The Second Empire

The almost-final chapter to Paul Kearney's fantastic Monarchies of God series.

It deserves a glowing review of its own, but I'm pasting my review on the series as a whole here as I don't want to dissect each book alone.

They may call it military sff, epic fantasy, adult speculative fiction, or any of the ready-made stamps, genres, or labels. And they would be right. And wrong; a label is too defining, too narrow.

To me, it's what a damn good story should be. It has magic, religion, royalty, corruption, brotherhood, war, sacrifice, love, and honor, and it never confines itself into preachiness, never aggrandizes one favorite theme on top of its world. A story from the better past where stories were not burdened by a Message with a capital show more M, or some forced formula of certain beats at specific moments, rather a heartfelt tale following a sample of humanity at the pendulum between best and worst.

It is one story involving its whole world over decades, but the relentless machinations of history would mean little were it not for the men and women whose lives are trampled by its heartless, inexorable march.

It's the mud on these men and women's faces, the scars on their bodies, the fears in their hearts and the small, fleeting glimmers of hope they cling to that put you constantly in their shoes. You are not a general or a historian reading a treatise. You're simply there in their skin, trembling, fleeing, fighting, bleeding, and rejoicing with every one of them.

Not one character was underwhelming, misplaced, or uninteresting. Not one scene was unessential or forced. Everything flowed naturally; in the heart of every character was the seed of his destiny, and the world evolved from its past towards its unfolding future with the natural elegance of a seedling towering into a magnificent tree.

The world, the theme, the plot, the characters, the scenes, it's all one organic whole, a fluid dance with a thousand performers moving in rhythm. Everything is a symphony of exceptional storytelling from the first page to the last.

I cannot recall experiencing such unity of vision except in a handful of books. That Paul Kearney has written this quintet almost thirty years ago, and it staying relatively unknown, is most confusing to me. Over the years, I've read tens of bestselling, critically acclaimed novels that are not worthy to untie this book's sandals.

Less than 400 people have added this book to their libraries on this site, while much drivel filed on the same genre has dozens of times as many readers. Marketing shenanigans or whatever. Crazy world.

Having finished all five books of Paul Kearney's Monarchies of God quintet, I found it one of the biggest, epicest, awesomest stories I've ever read.

(No, I won't go into a summary of what exactly happens to whom. You can check that out in other reviews, or the first book's pitch on Amazon)

The Monarchies of God is peak storytelling and deserves the highest recommendation. Pick the first book and you'll devour it, I promise you.

And I'll be sure to check the author's other novels as well. If they're half as good as this, they're definitely worth a read. show less

It's refreshing to read a fantasy series that's so breakneck in pace, I can barely register story beats before another major one happens. It may lack in depth, but I still feel connected to the main characters, Corfe in particular. Kearney definitely shoves in 500 pages of story into 289 pages here and I'm still not certain if I prefer that to being overly long, but for a quick summer fantasy read, it continued the story nicely. Fantastic epilogue, too. Onto the 5th and final book, no chance I'm getting off the train now.

Paul Kearney's Monarchies of God series is easily among the best fantasy I've had the pleasure of reading. The Second Empire, along with entries 2 and 3 in this series, seem to represent the author at the top of his game. This entry wraps up a good number of plot threads, and does so in a convincing and exciting manner. Well worth your time for fans of R. Scott Bakker (Prince of Nothing), Joe Abercrombie (The First Law), and GRR Martin (A Song of Fire and Ice). In general, anyone who enjoys well-written, bare-knuckle, serious fantasy would be well off giving this series a try (but should start at the beginning with Hawkwood's Voyage).

Se acerca el final del conflicto que devasta el continente de Normannia. En el este, el general Corfe Cear-Inaf, al mando de los ejércitos de Torunna, ha detenido el avance merduk y se dispone a pasar a la ofensiva. Pero la batalla que le espera, una sangrienta lucha de ocupación en la que las atrocidades contra los civiles están a la orden del día, es un nuevo tipo de guerra que no todos tendrán estómago para soportar.