This is one of my favorite books, but it's actually a book I would not recommend to very many people. It's very, very, violent, and it can be gruesome and graphic in its depiction of violence. Some of the violence is sexual in nature--particularly the main villain, Berne, talks about, fantasizes about, and perpetrates rape. There's a lot of offensive stuff, too, including strong language and slurs about gender and sexuality. Some of the above (although thankfully not the sexual violence) is engaged in by our protagonist. Basically, if you think that any of the above will upset you, stay far away from this book and others by this author.

All of that makes it sound like a big brainless gore-fest, but it's not. This novel deals heavily with the consequences of violence, told largely from the perspective of a violent and murderous protagonist, Caine. It's actually a well-thought-out adventure story with a decidedly philosophical bent.

The setting is pretty cool. It's set in two parallel universes--one is a standard "fantasy" setting in the Tolkien mold (but with a lot more grit and realism), and the other is a dystopian future Earth run by corporations, with a rigidly defined caste system. The corporations of Earth send "actors" to the fantasy setting, "Overworld", to risk their lives in interesting ways. Their adventures get broadcast back to the "studio" on Earth through a brain implant.

The protagonist is Hari Michaelson, who plays Earth's favorite character on Overworld, the brutal and murderous assassin Caine. The hook into the story is a somewhat familiar cliche--he wants to retire, but just when he thinks he's out, he gets pulled in for one last job. Essentially he has to rescue his estranged wife Shanna, another actor on Overworld whose link with Earth was severed mid-adventure while she was aiding the resistance against the cruel emperor Ma'elKoth. Now, the damsel in distress thing is definitely a strike against the book, but rest assured that things get more complicated than that. Shanna is a secondary character in this book but she has a rather interesting plot of her own.

The main draw of this book is that Hari/Caine, despite being a murderous asshole and not a very nice person, ends up making for a great underdog protagonist. It becomes increasingly clear as the story progresses that forces much larger than Hari are attempting to use him as a pawn, and the ways in which he copes with this prove very interesting and fun to read about.

It's a book with problems, but as skeptical as you might be at the outset, by the ends you'll be cheering for Caine with the rest of us.