The Acts of Caine

The Acts of Caine is a series of fantasy-science fiction (trending toward fantasy) books by Matthew Woodring Stover, who is probably more well known as the author of some pretty damn good Star Wars novels: Traitor, Shatterpoint, and the novelization of Revenge of the Sith. Think about that for just one second--with the restrictions of writing in the Star Wars Expanded Universe, he produced those three books. And this is what he does when the gloves come off.

There are currently^[when?] four books: Heroes Die, Blade of Tyshalle, Caine Black Knife, and Caine's Law. If That Other Wiki is to be believed, there are going to be at least four more books in the series. In addition, Stover has created the Overworld.tv project, which will initially involve a graphic novel in the Acts of Caine continuity.

The series' setting is an interesting combination of a futuristic earth run by corporate governments with a strict caste system and loads of repression, and a parallel high fantasy world called Overworld that earth humans have learned to travel to and exploit. This exploitation initially takes the form of The Studio, a company that produces a sort of reality entertainment by sending "actors" to Overworld. These actors are trained in either magic or combat, implanted with a kind of video recorder and sent to Overworld to "risk their lives in an interesting way". On the Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism the series tends towards cynicism, although it is not without bouts of idealism. Oh, all of the books contain loads of very well written violence.

The books, shockingly, are centered on the character of Caine and his actor Hari Michaelson. Heroes Die tells the story of Hari/Caine as he tries to rescue his love interest Shanna/Pallas Ril from Big Bad Ma'elKoth. As with all the books in the series, Heroes Die comments on the morality of violent entertainment and explores of a myriad of other moral questions. Has been described in positive reviews as "The Lord of the Rings meets Day Of The Jackal".

Blade of Tyshalle takes place seven years later, reintroducing Hari and Shanna in their later married, unhappy and semi-retired lives (along with the no longer divine Tan'elKoth). This tedium is of course shattered by plots set into action by the corporate leaders of Earth which Hari's friend, Kris Hansen/Deliann Mithondionne tries to avert. This novel turns the moral philosophizing up to 11 or 12, adds questions of identity, resource usage, destiny (or lack thereof) and humanity's drive to exploit and use up everything. It also features the end of the world. Well, kinda. Blade of Tyshalle is definitely a "deeper" book than its predecessor or sequel.

Caine Black Knife follows Caine in both the present (roughly a year after the end of Blade of Tyshalle) and twenty-five years ago as he interacts with/slaughters the Black Knife clan of Ogrillos, a Proud Warrior Race. The present arc of the story includes a broader exploration of Orbek Black Knife, a side character introduced in Blade of Tyshalle. The philosophizing is turned back down to about 8, but questions concerning the legitimacy of guerilla warfare and online FPSs are still asked. Also has some rather overt references to either the Iraq War or the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, complete with a suicide bombing.

Tropes used in The Acts of Caine include:

Absurdly Sharp Blade - Kosall combines this with Vibroweapon.
Action Girl - Talaan in Heroes Die, Olga in Caine Black Knife, Angvasse in Caine's Law.
A God Am I - Shanna/Pallas Ril and Hannto the Scythe/Ma'elKoth. To be fair, they actually became gods.
Always Save the Girl: "I'd burn the world to save her".
Anyone Can Die
Anti-Hero: Caine
Armor-Piercing Question: "What do you want?"
Ascended Extra: Raithe.
Author Tract: verging on Author Filibuster a few times, but remaining a good read nonetheless. Never goes on for more than a few pages at a time.
Badass
- Badass Beard: Caine and Ma'elKoth.
- Badass Boast: more than a few.
- Badass in Distress: Seems to still happen more often to the females.
- Badass Normal: Caine at first.
Book Ends: in Blade of Tyshalle.
Bread and Circuses: the function of the Adventures on Overworld is to turn an entire planet into the arena of a Blood Sport for the entertainment of the masses on Earth.
Broken Bird: Angvasse in Caine's Law.
Catch Phrase: Berne: "Fuck me like a virgin goat."
Clap Your Hands If You Believe: "A powerful enough metaphor grows it's own truth"
Clasp Your Hands If You Deceive: Subverted in Heroes Die, where Kollberg does this to try and keep calm while talking to the Board of Governors rather than trying to be cunning.
Combat Pragmatist: Caine/Hari embodies this trope.
Cosmic Horror: Inverted in the Blind God, played straight with the "god" of the Black Knives.
Corrupt Corporate Executive: Marc Vilo
Cutting the Knot: Caine's usual way of solving problems.
Deconstruction: Of a wealth of Fantasy tropes, being a Low Fantasy take on archetypal Dungeons & Dragons settings like the Forgotten Realms. Pays particular attention to the brutal realities behind what it would mean to be a Player Character.
Depraved Bisexual: Berne.
Doorstopper
Dystopia
Earn Your Happy Ending: Insomuch as there are happy endings.
Elite Mooks: The Social Police, the Black Knives, Esoteric Friars, and the Grey Cats. Really most military organizations are fairly badass.
Evil Sounds Deep: Ma'elKoth is usually described as rumbling.
Eye Scream: The first book opens with one.
- And then there's the Black Knife Kiss.
Faceless Goons: The Social Police.
Fantastic Racism and Fantastic Slurs: played with in that the Earth fantasy names for the species are considered slurs: elves prefer to be called primals, dwarves to be called stonebenders, orcs to be called ogrilloi, and pixies to be called treetoppers. The ogrilloi have an interesting nickname in their language for humans too.
Foe Yay: Ma'elKoth is completely in love with Caine, and eventually names him as His Hand.
- Tan'elKoth and Shanna/Pallas spend Blade of Tyshalle and the time leading up to it having a Love Triangle over Caine, which he eventually acknowledges as such. If anything, Ma'elKoth's flirting with his "beloved" gets even more explicit after Pallas dies, as if there wasn't enough in the first book.
Foil: Berne to Caine. To summarise a lengthy spiel, while both are vicious and skilled fighters, Berne is The Hedonist, while Caine has a cold discipline.
For the Evulz: Inverted. The bad guys always act out of self-interest, ideology, or pure hedonistic lust. The protagonist is the one who, for shits and giggles, escalates conflicts almost compulsively. So far this includes "escalating" a verbal argument into a lethal fight, a skirmish with an ogrillo tribe into ethnic cleansing, and a minor political conflict into a civil war. (And the bad guys are still worse.)
Freud Was Right: Oh so much.
From Nobody to Nightmare: Ma'elKoth used to be the wimpy necromancer Hannto the Scythe.
Gaia's Vengeance: Chambaraya through Pallas.
Glory Days: Ma/Tan'elKoth, Hari, and Shanna in Blade of Tyshalle, some of the surviving Black Knife Nation in Caine Black Knife.
God-Emperor: The Most Beloved Ma'elKoth
Gods Need Prayer Badly
Good Is Dumb: Shanna/Pallas's blindness and moral obliviousness ironically only get worse when she becomes nearly omniscient.
Handicapped Badass: Caine/Hari before he he figures out how to magick the bypass. Even with that he's got a noticable balance problem, and that magick can be shut down.
Heartbroken Badass: Initially Caine.
Heroic BSOD: Caine after Shanna's death.
Heroic Sacrifice: Talaan in Heroes Die, Deliann in Blade of Tyshalle. Subverted in Caine Black Knife, where Caine acts to make the Adventure look like this but is really just planning to mess up the Black Knives for the hell of it.
- Talaan didn't actually expect to die, did she? She just went into a battle against a far superior villain while not being a main character. Of course, Vasquez Always Dies and several other tropes on the "you're for it" end of the Sorting Algorithm of Mortality applied, but she didn't know that.
Sociopathic Hero: Ummm...yeah.
Honor Before Reason: The Khryllians, which Caine thinks is stupid for two reasons. First, because despite being merely a grade six fighter, he's managed to kill more than a few Knights by not adhering to any codes. Second, because at one point when Caine insults a Knight's honor by calling him a coward, it ends in a duel to the death.

Caine: In the end, what was he going to kill me for? Because I called him names. I have my vanity, I just don't kill for it. I'm not pretending I'm a better man than him, I just hate that people say he's a better man than me.

Incredibly Lame Pun: Caine occasionally has these.
In Love with Your Carnage: Ma'elKoth has almost said this word-for-word to Caine multiple times.
I Have Many Names: there is virtually no god, main character, or figure of power in the novels without at least two names, identities, and/or titles. Orbek and Kollberg are notable by exception.
- By Caine Black Knife, Caine himself is known variously as the Lord of Chaos, kwatcharr of the Black Knives, Agent of Khryl, and the Hand of Ma'elKoth.
Insufferable Genius: T'Passe
Involuntary Suicide Mechanism: Actors are conditioned not to say that they are Actors, speak Earth languages, etc. This protocol is eventually reversed when Aktir hunters get wise to the simple test of demanding a suspect say "I am an Aktir."
It's Personal: subverted. One of the things that makes Caine/Hari dangerous is his willingness to take every single fight this way.
Let's You and Him Fight: Lampshaded in Caine's Law.
Knight in Shining Armor: The Knights of Khryl in Caine Black Knife. They are good guys...but...
Knight Templar: The Knights of Khryl.
Loads and Loads of Characters
Master of Your Domain: Monastic Control Discliplines.
Motif: Fire, Water, and human excrement.
Moral Dissonance: Caine is not a nice person.
Name of Cain: Ya think?
New Powers as the Plot Demands: Or rather, new species traits we weren't told about in the last novel, as Caine Black Knife introduces the ogrilloi's horse-outrunning quadripedal lope.
Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Oh man, poor Deliann...
No Dead Body Poops: Repeatedly averted.
Our Orcs Are Different: Ogrilloi
Papa Wolf: Messing with Caine's family is a good way to get yourself marked for death.
Physical God: Ma'elKoth and Pallas Ril, before the events at the climax of Blade of Tyshalle.
Powers That Be: All other gods besides those two.
Privately-Owned Society: Earth
Proud Warrior Race Guy: Orbek
Rebellious Spirit: Caine and the Cainists in general.
Red Shirt: subverted. Guys who seemed like mooks in Heroes Die have plot impacts in Blade of Tyshalle, and the unfortunate death of one guard in Caine Black Knife becomes a point of argument between Caine and his Knight of Khryl escort.
Satisfied Street Rat: Caine to a ridiculous degree, Orbek Black Knife and Majesty/Toa M'Jest to a lesser degree.
Screw the Rules, I Have Money: Earth's caste system means that most of the Businessmen (management) caste think this way, and the Leisuremen (executives and shareholders) above them are even worse.
Shut UP, Hannibal: Caine to Ma'elKoth: "You talk too fucking much"
Sick Sad World: Earth
State Sec: The Social Police.
Stop Worshipping Me!: Caine really hates the Cainists.
Super-Detailed Fight Narration: "The gassy thing about the figure-four headlock..." *cue paragraph of description in loving detail*
Survival Mantra: "Keep your head down and inch towards daylight"
Sword of Plot Advancement: Kosall, though a Justified Trope here in that Kosall just happens to do a lot of important shit included but not limited to crippling the main character. Except it turns out it might also be the sword of a god that was also in possession of an order of knights for the past five hundred years (the timeline gets complicated when gods are involved).
Talk to the Fist: Happens no less than five times in Blade of Tyshalle alone.
Telepathy: Kris' "flashes" are described as the product of empathy and a vivid imagination, but this is effectively it.
The Slow Walk: Played straight in Blade of Tyshalle, mildly deconstructed in Caine Black Knife
The Unfettered
This Is Gonna Suck: Trope Namer.
To the Pain: Arkadeil in Heroes Die has a cold, dispassionate delivery of this as he teaches apprentice torturers. It's fucking creepy.
Too Good for This Sinful Earth: Harshly deconstructed with Shanna and Deliann, both of whom made significant mistakes that aided the bad guys and put innocents in danger.
Torture Technician: Arkadeil in Heroes Die. As above, his cold, dispassionate delivery of To the Pain as he teaches apprentice torturers is fucking creepy.
Trying to Catch Me Fighting Dirty
Unwinnable Training Simulation: The Lakefront simulation in chapter 0 of Blade of Tyshalle.
Vancian Magic: Thaumaturgists pattern spells into physical items, giving them a limited stock, likely as an intentional nod to the series' Dungeons & Dragons inspiration.
- Not necessarily. Using one-shot enchanted items for casting isn't so much necessary as much, much easier; but the series abounds with powerful mages throwing around high-end magic without any kind of focus or limit. Of course, to be fair, some of them are/become gods.
Vasquez Always Dies: Heroes Die. Talaan and Shanna are both Action Girls to an extent, but Talaan is much more Badass. Naturally, she's the one to draw the short straw.
Walking Disaster Area: Caine.
What the Hell, Hero?: Eventually, anyone who gives a shit about Overworld asks the Actors this.
We Could Have Avoided All This: Their plot to transfer Hari to the College of Combat in Blade of Tyshalle. "Couldn't you have asked?"
- Ah, but would he have acquiesced or would he have taken the opportunity to shut them down?
X Meets Y: Dark Fantasy meets Dystopia.
You Bastard: through Caine both this on his audience, and the reader.