[Raymond Luxury Yacht]

Anyone read him? I'm in the middle of The Ten Thousand, and enjoying it. Is his other stuff any good?

[Dag]

I liked his "Monarchies of God" very much, although the last book was a bit of a mess (like trying very quickly to wrap things up with less than ideal outcome). No particularly innovative ideas, but a lot of really cool large-scale battles and lovable heroic larger-than-life characters. Good fun, all in all, and I would definitely receommend it further.

Also read the first two books of "The Sea-Beggars", and although they were not particularly good (especially compared to "The Monarchies") they still have their charms and I will certainly buy the next book in the series.

This post has been edited by Dag: 26 September 2008 - 06:47 AM

[drinksinbars]

Well i am a big fan, he is a northern ireland author as well, and lives just down the road from my hometown. Definitely a recommended read.

[Danyah]

Dag, on Sep 26 2008, 07:47 AM, said:

I liked his "Monarchies of God" very much, although the last book was a bit of a mess (like trying very quickly to wrap things up with less than ideal outcome). No particularly innovative ideas, but a lot of really cool large-scale battles and lovable heroic larger-than-life characters. Good fun, all in all, and I would definitely receommend it further.

Also read the first two books of "The Sea-Beggars", and although they were not particularly good (especially compared to "The Monarchies") they still have their charms and I will certainly buy the next book in the series.

Wouldn't start with the Sea Beggars. Have them both (tnx to Pat), then he got sacked by his editor because it didn't sell enough. Now the series is on hold, without any hints on continuation. Pity. I liked it tough.

[RodeoRanch]

I really liked his "Monarchies of God" series. But the last book is an utter disaster. I would advise against reading it at all and pretend the series finished at the end of the 4th book.

[Werthead]

Latest on the Kearney:

The Monarchies of God is being reissued in early 2009 in two omnibus volumes. The second features a rewritten version of Ships From the West which apparently Will Not Suck.

The Sea-Beggars will continue. Kearney had done a lot of work on the third book, Storm of the Dead, when the axe fell. He is now going to finish off the third and combine it with elements of the planned fourth book. Once that is done, the whole trilogy will be published in one volume. The timing on that is unclear since Bantam won't surrender the rights to the series, but we should see that hopefully within two years or so.

Kearney is considering his new project: either a prequel to The Ten Thousand or a new series set in an alternate-Hundred Years' War featuring magic.

[Raymond Luxury Yacht]

Finshed The Ten Thousand. Quite good, would recommend it. The only fault is that it's only a single book. I could have gone for another 9 or so easily.

[wintermute]

I read the first monarchy of god book and quite liked it, but I can't get my hands on the others (except the fifth, which I found at a used bookstore, for all the good it does me).

[Imperial Historian]

The ten thousands out already? Damn why haven't I bought it, been looking forward to it for ages, this being in another country sucks with regards to keeping up with the latest book releases...

I'm a big fan of kearney, and I'm really looking forward to the re-released version of monarchies of god, personally I think he's one of the most consitently under-rated authors around, if he'd been better treated by his publishers and a better version of ships of the west had been released first, he could easily have been one of the most popular authors in the genre.

[Valgard]

Also just finished the Ten thousand and loved it. I have read all of his other work as well and enjoyed them all, expect the last in the monarchies of god series, which I tried and had to give up on. So I would definitely recommend his books to anyone.

[pat5150]

Just finished The Ten Thousand and really enjoyed it! One of the year's best, no question!

Patrick

[...]

I have to admit that the Ten Thousand was my first look at Kearney. With that being said I found the book very entertaining yet, it was lacking at the end. I found that the final scene

Spoiler

where Jason was killed

to be a little predictable and cliche. Yet, it still was one the most entertaining books I've read in while.

[Werthead]

Latest news on Kearney's projects.

Kearney has three books out this year:

Early August 2010: Hawkwood and the Kings. The first of two volumes reprinting his classic Monarchies of God series. This volume includes Hawkwood's Voyage and The Heretic Kings.

Early September 2010: Century of the Soldier. The second Monarchies omnibus, collecting The Iron Wars, The Second Empire and a rewritten Ships From the West.

Late October 2010: Corvus, a self-contained follow-up to The Ten Thousand, picking up on Rictus and the Macht twenty years on.

All three should be published by Solaris Books in the UK and USA simultaneously. Check the link for cover art for all three.

[RodeoRanch]

Oooh, a rewritten Ships From the West.

Any ideas what sort of stuff is being rewritten, Wert? Because it's a right disaster for ending the series as it is right now.

[Werthead]

RodeoRanch, on 26 March 2010 - 03:06 AM, said:

Oooh, a rewritten Ships From the West.

Any ideas what sort of stuff is being rewritten, Wert? Because it's a right disaster for ending the series as it is right now.

I know that

Spoiler

The King of Hebrion gets a proper send-off this time. A major POV character from the series being killed in a very offhand manner by an explosion that is never referred to again was, on one level, impressively ruthless but also a bit weird.

[Fist Gamet]

Yeah, I would recommend him too. Although he maybe draws too much on our own history for his ideas, Monarchies was good. He had a few terrific characters (what was his name? Corfe?) and enjoyable stories. Ten Thousand was inspired by Xenophon, iirc, but I still liked it. I seem to recall Kearney saying that with The Sea Beggars he wsa going back to revisit established fantasy cliches to freshen them up or something or other. I read the first one and it was ok but never got round to book two.

[Werthead]

The finalised cover art for the first omnibus which, encouragingly, is still coming out in August. You may recognise the person giving the cover rec:





The cover artist has a blog entry here expanding on the images chosen for the book and how they redrew the maps and chapter headers for the new edition.

This post has been edited by Werthead: 29 June 2010 - 07:39 PM

[Werthead]

Confirmation that Kings of Morning, the third Macht book, will be out in July 2011, just eight months after Corvus is released in November.

In addition, its cover art:



And the art for the second Monarchies omnibus:

[ObsoleteResolve]

I love you Wert. Thanks for the news-- he's one of the authors I keep tabs on on the bookshelves at stores, and knowing that the re-release/revisions are coming out soon is Happy Days.

[Salt-Man Z]

I actually just picked up the entire Monarchies series at Half Price Books. The Ten Thousand was good, so I'm looking forward to these.