©2025 Fable Group Inc.
4.5 

Bloodstone

By Karl Edward Wagner
Bloodstone by Karl Edward Wagner digital book - Fable

Why read on Fable?

Discover social reading

Chat inside the ebook with emojis, comments and more

Annotate with notes, tabs, and highlights

Share or keep your notes private with our annotation features

Support the World Literacy Foundation

We donate 20% of every book sale to help children learn to read

Publisher Description

Karl Edward Wagner (1945 - 1994)
Karl Edward Wagner was born in Knoxville, Tennessee. He earned a degree in history from Kenyon College in 1967 and a degree in psychiatry from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Despite this training, Wagner disliked the medical profession and abandoned it upon establishing himself as a writer; his disillusionment with the medical profession can be seen in the stories 'The Fourth Seal' and 'Into Whose Hands'. As well as being a multi-award winning author, Wagner was a highly successful editor and publisher of horror, science fiction and heroic fantasy, creating a definitive three-volume set of Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian fiction, and edited the long-running and genre-defining Year's Best Horror and Fantasy series. Wagner is perhaps best known for his creation of the long-running series of stories featuring Kane, the Mystic Swordsman. He died in 1994.

10 Reviews

4.5
“Bloodstone is my first jump into the works of Karl Edward Wagner, who has been often described as one of the fathers of dark fantasy, if not its foremost figure in the genre's formative years. Wagner’s chief invention is that of the character Kane, an iconic antihero who has equally violent and scholarly aspirations. Bloodstone is written in a style reminiscent of one of Wagner’s biggest influences— strange fiction authors such as Lovecraft, Derleth, etc. The prose is both purple and pulpy, sometimes rather eloquent and while largely very well written, definitely feels its length. That said, it manages to craft a story that’s compelling and thrilling, and the character at the center of it goes through many intriguing changes as an amoral, double-crossing and selfish protagonist-to-antagonist. It blends heroic fantasy with cosmic horror well and the imagery described within it is definitely memorable. It even has a good attempt at a well-rounded and perhaps subversive (for the time) heroic female character in Teres, which is exceedingly rare in both this genre and the era it was written in. I’ll likely be visiting more of Wagner’s works in the future after I cull through my reading list.”

About Karl Edward Wagner

Karl Edward Wagner (1945 - 1994)
Karl Edward Wagner was born in Knoxville, Tennessee. He earned a degree in history from Kenyon College in 1967 and a degree in psychiatry from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Despite this training, Wagner disliked the medical profession and abandoned it upon establishing himself as a writer; his disillusionment with the medical profession can be seen in the stories 'The Fourth Seal' and 'Into Whose Hands'. As well as being a multi-award winning author, Wagner was a highly successful editor and publisher of horror, science fiction and heroic fantasy, creating a definitive three-volume set of Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian fiction, and edited the long-running and genre-defining Year's Best Horror and Fantasy series. Wagner is perhaps best known for his creation of the long-running series of stories featuring Kane, the Mystic Swordsman. He died in 1994.

Start a Book Club

Start a public or private book club with this book on the Fable app today!

FAQ

Do I have to buy the ebook to participate in a book club?

Why can’t I buy the ebook on the app?

How is Fable’s reader different from Kindle?

Do you sell physical books too?

Are book clubs free to join on Fable?

How do I start a book club with this book on Fable?

Error Icon
Save to a list
0
/
30
0
/
100
Private List
Private lists are not visible to other Fable users on your public profile.
Notification Icon
Fable uses the TMDB API but is not endorsed or certified by TMDB