The Second Empire (The monarchies of God) [Hardcover]

Paul Kearney's high fantasy series The Monarchies of God reaches its fourth volume with The Second Empire. These tales of war, discovery and religious turmoil in a world that is not quite our own late Middle Ages or early Renaissance, but has strong resemblance to both, have been characterised by strong characters and biting emotional dilemmas. Here a general is forced to take a throne by marriage, uncertain whether his captured wife is living or dead; a captain sails for home, aware that he is bringing back secrets which might be best left on another continent; a magician parleys with ultimate evil knowing what the cost might be and a Pope tries to persuade men of good will that, for once, all religions really are the same. This is powerful stuff, intelligently written and with a real sense of the dark corridors and windy battlements of the palaces in which so much of it is set. Kearney does not only write good battles--he remembers the causes that battles are fought for. --Roz Kaveney

Winter lies cold and dark upon the world; it seems that spring will never come. Once dismissed as the ravings of a crazed hermit, the prophecies of Honorius seem at last to be coming true. Though there are those within the Church hierachy who begin to doubt the moraility of the cause, the Ramusian Church is steadily expanding its power over the continent of Normannia; people are comparing it with the long-vanished Fimbrian empire. In the east, the last Torrunan army stands at bay before the broken walls of its capital. In the west, King Abelyn strives to maintain control of an unruly and ravaged kingdom. And in the harbour of Old Abrusio, the Gabrian Osprey lies docked at last, home from her long voyaging. Only a handful of shocked survivors remain of thaqt proud expedition that set forward almost a year before . . . but they are not alone. Something has come home with them from the uttermost west. This is the fourth book in Kearney's MONARCHIES OF GOD saga, combining warfare, magic and political machinations in a rich, rewarding read.

Paul Kearney was born and grew up in Northern Ireland. He lived for some years in Copenhagen, then spent two years in America before returning to Britain in 1998.