Caine Black Knife (new Matt Stover book)

[Cynical Cat]

This is the latest installment of his Acts of Caine series. Taking place in a future Earth that is a totalitarian hell hole with rigid caste lines, Hari Michaelson is an Actor, a subset of the Professional Caste on the polluted and over populated Earth. Dimensional transfer technology exists, allowing limited transfers between Earth and Overworld. Magic works in Overworld and there are elves and dwarves and dragons and so on as well as men. In Overworld Hari is known as Caine and he risks his life in interesting ways for the entertainment of Earth's masses who receive his experiences courtesy of the thought mitter implanted in his skull.

A lot has happened to Hari in "Heroes Die" and "Blade of Tyshall" and he and Overworld have changed. He's no longer a young man and he's the blood brother of Obrek Black Knife. The breaking of the fearsome Black Knife clan of ogrillos was the adventure that pushed Caine's career into the big time. Now his blood brother needs help and the cynical and grizzled killer goes back to the scene of one of his greatest victories.

Two stories are told, the journey in the present and the brutal events of thirty years ago that made Caine a legend. I've just started and it is fucking awesome from the very beginning.