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Title: Gods in Darkness by Karl Edward Wagner, Ken Kelly ISBN: 1-892389-24-X Publisher: Night Shade Books Pub. Date: 01 May, 2002 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4 (4 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Three Books in One!
Comment: Kane fans probablly already have the 3 books that have been bound together in this one: "Bloodstone", "Darkness Weaves" and "Dark Crusade".
But if you're new to Kane books or don't have any of the above novels, it is a great collection. "Darkness Weaves" and "Dark Crusade" are two of my favorites, but I was hoping for a COMPLETE collection of his stories and felt a tad cheated. There is a new collection of Kane stories coming out in September, so if you're undecided you might want to wait and see what that one contains before forking over the money. Of course, this book does have a great map on the inside cover showing Wagner's Elder Earth.
Rating: 5
Summary: The Mind of an Immortal
Comment: Wagner's stories about Kane are not simply dark fantasy at it's best. It shows the influence of immortality on a human being. From our (mortal) point of view Kane looks quite evil until you understand that for Kane reality is totally different. He is the only constant thing in a world of change. Empires rise and fall but he stays the same. It's Wagner's greatest achievement to give us a look into the workings of a mind you can no longer consider simply human.
Rating: 2
Summary: An amateur production
Comment: I've read the first of the three novels in this omnibus edition, and it was something of a disappointment on two levels. The first level is a matter of taste; I don't really like the writing style or the characters. (The plot is average for this sort of thing.) Wagner is very wordy, constructing long descriptions that employ "fancy" words like "eldritch" and "coruscating" and labor much too hard to build up an oppressive and dark atmosphere. (Wagner seems to be working under the influence of H. P. Lovecraft, but in my opinion the Lovecraft bleakness and over the top verbosity don't mesh well with an invincible-and-immortal-like-John-Carter lead character.) Kane is some kind of superhero, the best swordfighter in the land, the best archer in the land, a skilled diplomat and spy, a gifted scholar and expert on occult subjects, etc., as well as an unsympathetic brute and backstabber. The rest of the characters are cardboard cannon fodder. If you want to read sword fighting adventure stories with monsters and/or wizardry, I recommend trying Burrough's Mars books, Leiber's Fafhrd and Grey Mouser "Swords" books, or Moorcock's Elric and Corum books before this. Even Lin Carter's silly Callisto books were more fun.
Even if I had liked Wagner's tale, I still would have been disappointed with Night Shade Book's poor production of this omnibus edition. The part of Gods in Darkness that I read is full of typos; I swear every third page has a glaring error on it, like a period in the middle of a sentence, a spelling mistake, or what have you. (Could these be artifacts of the electronic scanning of an old manuscript?) Also, different pages are printed in different fonts; compare pages 17, 28, and 29... I swear these are three different fonts. Anyway, I have a first edition, perhaps Night Shade will resolve some of these issues in later printings.
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Title: The Midnight Sun: The Complete Stories of Kane by Karl Edward Wagner ISBN: 1892389517 Publisher: Nightshade Book Pub. Date: 15 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
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Title: The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian (Conan of Cimmeria, Book 1) by Robert E. Howard ISBN: 0345461517 Publisher: Del Rey Pub. Date: 02 December, 2003 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: The Savage Tales of Solomon Kane by ROBERT E. HOWARD ISBN: 0345461509 Publisher: Del Rey Pub. Date: 29 June, 2004 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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Title: The Complete Action Stories by Robert E. Howard ISBN: 0809533421 Publisher: Wildside Press Pub. Date: November, 2003 List Price(USD): $39.95 |
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Title: Graveyard Rats and Others by Robert E. Howard ISBN: 159224159X Publisher: Wildside Press Pub. Date: August, 2003 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
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