Matthew Stover

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Matthew Woodring Stover (born 1962) is a fantasy novelist. He is perhaps best known for his three Star Wars novels, including the novelization of the third film in the series, Revenge of the Sith. He has also written several fantasy novels, including Iron Dawn and Jericho Moon. He has written two science-fiction/fantasy hybrid stories featuring a hero named Caine: Heroes Die and Blade of Tyshalle.

Stover graduated in 1983 from Drake University and settled in Chicago. He is an avid martial artist and a student of the Degerberg Blend, a jeet kune do concept that mixes approximately twenty-five different fighting arts from around the world. This combat style influences the way Stover writes his fight scenes, for which he has won considerable acclaim. Stover currently resides in Kenosha, Wisconsin, with artist and writer Robyn Fielder.

Stover is one of the most controversial authors in the Star Wars Expanded Universe. His three Star Wars novels are much more violent and morally grey than most other Star Wars works, a fact that has earned him both avid fans and relentless detractors. His non-Star Wars novels have garnered a smaller but loyal audience, though only his two most recent novels, retroactively dubbed as part of the Acts of Caine cycle, are still in print. Stover lists some of his prime fantastic influences as Roger Zelazny, Stephen R. Donaldson, and Fritz Leiber. His dedication in Blade of Tyshalle cites other late "friends" including Leo Tolstoy and Frederich Nietzsche.


Contents

[edit] Themes in the Acts of Caine

Stover's works, particularly Heroes Die and even more strongly, Blade of Tyshalle, contain more moral questions than most fantasy novels. In Heroes Die, the protagonist anti-hero Caine exhibits willingness to sacrifice the citizens of Ankhana and even his friend Majesty in order to save his wife. This behavior is examined in further detail in Blade of Tyshalle. The government on Earth is strictly caste-based and dystopian. As counterpoint to this world Hari's father is a former libertarian academic. Characters debate these relative points of view within the novels through dialogue between representative characters, primarily Hari's father and Tan'elKoth. Because Earth is so overcrowded and oppressed the masses turn to the adventures of the Actors, such as Caine. Hence, the violence is often portrayed or in graphic (arguably too graphic) detail because that is what the viewers on Earth are seeking - often Actors are pushed to increase the violence of their deeds for the entertainment of the masses.

Caine is also confronted with an explicit exposition of philosophy (called Cainism) from another set of characters in the book, in which individual responsibility and personal choice is stressed.

[edit] Bibliography

[edit] Barra & Co.

  • Iron Dawn (1997)
  • Jericho Moon (1998)

[edit] The Acts of Caine

  • Heroes Die (The Acts of Caine: Act of Violence) (1998)
  • Blade of Tyshalle (The Acts of Caine: Act of War) (2001)
  • Caine Black Knife (The Acts of Caine: Act of Atonement) (late 2007?[1])
  • Dead Man's Heart (The Acts of Caine: Act of Remembrance) (forthcoming)

[edit] Star Wars

[edit] Unpublished

  • The Real Flash Gordon[2] (2001)

[edit] References

  1. ^ http://boards.theforce.net/authors_artists/b10347/5816889/p114
  2. ^ http://www.fantasticmetropolis.com/i/stover/full/

[edit] External links

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