Synopsis
SOME LAWS YOU BREAK. SOME BREAK YOU.
AND THEN THERE’S CAINE’S LAW.
From the moment Caine first appeared in the pages of Heroes Die, two things were clear. First, that Matthew Stover was one of the most gifted fantasy writers of his generation. And second, that Caine was a hero whose peers go by such names as Conan and Elric. Like them, Caine was something new: a civilized man who embraced savagery, an actor whose life was a lie, a force of destruction so potent that even gods thought twice about crossing him. Now Stover brings back his greatest creation for his most stunning performance yet.
Caine is washed up and hung out to dry, a crippled husk kept isolated and restrained by the studio that exploited him. Now they have dragged him back for one last deal. But Caine has other plans. Those plans take him back to Overworld, the alternate reality where gods are real and magic is the ultimate weapon. There, in a violent odyssey through time and space, Caine will face the demons of his past, find true love, and just possibly destroy the universe.
Hey, it’s a crappy job, but somebody’s got to do it.
Review
The Acts of Caine is a series of contradictions. One of the ways this is true is that each of the “Acts” can more-or-less stand alone as a story; another is that each book feels dramatically different from the others while working together to make a cohesive whole. For instance: Blade of Tyshalle is this massive, epic, brutal journey that cranks everything up to 12…while Caine Black Knife dials it way back and packs a quieter, more contemplative story into only about 250 pages.
Well, Caine’s Law dials it right back up again—but in a different manner entirely.
Imagine for a second that you could take back the worst thing you’ve ever done.
This book is longer than Caine Black Knife but nowhere near the chonky doorstopper that is Blade. It’s not as dark nor as violent as Blade or even as Caine Black Knife…but instead Stover reaches for the dial labeled LITERARY FUCKINESS and goes wild.
Caine’s Law opens with a frankly hilarious author’s note to set the tone:
Several parts of this story take place before the events depicted in Act of Atonement Book I, Caine Black Knife.
Other parts of this story take place after. Still other parts take place before and after both. Some parts may be imaginary, and some were real only temporarily, as they have subsequently unhappened.
I mean come on. What do you even do besides steel yourself and turn the page when a book hits you with something like that right out of the gate?
To make matters worse (better, it’s actually better), the first chapter of the book heads straight into second-person/direct address POV of a scene that cannot possibly fit in any timeline established by the previous three books. Stover is smacking you across the face and saying “HEY. PAY ATTENTION.”
Because Caine’s Law really does demand a level of attention from the reader unusual in books published over the last 30 years (or really in general). There are first-, second-, and third-person POVs scattered throughout the book. There are no obvious signposts to tell you which chapters and scenes belong to which category in that author’s note. Characters go by multiple different names, and each name carries both thematic and structural narrative importance. The story shifts from action-packed fight sequences to moments of quiet introspection with little initial flow. One notable moment has characters musing about the philosophical meaning of To Kill a Mockingbird; another delves into the nature of horses and their status as prey animals. A third looks at Schrödinger’s Cat through a literary and historical narrative lens.
But you know what? This book is downright amazing.
Stover’s character work—already a strong point in the previous three books—is absolutely scintillating in the finale. Characters like Angvasse Khlaylock go from bit parts to profoundly important figures in the story; the horse-witch, a character mentioned only once, briefly, in Caine Black Knife, is suddenly one of the most memorable characters I’ve ever encountered.
“A girl likes to be asked, dumbass.”
The horse-witch is an important figure for the idea of Caine’s Law as a book of contradictions. She is abrasive, uncompromising, inscrutable, unapologetic; she is also the locus of romantic love. For love is probably the central theme of this book, in all its many flavors. The return of Duncan (now a POV character) grants us a painful look into the love between father and son; the presences of Angvasse and Ma’elKoth and Pallas Ril/Chambaraya each give us different glimpses at the ideas of deific love. Caine himself, Hari, Dominic Shade or Jonathan Fist, the Blade of Tyshalle, the Sword of Man…he has his own exploration of self-love, of self-esteem.
But for all of those, it truly is romantic love at the center of the story.
“So it really is all about the girl.”
The metaphysical labyrinth Stover takes us through in this book meanders and weaves and occludes, but at the heart of it lies Caine, and the horse-witch. For a series touted as grimdark—a label I myself have affixed to it on occasion—The Acts of Caine concludes with a heart-wrenching story of a different sort. There is a desire for redemption, and more than that a possibility of redemption. A possibility for love, to give love and to be loved, despite all the horrific things one might have done. Because: What if you could take back the worst thing you’ve ever done?
But this is still a Caine novel, of course. There is the standard level of action for Stover—that is to say, some of the best fight scenes you will ever read—and a hefty serving of humor. New addition Tanner is a standout character, probably the funniest in the series, constantly popping out with sparkling one-liners and playing off Caine to outstanding comedic effect.
“How’s your wrist?”
“Broken. How’s your sucking chest wound?”
Stover is doing so much, in so many different directions in Caine’s Law that it’s potentially overwhelming. I myself found the book solid but confusing as all hell the first time through. But like all great literature, it gnawed at me, carved out its own little home in my mind, and all but forced me to return for a second time—and a third, and a fourth, and a fifth. It’s one of the most rewarding rereads I’ve ever encountered, on a level with Gene Wolfe’s Book of the New Sun.
And on those rereads, I fell in love with both the emotion of the story and the sheer mastery of art displayed by Stover. Caine’s Law may very well be my favorite book of all time.
“My whole life, I can’t remember a single thing I ever managed to take back.”
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