone, because every genre it represents has a better choice someplace else. There's grimdark with better characterization where the grimdark has meaning and relevance; there's testosterone action fest hero's journey stories that don't pad with shock and awe and have better side characters and action scenes; there's a very swamped field of isekai and transported-to-other-world stories, and plenty of dystopian future fiction to pick from. Look elsewhere
To its credit, I think the core story is written very well for a testosterone action fest. Strip away all that I don't like about it and the writing and action do a really good job drawing me in while being easy to breeze through. The characters all serve their purpose and mostly feel generally unique, although very obvious and tropey; forgivable when I remember this was written in the 90s. The pacing and plot builds up nicely to a satisfying climax, and we get nice wrapup near the end that cleans up loose threads well. It's aged acceptably; it pushes boundaries in ways I don't like, and some of the characterizations are definitely very 90s titillation, but I don't think it does anything so unacceptable that you can't push through even now.
That being said, I feel like this is exactly the kind of grimdark that I dislike; take away most of it and the story isn't affected. None of the terrible content warning acts that are flippantly thrown at you as setting or background noise, not the storage containers of limbs and blood and guts or any scenes involving gore of various sorts, none of the terrible torturous acts performed on each other, sliding bodies through giant statues with sexual organs, the sexual predator/murderous inner thoughts of certain pov characters; none of it was necessary or had any impact on the plot. As I read I was constantly asking "why? what does this add to the story or the characters?" I don't think there was a good answer even once, and this was the book's biggest flaw. Maybe things were different back when it was written, but now I don't feel like there's any excuse to have this level of gratuitous content just to have it.
I honestly didn't even hate the book or felt any strong emotions toward it at the end; I just finished it feeling puzzled by it. I don't think this is a book I could recommend to anyone, because every genre it represents has a better choice someplace else. There's grimdark with better characterization where the grimdark has meaning and relevance; there's testosterone action fest hero's journey stories that don't pad with shock and awe and have better side characters and action scenes; there's a very swamped field of isekai and transported-to-other-world stories, and plenty of dystopian future fiction to pick from. Look elsewhere