©2025 Fable Group Inc.
4.0 

The Book of Kane

By Karl Edward Wagner
The Book of Kane by Karl Edward Wagner digital book - Fable

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.

Download the free Fable app

app book lists

Stay organized

Keep track of what you’re reading, what you’ve finished, and what’s next.
app book recommendations

Build a better TBR

Swipe, skip, and save with our smart list-building tool
app book reviews

Rate and review

Share your take with other readers with half stars, emojis, and tags
app comments

Curate your feed

Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communities
app book lists

Stay organized

Keep track of what you’re reading, what you’ve finished, and what’s next.
app book recommendations

Build a better TBR

Swipe, skip, and save with our smart list-building tool
app book reviews

Rate and review

Share your take with other readers with half stars, emojis, and tags
app comments

Curate your feed

Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communities

4 Reviews

4.0
“It is not easy to rate, or review, a book like this now. This is old-school sword & sorcery, iron thews and all, combined with flat-out horror. The first part of that equation is problematic in today's climate: There is no denying that huge swaths of the subgenre are, at best, sexist, and Wagner knowingly wrote along these lines. However, he also crafted some of the best S&S put to paper, up there with Howard himself (Wagner also wrote novels starring REH characters Conan and Solomon Caine). The prose is, especially in the earlier works, hammy and overblown in delightful ways that throw back to the category's pulp roots. The style becomes subtler and more refined in the later stories, but rarely loses that pulpy feel. Wagner was capable of sophisticated prose, but he saw no need of it here. The stories, too, are fairly simple, with few surprising twists, but are still satisfying. The character of Kane is a complicated issue: He is the protagonist of most of these stories, but is in no way a hero. He's a bad man, a murderer, thief, and rapist. He has something resembling a code, though it is hardly a moral one. For most authors, Kane would be a villain, and not even a complex one. Wagner, however, pits Kane against foes just as vile and often less disciplined. He also raises interesting issues rarely dealt with in "anti-hero" narratives, specifically the evils influenced by the character's own actions. No punches are pulled here; Wagner knows violence and hate beget more of the same, and uses that knowledge to both further and comment upon the narrative. All that said, if you just want stories of a muscle-bound murder-hobo doing exciting things, you're in the right place. There are evil spells, undying vengeance, dark spirits, and gruesome violence here, all delivered with bloody cheer. This is fun stuff; all the deeper stuff is there if you want it, but you can just have a good time, too. Look, I liked this, and will be reading more of the series, but I won't pretend this is an enlightened series. Mileage will vary, but you will know very quickly where you stand.”

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