My latest essay can be found over on the Goodman Games website. "Where to Start with Karl Edward Wagner's Kane" is my first piece for the website of Tales from the Magician's Skull.
I had fun with this one. If you're not interested in clicking through, spoiler alert: I went with the collection Night Winds. I always favor checking out an author's short stories, if available, before committing to a novel, and Night Winds offers a nice representative offering of Kane stories. But it's hard to go wrong with anything Kane.
I've been writing a lot about Kane lately but this is merely a coincidence. Bill Ward asked me to write this latest essay following our recent sword-and-sorcery panel session at Bride of Cyclops Con. I had already been working on the DMR piece prior. And as Deuce Richardson reminded me recently, December 4th marked what would have been Wagner's 75th birthday.
Good piece. I agree about Night Winds.
ReplyDeleteKane is interesting because he can be both a protagonist or an antagonist. In Under Current he’s the antagonist but in the story about the werewolf he’s the protagonist.
Thanks Matthew. It is very interesting how fluidly KEW portrayed Kane. I would definitely consider him the antagonist in Bloodstone for example, save perhaps at the very end. He absolutely had to be defeated in that story.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I definitely consider Kane the antagonist of Bloodstone. The fluidity of Kane's position in the story is one of the most interesting things about him. I can't really think of any other character like that.
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