- Paperback: 320 pages
- Publisher: Gollancz; New edition edition (9 Jun 1994)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0575057130
- ISBN-13: 978-0575057135
- Product Dimensions: 17.8 x 10.9 x 2.5 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 962,761 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Product Description
A lyrical fantasy of Ireland's past and present, by the author of "The Way to Babylon". In a remote rural part of Northern Ireland, a small boy's enchanted life changes for ever when a chance fall on a riverbank opens up another world in which sword-bearing warriors do battle with beasts of legend.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An excellent novel,
By A. Whitehead "Werthead" (Colchester, Essex United Kingdom) - See all my reviews (VINE VOICE) (TOP 500 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)
This review is from: A Different Kingdom (Paperback)
Growing up on an Antrim farm in the 1950s, young Michael Fay has an idyllic but hard-working life. However, he soon discovers that the woodland beyond the farm is a doorway to another place, a place of wonders and stark terrors which has a strange hold on his family and where he must travel to right an old wrong.
A Different Kingdom was Paul Kearney's second novel, originally published in 1993 by Gollancz. It's a stand-alone, although it shares a thematic link with The Way to Babylon and Riding the Unicorn in that it features a person from our world who is drawn into a fantastical one. Those more familiar with Kearney from his later work, such as the excellent Monarchies of God series or his recent accomplished fantasised historical, The Ten Thousand, will find the book a surprise and a revelation. This is a work that is steeped in earthy Celtic mythology and is riddled with the sensibilities of Ireland. During early sequences on the Fay farm you can almost taste the soda bread and buttermilk, whilst later sequences in the fantastical 'other place' are rooted in the earth, the musty smells of the forest and in the palpable terror of the hunted. A Different Kingdom reaches into the same taproots as works such as Robert Holdstock's Mythago Wood, a comparison most books would not weather well, but this novel stands up to it with gusto. It's extremely well-written, with Fay a troubled and complex central character, and features an unusual structure where the story proceeds in three different periods in Michael's life and the story moves between them as he has prescient visions of his future journey into the forest as a boy, flashbacks to it as an adult and then we see it during the present. There's an element of Heart of Darkness also at work, as Michael's journey into the heart of the forest to confront an elusive enemy also becomes a confrontation with his own soul and his desires to save a family member clash with the desire to stay with a beautiful woman he meets in the woodlands. There aren't many weaknesses. The sequence set in the future when Michael is grown-up are somewhat brief and not as well-explored as the earlier episodes, but then it doesn't really need to be. Some may find the ending also to be a little abrupt given the novel's build-up, but it still worked well and was a thematically appropriate conclusion. I particularly like the way you can't really read it as a 'happy ending' or not, depending on your interpretation of the story. A Different Kingdom is a rich, powerful and strikingly good novel. It's regrettably out-of-print at the moment, although second-hand copies are available via Amazon in the UK and USA.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Lyrical and Gritty - Fantasy for Grown-Ups,
By
This review is from: A Different Kingdom (Paperback)
A bald description of the plot makes it sound like too many children's novels you might once have read - a boy in his early teens finds a way into an alternate world at the bottom of the fields where he lives - but in fact this book has much more to offer.
For one thing, this is not a book for children. It does not shy away from sex and sexual desire - indeed it provides a central motivation. The magical secondary world in which the hero finds himself is not one purely of fairy tales; it is just as hard and gritty as the real world sections of the story. And, if the fantasy parts can offer realism, the real world parts, set in rural Ulster not-so-long ago, offer a lyrical and elegaic vision of a vanished life. The book has obvious similarities to stories such as Mythago Wood; Little, Big; The Broken Sword and, even, Cider With Rosie, but it is more than capable of standing on its merits. It has real magic - dirty and hard-edged - as well as fairies, goblins and ogres. It has a well drawn sense of place in the real world sections and a touch for compelling detail in the fantasy world. And - unlike so many similar stories - it has a believeable portrait of a young man changed by his experiences in the secondary world. Recommended.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
5.0 out of 5 stars (1 customer review) 1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An excellent novel,
By A. Whitehead "Werthead" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: A Different Kingdom (Paperback)
Growing up on an Antrim farm in the 1950s, young Michael Fay has an idyllic but hard-working life. However, he soon discovers that the woodland beyond the farm is a doorway to another place, a place of wonders and stark terrors which has a strange hold on his family and where he must travel to right an old wrong.
A Different Kingdom was Paul Kearney's second novel, originally published in 1993 by Gollancz. It's a stand-alone, although it shares a thematic link with The Way to Babylon and Riding the Unicorn in that it features a person from our world who is drawn into a fantastical one. Those more familiar with Kearney from his later work, such as the excellent Monarchies of God series or his recent accomplished fantasised historical, The Ten Thousand, will find the book a surprise and a revelation. This is a work that is steeped in earthy Celtic mythology and is riddled with the sensibilities of Ireland. During early sequences on the Fay farm you can almost taste the soda bread and buttermilk, whilst later sequences in the fantastical 'other place' are rooted in the earth, the musty smells of the forest and in the palpable terror of the hunted. A Different Kingdom reaches into the same taproots as works such as Robert Holdstock's Mythago Wood, a comparison most books would not weather well, but this novel stands up to it with gusto. It's extremely well-written, with Fay a troubled and complex central character, and features an unusual structure where the story proceeds in three different periods in Michael's life and the story moves between them as he has prescient visions of his future journey into the forest as a boy, flashbacks to it as an adult and then we see it during the present. There's an element of Heart of Darkness also at work, as Michael's journey into the heart of the forest to confront an elusive enemy also becomes a confrontation with his own soul and his desires to save a family member clash with the desire to stay with a beautiful woman he meets in the woodlands. There aren't many weaknesses. The sequence set in the future when Michael is grown-up are somewhat brief and not as well-explored as the earlier episodes, but then it doesn't really need to be. Some may find the ending also to be a little abrupt given the novel's build-up, but it still worked well and was a thematically appropriate conclusion. I particularly like the way you can't really read it as a 'happy ending' or not, depending on your interpretation of the story. A Different Kingdom is a rich, powerful and strikingly good novel. It's regrettably out-of-print at the moment, although second-hand copies are available via Amazon in the UK and USA. |
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