Heroes Die by Matthew Woodring Stover
(Book #1 of The Acts of Caine series)
Rating: 🍁🍁
I couldn't finish this one. I renewed it from the library three times because I wanted to be able to finish it, but I'm giving up.
This is a fascinating story. The world is interesting, complex and full of potential, as are the male characters. It's well-written and mostly believable. But I'm stuck on two major, major issues.
1) What is with all the shit? And I mean that literally. I'm no wilting lily who can't stand to read about graphic violence, grit and gore. There just seems to be a never-ending river of it in this book. Again, I mean that literally. At one point the massively injured hero and crew actually swim across a river composed of shit and decomposing bodies. Apparently without increasing the likelihood of their injuries becoming infected. And the en masse blood-and-entrails-soaked, naked head-first slide through the hoo-ha of the giant golden hermaphrodite statue of the god/king into the pool of blood (I'm honestly not making this up) was just a little bit over the top. But only a little bit...
2) I know that there are male authors out there who can write convincing, realistic female characters. Mr. Stover isn't one of them. Unless there's some radical character development in the last third of the book, all of the women are stereotypical, two-dimensional characters. They're also kind of porny, by which I mean their defining characteristic is their sexual objectification. It pisses me off.
I want to know how the story ends, but I don't want to jump back into a world that pisses me off and makes me feel like I need to shower. Repeatedly. So, one maple leaf for not being able to finish the book, bumped up to two maple leaves because there's so much potential if you can get past the unrealistic portrayal of women...and the shit.
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