FINALLY, book #10 for 2023, Darkness Weaves by Karl Edward Wagner… which was originally published in 1970 as Darkness Weaves With Many Shades in somewhat bastardised form before being republished with the shorter title in Wagner’s preferred version. I presume, therefore, that the Gateway Essentials I just finished is actually the latter one… Whatever, though, this was quite a lot of fun. Our “hero”, Kane, is to all intents and purposes the biblical Cain, a feared and fearsome warrior cursed with immortality yet not completely indestructible, living in a Conan-esque prehistory (though there are apparently later Wagner stories featuring him in the modern world) with a vaguely Lovecraftian tinge to things as well. I haven’t read a lot of sword & sorcery or heroic fantasy or whatever it’s called, so this is not uncharted but still rare territory for me… one thing I did not care for was the dialogue, which tended towards the anachronistic; I dislike overdoing archaism in fantasy settings as well (looking at YOU here, E.R. Eddison), but the reverse seemed just out of place. Good story, though, and some very crunchy battle scenes. Will read more Kane.
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