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Bill Kerwin's Reviews > Death Angel's Shadow
Death Angel's Shadow
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Death Angel’s Shadow is a collection of three novellas starring the barbarian swordsmen Kane, the immortal brother-slayer whose “mark” is his eyes, eyes that “glowed with their own light” like “cold blue gems” that “blazed the fires of blood madness, of the lust to kill and destroy.”
“Reflections for the Winter of My Soul” introduces us to a Kane on the run, traveling through an ice-bound world until a blizzard forces him to seek shelter. There, in the forest lodge of Baron Troylin-- a cold, beseiged environment which evokes the darkest passages of Beowulf, a world where we the monster Grendel might triumph after all. It is an epic, but it is a mystery too. A werewolf is preying on Troylin’s mens, and Kane is the one who must uncover the murderer.
“Cold Light”, with its dusty desert city, feels like a spaghetti western based on a samurai film, only this “Magnificent 9” are not the protectors of poor peasants, but avengers determined to kill our “hero,” the merciless and murderous Kane, even if they have to sacrifice a few peasants to do it. It is true that Kane is wicked and may deserve death, but the nobleman Gaethe—commander of this ruthless squad of mercenaries—is a little too self-righteous to be believed. We want Kane to win, but he is surrounded. Can he escape? And can he save not only himself, but also his blind concubine, the psychically-gifted Rehhaille?
The last of the three novellas, “Mirage,” is a tale in the Romantic Gothic mode, reminiscent of Keat’s “La Belle Dame Sans Merci.” Kane is held in thrall by vampire princess in her ruined castle deep in the woods. Her hypnotic love drains his strength a little at a time; can he summon the strength to break free.
Wagner’s prose, even at its least effective (and the prose of Death Angel’s Shadow is uneven at best) is good at painting a scene, evoking a terror, bringing a sword fight to life. If you like Conan, but somehow always wished that he were smarter, darker, more terrifying, then Karl Wagner’s Kane is the hero for you.
by
Death Angel’s Shadow is a collection of three novellas starring the barbarian swordsmen Kane, the immortal brother-slayer whose “mark” is his eyes, eyes that “glowed with their own light” like “cold blue gems” that “blazed the fires of blood madness, of the lust to kill and destroy.”
“Reflections for the Winter of My Soul” introduces us to a Kane on the run, traveling through an ice-bound world until a blizzard forces him to seek shelter. There, in the forest lodge of Baron Troylin-- a cold, beseiged environment which evokes the darkest passages of Beowulf, a world where we the monster Grendel might triumph after all. It is an epic, but it is a mystery too. A werewolf is preying on Troylin’s mens, and Kane is the one who must uncover the murderer.
“Cold Light”, with its dusty desert city, feels like a spaghetti western based on a samurai film, only this “Magnificent 9” are not the protectors of poor peasants, but avengers determined to kill our “hero,” the merciless and murderous Kane, even if they have to sacrifice a few peasants to do it. It is true that Kane is wicked and may deserve death, but the nobleman Gaethe—commander of this ruthless squad of mercenaries—is a little too self-righteous to be believed. We want Kane to win, but he is surrounded. Can he escape? And can he save not only himself, but also his blind concubine, the psychically-gifted Rehhaille?
The last of the three novellas, “Mirage,” is a tale in the Romantic Gothic mode, reminiscent of Keat’s “La Belle Dame Sans Merci.” Kane is held in thrall by vampire princess in her ruined castle deep in the woods. Her hypnotic love drains his strength a little at a time; can he summon the strength to break free.
Wagner’s prose, even at its least effective (and the prose of Death Angel’s Shadow is uneven at best) is good at painting a scene, evoking a terror, bringing a sword fight to life. If you like Conan, but somehow always wished that he were smarter, darker, more terrifying, then Karl Wagner’s Kane is the hero for you.
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