Night Winds is a collection of hard-boiled, dark fantasy stories about Kane, a barely mortal evil sorceress in the form of a huge, red-haired man. People cower at the mention of his name. Really, it's a blast to see the seedy underbelly of a well-imagined high fantasy world. I had hopes that this was the first book of Kane stories, but it might be the fifth. None of the stories take place in a consecutive order, so you can read it however you want.
I think the fact that our hero is evil lends itself to more of a literary nature than most high fantasy. And I think with short stories, the substance of a piece is usually more apparent than in an epic-length good verse evil story with surprise zombies, etc. Night Winds is pulp fantasy the way you would want it to be. Wagner knows the effect and value of good prose without spoiling it with overuse.
Since with every story, the characters and immediate setting are different, I had a hard time getting attached. Less than a month later, I can't remember anyone's name but Kane. At the end of each story, he will live, and everyone else might as well die.
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