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Gods in Darkness: The Complete Novels of Kane
For those of you making nasty noises about fantasy daring to be found on these pages -- how
about dark fantasy by the man who invented the term -- Karl Edward Wagner? Night Shade Books has
brought together all three of Wagner's Kane novels and republished them in hardcover. If you've
never read any of the three novels or four short story collections featuring Kane, you might
dismiss them as mere sword-and-sorcery or a knock-off of Robert E. Howard's Conan series. (Wagner
did, in fact, write a Conan novel as well as a sequel to Howard's Bran Mak Morn series. He was also
involved in some Howard-related screen projects.) But, as Wagner always pointed out, his anti-hero
was a Gothic or horror hero, not really a sword-and-sorcery type.
Wagner's prose is not typical of
heroic fantasy either. He somehow carries the atmosphere of Poe but without the poetry. He's as
adumbral as Lovecraft, but without the rococo embellishments. The style is clean, sharp, and
utterly masculine, but far from misogynistic. There's something about this clear almost understated
style that makes the darkness even more effective. There's one passage -- involving not the gore
and violence of battle, but a game of kickball among some children -- that's perfectly, succinctly
horrifying.
Of the three novels, I had read only Bloodstone previously, but I had read a few of the
short stories here and there. (I don't actually own any of the collections, though, so I couldn't
fact check) I had some knowledge of the mythology Wagner devised, but many of the mysterious hints
about Kane aren't in the novels. We do discover he is a "gigantic warrior with knowledge of strange
secrets...left handed...of fair but cruel face, with red hair, and cold blue eyes whose gaze calls
to mind the murderous fury he shows in battle...doomed to wander eternally through the savage world
of his making branded as an outcast by the mark of death that lighted his eyes." So long as he
eludes death by violence "time can not wither his physical being." His wounded body will heal
without a scar "endlessly rejuvenated to the state held at the instant of an insane god's curse."
His flesh can heal it leaves a scarred soul and the centuries consume the "bones of his hope."
He is smothering under boredom and a chance for new adventure is his one release. Although often
called such, Kane is not a sorcerer --"the true nature of my power so defies human comprehension
that men call it magic." Kane is intelligent, a master of military tactics, and obviously possesses
knowledge beyond the ken of the people he deals with. He amorally "serves himself and no other gods
or obscure values."
Bloodstone: Dark Crusade: Darkness Weaves: In each of these books, Kane makes a grievous error. He
misjudges Bloodstone's motive and power as well as the fact the creature is deeply Evil and
foolishly thinks he can master it. In Dark Crusade he misunderstands that The Prophet is more than
a run-of-mill false holy man out for his own gain -- the type Kane's seen a thousand times. He errs
again in Darkness when he overlooks the vengful lady's secret alliance. Worse, he is unaware of how
much she knows about him. Time and time again, women prove fickle or are traitors, but Kane is
still far from immune from emotional involvement. Nor is he completely amoral, his own interests
tend to support some ideal or another. Are these weaknesses that lead to doom? Is the theme one of
lost hope? Is Kane's survival an unrelenting cruelty or is there actually a path to redemption? I'm
not sure Wagner himself could have answered these questions (and a bunch more I have) about Kane
early on. He wrote many stories and certainly had planned further books, but perhaps the story arc
was not complete in his mind from the start.
Wagner was also very much a reflection of his own
time. I don't know if I am over-reacting or reading more meaning into the work than the author put
into it; nor am I sure that the first readers would have seen what I do with the acuity of
hindsight. The mid-70s zeitgeist was as full of gloom, blood, brooding cynicism, and boredom as
Kane's world. (Where do you think Punk came from anyway?) The same very brief era, however, were
also the high (literally) point of cultural freedom -- before AIDS was known and cocaine was still
"harmless recreation" and the arts were not yet as moribund as now. But by 1978, when the third of
these novels was published, innocence was fading and all that freedom became a curse. "Now all his
dreams had been plunged into nightmare," Kane realizes at one point, "and the lure of adventure had
become a spiderweb of horror." What is Kane's true curse? As I said, I was surprised out how much I
found in the three Kane novels. I'm not sure it would be born out with a reading of all the short
stories. My questions may be answered, or they may not. But Night Shade has done a great service by
providing us a chance to consider (or re-consider) Kane. Is there a hope of a similar gathering of
all the stories? That's one question I hope is answered in the affirmative. [Note: Barring a new
Kane cover from Frank Frazetta -- whose images of the anti-hero were so appropriate -- this cover
from Ken Kelly is as good a selection as you could make.]
Cemetery Dance #42)
Copyright © 2003 Paula Guran. All Rights Reserved. |
In the third book of the trio, a demon provides us with some further
information about Kane and his curse, but we've got the basics of it before then. Looking back on
Kane over a generation after his birth, you can easily see he's become a trope of his own, a
character often found in comic book anti-heroes and mimicked by rock stars (or those who want to be
rock stars) as well as in books and stories. He belongs to the subgenre of "idiosyncratic fantasy
characters" that includes Michael Moorcock's Elric of Melibone and Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and the
Grey Mouser. What surprised me was what else I found in the books. First, briefly, the books--