Heroes Die: A Fantasy Novel [Paperback]

A man shouldn’t die with no understanding of why he’s been murdered

Renowned throughout the land of Ankhana as the Blade of Tyshalle, Caine has killed his share of monarchs and commoners, villains and heroes. He is relentless, unstoppable, simply the best there is at what he does.

At home on Earth, Caine is Hari Michaelson, a superstar whose adventures in Ankhana command an audience of billions. Yet he is shackled by a rigid caste society, bound to ignore the grim fact that he kills men on a far-off world for the entertainment of his own planet—and bound to keep his rage in check.

But now Michaelson has crossed the line. His estranged wife, Pallas Rill, has mysteriously disappeared in the slums of Ankhana. To save her, he must confront the greatest challenge of his life: a lethal game of cat and mouse with the most treacherous rulers of two worlds . . ."DAY OF THE JACKAL MEETS LORD OF THE RINGS . . . A marvelous conspiracy thriller of worlds within worlds, where no one is necessarily who or what they seem."
--SIMON R. GREEN
   Author of the Deathstalker series

"Vivid . . . Well-plotted . . . [A] vigorous adventure story."
--Publishers WeeklyMatthew Woodring Stover is the acclaimed author of two previous fantasy novels, Iron Dawn and Jericho Moon. He is a student of the Degerberg Blend. This jeet kune do concept is a mixture of approximately twenty-five different fighting arts from around the world and forms the basis for Caine's combat style in the novels. He lives in Chicago, Illinois, with artist and writer Robyn Fielder.With my hand on the doorjamb, some buried-alive instinct thumps within my chest: this is going to hurt.

I take a deep breath and step inside.

The bedchamber of Prince-Regent Toa-Phelathon is really pretty restrained, when you consider that the guy in the bed there rules the second-largest empire on Overworld. The bed itself is a modest eight-plĂ,