“What are you, Kane … man or demon?”
“I’ve been called both, though both races have damned me often enough. And I claim neither – although once men called me brother.”
One of the best feelings for a secondhand book lover like myself is finding an obscure novel in a genre not usually read, by an author not known and it turns out to be a doorway to worlds never dreamed of. Bloodstone, a pulp adventure sci-fi novel written by one of the best storytellers of his time was that novel for me.
Wagner is a true master at creating a story rich in history and strife with an ominous tone all the while describing that very atmosphere with beautiful poetic descriptions that left me absolutely in awe of his prose. Moments after reading the opening prologue I went on a digital search for his other works and other fans. Unbeknownst to the late Wagner, he became the catalyst to a genre, a fandom, a love of art that I never knew I longed to enjoy.
For miles uncounted, the forest stood supreme. Giant trees reached their branches heavenward, fighting for sunlight and fresh air. Beneath their dense foliage existed another world than that of the open sky above–the twilight of the forest floor. There the cool gloom was broken only by scattered rays of sunlight that crept through the ceiling above, to melt upon the thick bed of leaf mold and pine needles which covered the floor. No undergrowth flourished, except in spots where the arboreal giant had fallen and torn a gap in the forest roof, through which yellow sunlight streamed. Then for a short time, a cerement of underbrush might thrive on the rich humus beside the decaying trunk, until the branches above refilled the gulf and strangled the live-giving rays.
Bloodstone boasts all manner of creatures, historical lore, and the ever-present sword and sorcery tropes such as batrachian swamp warriors, an alien race, bloody battles against the supernatural beings brought out to conquer the world, and virgin maidens tied to altars for sacrifice.
The epic adventure of Bloodstone starts with just that, a ring set with an odd gemstone of dark green veined with blood-red streaks. Upon finding the ring, Kane, the main character follows the origin of the stone through ancient texts to a lost and ruined city obscured in the swamps. It is here that Kane awakens the bloodstone, unearths alien technology, and takes control of the toad-like batrachian race residing there.
My favorite character in Bloodstone, however, is Teres, a princess so-to-speak born and raised to wield a sword who gets caught up in Kane’s maneuvers of inciting a war between two neighboring kingdoms. Teres is not written in as a damsel in distress or even a passive plot device in Kane’s story arc. Teres is strong in mind and spirit and a good bit of the story is told from her perspective.
Wagner’s story takes a couple of twists that will have you invested from the first page and dying to know how the story will eventually end.
Kane. The Mystic Swordsman becomes the living link with the awesome power of a vanished superrace.
In the dark swamp where toadmen croak and cower, slumbers a secret relic of the days when creatures from the stars ruled the Earth. In the booty captured in a savage raid, Kane discovers a ring, a bloodstone, which is key to the power that lies buried, inactive but not dead, within the forest.
Now Kane, whose bloody sword has slashed and killed for the glory of other rulers, can scheme to rule the Earth – himself!
