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The Acts of Caine, Matthew Stover


Wilbur

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Yep, doesn't help that I've never been in a bookstore that's ever carried any of these books.  Couple that with the absolute terrible cover of Heroes Die, which makes it look like a ridiculous trope filled run of the mill fantasy novel, and I see why these aren't flying off the shelf like they should.

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I actually like the Heroes Die cover.  To me it fits the Caine books pretty well since they embrace the heroic action fantasy genre in addition to providing a deeper take.  That's pretty much why the series has always been among my favorites.  The McKean style is great too, of course, although honestly I think it's a big too subdued to capture Stover's essence.  

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17 hours ago, Wilbur said:

 

Someone made it up, so I've adjusted the Wikipedia article.

Also many apologies, but it looks like quoting your quote has somehow edited out your post. I've just tried to reverse it to no avail. Not the first time this has happened since the board redesign.

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I'm on to your sinister plot, Wert!

But seriously, the original post compared Matthew Stover's excellent Acts of Caine with some other works that used the movie studio or game studio milieu to make social commentary, provide humor, etc.  Some of those authors and works included:

Walter John Williams' series featuring Dagmar Shaw and the virtual game industry for social commentary:

This Is Not a Game (2009)
Deep State (2011)
The Fourth Wall (2012)
"Diamonds from Tequila" (2014)

John Scalzi's Agent to the Stars (1999, 2005) for humor.

The social commentary in the trilogy of Michael Shea that was truncated by his untimely passing:

The Extra (2010)
Assault on Sunrise (2013)

And a brief comment on the excellent match on the audiobook reading of The Acts of Caine by Stefan Rudnicki between the reader's voice and the content.

Finally, I wanted to point out the connection between all of these works and the Earth of Stover's universe and their use of low-status individuals as meat puppets, similar to the ideas in GRRM's Nobody Leaves New Pittsburgh, Override, Meathouse Man or in William Gibson's Neuromancer.

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1 hour ago, Darth Richard II said:

If not for these boards I don't know if I would even know these books exist.

Same, and they are some of my favorites.

The fact that I had to buy Blade of Tyshalle used in order to get it didn’t help.

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12 hours ago, Darth Richard II said:

That one has done weird ass publishing history. It used to expensive as fuck but I think ebooks drove the price down. I’m sure some expert can chime in.

I think I still spent $20 on it used, which if not for these boards I probably wouldn't have made the jump.

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Even the audio of The Blade of Tyshalle is more expensive - it usually retails for about $40, while Caine's Law is about $25.  And finding it and then gaining access to a copy in the library system is quite challenging compared to a lot of other works.  ILL, for instance, has never been the same flowing process that contributes to the dissemination of information since the Disney copyright laws came into effect, and if there is one other culprit to the relative scarcity of Stover's original works (beyond lack of publisher marketing support), it is the knock-on effects of the Disney laws.

https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/07/the-hole-in-our-collective-memory-how-copyright-made-mid-century-books-vanish/278209/

The suppression of supply would appear to damage the author's interests if he or she is a "little guy", as the current copyright regulatory environment favors the larger players who can work the system's levers of power.

Of course, the audio file is also twice as long, so I guess you also have to pay the reader by the hour.

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I actually bought my eReader originally because I couldn't find a physical copy of Blade of Tyshalle for under $150.  I guess I should actually be thankful cause that was one of the best purchases I've ever made, but damn if I wasn't unhappy about it at the time. 

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If you're in Australia and you're after a physical copy of Blade of Tyshalle, I do have a few spares still left in our garage which I'd be happy to mail free of charge to anyone who's interested. 

That said: the eBook editions of all four Caine books are available via Orbit. One thing I've done is actually take them and edit out the atrocious covers and use modified images instead - including the fabulous used in Blade of Tyshalle. 

Sadly, I've yet to see an artist produce a better cover for Heroes Die (any artists out there want to take on this particular challenge?). 

 

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3 hours ago, Britton said:

I actually bought my eReader originally because I couldn't find a physical copy of Blade of Tyshalle for under $150.  I guess I should actually be thankful cause that was one of the best purchases I've ever made, but damn if I wasn't unhappy about it at the time. 

How odd. 

I've managed to pick up multiple copies on eBay for around $20 AUD. 

Between me and my best friend back in Canada, we have something like eight damn copies of the book. 

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6 hours ago, Darth Richard II said:

Yeah before the reprints She is the Darkness by Cook used to be a bitch to get a hold of. Same with some random D&D tie ins from then.

Including The City of Ravens by Richard Baker - a Forgotten Realms novel that I *cannot* recommend highly enough. It's goddamn gold.

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