So, it's come to my attention that the number of Kane fans on these fora has grown considerably during the last year or so. Thus, I think Kane deserves a new thread in his honour (allthough he'd probably not just scoff at the notion but just take the thread and run with it).
For the uninitiated, KEW's Kane stories are post-Conan S&S, allthough I think Dark Fantasy might be a better description (indeed there's few fantasy books that deserve that genre title better), set in a world whose "rules" vagually resembles those of the Hellboyverse (well, it seems like that to me anyway): aliens and cthuloid elder gods and vampires & werewolves and demons and ancient alien supertech! (allthough not in the same story, of course). The hero (well, protagonist. Main character, anyway ) is Kane, a man cursed with immortality, who wanders the Earth, generally planning to Conquer The World!, or at least get ahead, or sometimes just, say, performing impossible assassination jobs just to escape boredom a couple days...in a rather horrible world in wich Good tends not to triumph over Evil a whole lot (except for a certain crazy crusader who appears in one short story, but he's hardly "good"). Mankind's generally nasty, the non-humans are generally nastier (except for one species, who's more or less died out ), humanity's backstory's...familiar ().
Aka: high -factor. In the best meaning of the word "".
In fact at times I've preferred Kane to Conan, but, well, that might just be me
BTW my faves are the novel Bloodstone and the short stories Undertow, Two Suns Setting and Misericorde
(A couple months ago, Cessna asked me to start a Kane thread on this forum. I promised to, but, for some reason, I forgot to. Sorry, Cessna. Really. Sorry. )
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"May the Fisk be with you." Purpura, Ent's Tangency-Sister
"I went out last night...don't really remember wich beautyful co-worker I seduced, because I think I had a bit too much to drink...anyway, isn't Eliza the hawtest actress EVAR?"-Graywolf imitating me
"The Ent's Norway's answer to Son of Kirk"-JonA
"The Ent's Norway's answer to CAPTAIN Kirk"-Eilonwy
OK, I'll nibble: how many books are there? What are they called?
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well, basically, I have the novels Bloodstone and Dark Crusade, and the short stories collection Night Winds in paperback. I believe there are two more novels and another collection; the six books are collected into two large hardbacks, but the names escape me at present.
Instead of being lean and pantherish like Conan, Kane is a solid 300+ of muscle, with coarse, even brutish features. Also was a top ranked wizard in one of the first cities, which gradually passes into legend over time.
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OK, I'll nibble: how many books are there? What are they called?
Originally, there was: Bloodstone
Dark Crusade
Darkness Weaves
Night Winds (short story collection) and Death Angel's Shadow (short story collection).
A couple years ago the Kane stories were re-issued in two books: Gods in Darkness (the novels) and Midnight Sun (the short stories, including stuff not in the original collections).
There's not a whole lot of Kane stories, I'm sorry to say
Edit to add: ...and, yes, the stories ARE good and cool enough that I speak the titles with a straight face
Edit 2: said new collections are by Night Shade Books.
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"May the Fisk be with you." Purpura, Ent's Tangency-Sister
"I went out last night...don't really remember wich beautyful co-worker I seduced, because I think I had a bit too much to drink...anyway, isn't Eliza the hawtest actress EVAR?"-Graywolf imitating me
"The Ent's Norway's answer to Son of Kirk"-JonA
"The Ent's Norway's answer to CAPTAIN Kirk"-Eilonwy
Instead of being lean and pantherish like Conan, Kane is a solid 300+ of muscle, with coarse, even brutish features. Also was a top ranked wizard in one of the first cities, which gradually passes into legend over time.
Indeed, he's got rather peculiar looks for a fantasy protagonist. And it's cool that you mentioned the wizard part, and the Carsultyal (mankind's very first city!) part - it's some of what makes the series unique. In the early stories, Carsultyal's the wonder of the world; then a "strange fall" happens and it's in ruins; later it seems like only Kane and a few wizards remember it...
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"May the Fisk be with you." Purpura, Ent's Tangency-Sister
"I went out last night...don't really remember wich beautyful co-worker I seduced, because I think I had a bit too much to drink...anyway, isn't Eliza the hawtest actress EVAR?"-Graywolf imitating me
"The Ent's Norway's answer to Son of Kirk"-JonA
"The Ent's Norway's answer to CAPTAIN Kirk"-Eilonwy
The rest of the site has more interesting stuff about various heroic fantasy figures.
Cheers
Thanks for posting the link, I love that site!
(Particularily the Hyborian Heresies, mind - I need to get that book!)
Also the Kane chronology is very cool, as are the general musings
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"May the Fisk be with you." Purpura, Ent's Tangency-Sister
"I went out last night...don't really remember wich beautyful co-worker I seduced, because I think I had a bit too much to drink...anyway, isn't Eliza the hawtest actress EVAR?"-Graywolf imitating me
"The Ent's Norway's answer to Son of Kirk"-JonA
"The Ent's Norway's answer to CAPTAIN Kirk"-Eilonwy
Oh! I read the first post and was getting confused before I realized we weren't talking about <i>Solomon</i> Kane.
Rather his polar opposite, I'd say
Quote:
Originally Posted by wingedcoyote
Haven't read KEW's Kane but I've wanted to. Is Bloodstone the proper jumping-in point?
I think it works well as a jumping-in point, since
a) It's the 3rd story in the series (only preceded by Undertow and Two Suns Setting),
b) It's got a lot more world info than said stories (including more backstory),
c) Kane's somewhat more heroic than in said stories ( and,
more importantly,
d) It was the 3rd Kane story I read (the 1st and 2nd being The Gothic Touch and Misericorde) but it felt like the beginning of things (and it's pretty close at that).
e) It's my absolute favourite Kane story! (but opinions are quite divided on the subject )
Kane Chronology (AFAIK):
Undertow
Two Suns Setting
Bloodstone (novel)
The Dark Muse
Sing A Last Song of Valdese
Misericorde
Lynortis Reprise
Raven's Eyrie
Dark Crusade (novel)
Reflections for the Winter of My Soul
Cold Light
Mirage
Darkness Weaves (novel)
The Other One
The Gothic Touch*
(then some modern stories)
*=a Moorcock tribute in wich Kane "helps" Elric (). It's fun actually.
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"May the Fisk be with you." Purpura, Ent's Tangency-Sister
"I went out last night...don't really remember wich beautyful co-worker I seduced, because I think I had a bit too much to drink...anyway, isn't Eliza the hawtest actress EVAR?"-Graywolf imitating me
"The Ent's Norway's answer to Son of Kirk"-JonA
"The Ent's Norway's answer to CAPTAIN Kirk"-Eilonwy
A good way of looking at the Kane series; Combine REH's style of writing fantasy, add HPL's elder gods and history coming back to bite you on the ass, mix in CAS's ability to create other worldly images, and sprinkle in some twisted concepts about how God really punished the biblical Cane.
This series was the second S&S character that I was really able to get into. Wagner does alot more then just rerun the old cliches. He twist the cliches around and really opens up the whole genre. While it is true that REH created the S&S story, KEW's Kane show what can be done when it's treated as a completely mature style of literature.
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For I, with the shape of my kin, the ape,
And the soul of a soaring hawk,
I fought my way from the jungle grey,
Where the hunting creatures stalk.
Karl Edward Wagner's KANE
) is Kane, a man cursed with immortality, who wanders the Earth, generally planning to Conquer The World!, or at least get ahead, or sometimes just, say, performing impossible assassination jobs just to escape boredom a couple days...in a rather horrible world in wich Good tends not to triumph over Evil a whole lot (except for a certain crazy crusader who appears in one short story, but he's hardly "good"). Mankind's generally nasty, the non-humans are generally nastier (except for one species, who's more or less died out 
-factor. In the best meaning of the word "
)
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