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A review by isabellarobinson7
Heroes Die by Matthew Woodring Stover
4.0
Rating: 4 stars
I read this book at the recommendation of a Goodreads friend who said it was one of his favourites. I can see why. This book was doing what many fantasy/sci fi books try to do today, and it did it almost 25 years ago.
Some plot/character stuff: I really liked the way character motivations and limits were handled. It always felt like our characters were in danger, but they perhaps had the means of surviving if they pushed harder. I was worried there that it might become the “wife in the fridge” trope but I don’t think it did. Can’t say how or why because of spoilers but I don’t think so.
It was kind of weird with all the cussing in a Tolkien-era fantasy. I suppose it adds to the idea that these dudes are from future earth, and this is as much a sci fi as a fantasy, but it is just weird. I’m not being a prude and going "I don’t want any bad words anywhere! How dare they say that! I am reporting this book! It should be banned forever!!!!!" but it was just strange and at points over the top. Sometimes it gets to the point where it’s like how edgy can we make this dialogue? There was this line that I heard in the audio and just had to find in my ebook copy (audio people know) that was as follows (a direct quote): "Lord, my aching balls! I love being me!" I snorted so hard reading that I almost pulled my brain out of my nostrils. (Said Goodreads friend already knows my feeling about this sentence.) And not only because of this man’s giant ego. His word choice is questionable to say the least.
A Side Quest: Isabella Attempts To Determine Whether Heroes Die Is Science Fiction Or Fantasy
(mostly through roundabout ways such as public opinion, bookstores and intensive Googling)
That leads on to my next point - is Heroes Die a sci fi or a fantasy? Both… but which one is it more? The cover SCREAMS 90’s fantasy, but technically the "real" world in this book is future Earth, so does that make it more sci fi...?
Goodreads readers have rather convincingly decided it is more fantasy than science fiction, with 1,033 people shelving it as fantasy, and only 259 doing so as science fiction (well, that is not accounting for people who have shelved it as both, and also technically the sci fi number is higher, because as well as the 259 people placing this book in a shelf titled "science-fiction", a further 190 people shelved it under one called "sci-fi" and another 50 in a shelf called "scifi" and again- ok we are just going to stop this nonsense now. It's a lot. Numbers, maths, addition... it's inconclusive. You get the gist.) It isn't really that much of a problem on the Goodreads side of things, because I can just put it under both shelves, but what about my giant reading spreadsheet where I seperate the two genres and allocate one or the other to each book? I must go in search of other sources!
Wikipedia takes the easy route out saying "Heroes Die is a science fantasy novel by American writer Matthew Stover" and I am tempted to abuse my Wikipedia user powers and change it into some kind of conundrum of paragraphs like the ones I am constructing now, but then I will probably get my editing privileges revoked and I don't want that. More sources!
Audible, Kobo and Apple Books are no use because they just shove it in a category titled "Science Fiction & Fantasy" so those guys are out. Google Books just lists a whole bunch of genres: "Fantasy Fiction, Science fiction, High fantasy, Adventure fiction, Dystopian Fiction" though it is interesting that they list fantasy before sci fi, but you would think that was just a matter of alphabetising the list, but as you can see, it is not (this is also what comes up if you chuck "what genre is heroes die" into Google). Amazon has its bestseller rank in three categories: #4,358 in Post-Apocalyptic Science Fiction; #5,677 in Fantasy Action & Adventure; #9,398 in Epic Fantasy. Interesting how it is higher up in sci fi than either of the fantasies (also I would argue that if anything it is portal fantasy, not epic fantasy). My quest continues!
And then... we come back to the cover - "Heroes Die: A Fantasy Novel". That should solve it, right? NOPE. I blame this on the marketing team who saw what was popping off in book circles at the time and replicated it.
A Conclusion
So my well of resources is dry. I have no answer, just more questions. Like "was this needed?" Well I have an answer to that: a big fat NO. "Am I overthinking things?" Yes. 10000% yes, you are Isabella. "Should I shut up now?" Oh, most definitely.
I read this book at the recommendation of a Goodreads friend who said it was one of his favourites. I can see why. This book was doing what many fantasy/sci fi books try to do today, and it did it almost 25 years ago.
Some plot/character stuff: I really liked the way character motivations and limits were handled. It always felt like our characters were in danger, but they perhaps had the means of surviving if they pushed harder. I was worried there that it might become the “wife in the fridge” trope but I don’t think it did. Can’t say how or why because of spoilers but I don’t think so.
It was kind of weird with all the cussing in a Tolkien-era fantasy. I suppose it adds to the idea that these dudes are from future earth, and this is as much a sci fi as a fantasy, but it is just weird. I’m not being a prude and going "I don’t want any bad words anywhere! How dare they say that! I am reporting this book! It should be banned forever!!!!!" but it was just strange and at points over the top. Sometimes it gets to the point where it’s like how edgy can we make this dialogue? There was this line that I heard in the audio and just had to find in my ebook copy (audio people know) that was as follows (a direct quote): "Lord, my aching balls! I love being me!" I snorted so hard reading that I almost pulled my brain out of my nostrils. (Said Goodreads friend already knows my feeling about this sentence.) And not only because of this man’s giant ego. His word choice is questionable to say the least.
A Side Quest: Isabella Attempts To Determine Whether Heroes Die Is Science Fiction Or Fantasy
(mostly through roundabout ways such as public opinion, bookstores and intensive Googling)
That leads on to my next point - is Heroes Die a sci fi or a fantasy? Both… but which one is it more? The cover SCREAMS 90’s fantasy, but technically the "real" world in this book is future Earth, so does that make it more sci fi...?
Goodreads readers have rather convincingly decided it is more fantasy than science fiction, with 1,033 people shelving it as fantasy, and only 259 doing so as science fiction (well, that is not accounting for people who have shelved it as both, and also technically the sci fi number is higher, because as well as the 259 people placing this book in a shelf titled "science-fiction", a further 190 people shelved it under one called "sci-fi" and another 50 in a shelf called "scifi" and again- ok we are just going to stop this nonsense now. It's a lot. Numbers, maths, addition... it's inconclusive. You get the gist.) It isn't really that much of a problem on the Goodreads side of things, because I can just put it under both shelves, but what about my giant reading spreadsheet where I seperate the two genres and allocate one or the other to each book? I must go in search of other sources!
Wikipedia takes the easy route out saying "Heroes Die is a science fantasy novel by American writer Matthew Stover" and I am tempted to abuse my Wikipedia user powers and change it into some kind of conundrum of paragraphs like the ones I am constructing now, but then I will probably get my editing privileges revoked and I don't want that. More sources!
Audible, Kobo and Apple Books are no use because they just shove it in a category titled "Science Fiction & Fantasy" so those guys are out. Google Books just lists a whole bunch of genres: "Fantasy Fiction, Science fiction, High fantasy, Adventure fiction, Dystopian Fiction" though it is interesting that they list fantasy before sci fi, but you would think that was just a matter of alphabetising the list, but as you can see, it is not (this is also what comes up if you chuck "what genre is heroes die" into Google). Amazon has its bestseller rank in three categories: #4,358 in Post-Apocalyptic Science Fiction; #5,677 in Fantasy Action & Adventure; #9,398 in Epic Fantasy. Interesting how it is higher up in sci fi than either of the fantasies (also I would argue that if anything it is portal fantasy, not epic fantasy). My quest continues!
And then... we come back to the cover - "Heroes Die: A Fantasy Novel". That should solve it, right? NOPE. I blame this on the marketing team who saw what was popping off in book circles at the time and replicated it.
A Conclusion
So my well of resources is dry. I have no answer, just more questions. Like "was this needed?" Well I have an answer to that: a big fat NO. "Am I overthinking things?" Yes. 10000% yes, you are Isabella. "Should I shut up now?" Oh, most definitely.