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The Mark of Ran (Paperback)

by Paul Kearney (Author)
4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Paperback: 400 pages
  • Publisher: Bantam Books; New edition edition (1 Sep 2005)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0553813749
  • ISBN-13: 978-0553813746
  • Product Dimensions: 17.2 x 10.8 x 2.8 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 365,719 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

Review

'If there is a sub-genre of Naval Fantasy, Paul Kearney is its master and commander...He is to my mind one of the very best writers of fantasy around. And recognition of that is long overdue.' - STEVEN ERIKSON 'Impressive for its human insights, its unusual take on the use of magic, and its fine blending of historical elements with sheer invention' - LOCUS magazine 'Powerful stuff, intelligently written...Kearney does not only write good battles - he remembers the causes that battles are fought for' - amazon.co.uk 'One of the best fantasy works for ages...tough, muscular realism...Kearney paints the gore, the sex and the lust for power in vivid colour.' - SFX


Product Description

The world is dying, forsaken by its Creator. Man schemes and plots and makes wars across it, forgetting that this turning earth does not belong to him alone. Another race once dwelled here. Some believe they were the last of the Angels, banished to this world for a forgotten crime; others that they were demons imprisoned here by a disgusted Creator. Rol Cortishane's quiet life is about to come to an end, for in him runs the blood of this Elder race. Driven from his home, he seeks refuge in the ancient citadel of Michal Psellos, where-he is trained to be a killer of men, an assassin without pity. His tutor in murder is the beautiful and deadly Rowen - one whom he loves without hope. THE MARK OF RAN is the beginning of Cortishane's story. A tale in which he journeys across the breadth of this teeming, wicked world and finds a legendary Hidden City where the desperate and the dispossessed fight for survival. This is the first of the chronicles of Rol's great voyages, and those of his compatriots; a band of outcasts who took to the wide oceans of the world when every nation of the earth set its face against them. Ussa's Orphans they were called, the Beggars of the Sea...
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Customer Reviews

8 Reviews
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4 star:
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3 star:
 (1)
2 star:    (0)
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Average Customer Review
4.5 out of 5 stars (8 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Adult fantasy, 29 Jan 2006
I will not bore you with a full recap of the plot. So here are just my first impressions when reading it...

The beginning of this book feels like yet another "boy has to come to terms with his great destiny ..". But it moves away from that pretty darn quick.

The main characters of this one feel ... real. These are not hero/villan prototypes, the heroes have problems - real problems - the villans have reasons for what they do. So you can almost) understand the reasoning (however sick) for their actions.

This is great fantasy. If you like writers like Feist, Barclay, George R.R. Martin, then this is for you.

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Solid Effort From UK Fantasist, 29 Aug 2007
Firstly, thanks to the folk at Transworld for sending me this one! I'd been told it was good by quite a few people...

In the veins of Rol Cortishane lies the blood of the Elder race. Angels some say they are, exiled for sins none now remember. Other say they are demons...Either way, his folk are mistrusted by most they meet, and he is driven from his home.

Fleeing to one of his race's ancient strongholds, he meets Psellos, the man who will guide and train him in the art of murder, the one man with knowledge of Rol's true parents. A knowledge that Psellos will use to exert power over Rol. And destroy everything Rol holds dear.

Defying Psellos. he flees to the high seas...

I felt that some parts of the set-up had great potential to turn into a highly cliched typical fantasy--a boy, with no knowledge of his parents, highly gifted, etc--but Paul Kearney skillfully avoided the possible pitfalls. His characters, most neither good or bad (or if they are bad, they are for a very good reason) were certainly original.

Rol, particularly, the boy (later man) fleeing to an ancient stronghold of his race, to learn of his ancestry, could have been so uninteresting and typical. But he was not. He's a mixed bag, good and bad within him, and you're never sure which way he'll turn. Eventually, and much more satisfyingly, he just accepts the dueling nature within him and goes on to lead his life.

His blood, so we discover, is more pure than any others of his race descended from the Elders...he could even be one...which, of course, is impossible...

With Rowen, the female assassin, also an Elder descendant, Rol falls in love. It was interesting to see the inevitable love grow (and then end) between them, but Kearney did it in a way that would leave many surprises, and much more to add to the tale.

Later, with Rol on the high seas, captaining his own ship, it was strange to see his powers developing, particularly in battle. It's done in a refreshing way, but I still felt it made Rol too powerful. With such strength I could not see him having any difficulty in any kind of battle, be it magical or not.

The Mark of Ran ended well though--it's relatively self-contained for a book that's the first in a series. It was a fun and unusually good story, with characters that develop as the book moves on. There were a few flaws, but I look forward to what Paul Kearney makes of Book 2. Before reading The Mark of Ran, though, I would advise that you not look at the back cover blurb. It reveals half the story! 7 and a half out of 10.

For more fantasy/SF reviews, regular amazing competitions, and author interviews, visit: www.thebookswede.blogspot.com
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1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Pleasant surprise..., 11 Nov 2005
By miles_teg (Scotland) - See all my reviews
I've read a lot of science fiction over the years but had never read anything by Kearney. Certain types of books made me a bit jaded about the whole genre; particularly Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time. You wait 2 years for a negligible product that reads like a Hollywood hack wrote it on a coffee fuelled come-down. I found The Mark of Ran, on the other hand, very appealling and with an economy of style that any author (in any genre) would be proud of. The characters and plot development are consistent and well thought out- Rol seems very, well, normal and it's when confronted with difficult situations that the authors meticulous work in the early part of the book pay off. The only problem I had was the ending, in that so much happened in so few pages. However, the author wasn't lacking and built up to it well.I read this book in the library and went out to buy it afterwards; it's wedged between my Frank Herbert and Darrell Schweitzer books.I only keep the best of what I read and this book definitely deserves to be there.I only hope that the next installment lives up to this great start.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars Not sure what the fuss is about
The book was ok, but nothing noticeable among fantasy books these days; there wasn't nearly as much based on a ship as I'd been expecting, the training half of the book really... Read more
Published 15 months ago by Tom

5.0 out of 5 stars Cracking yarn
Why this book hasn't received more acclaim is beyond me. It surpasses 90% of the other fantasy out at the moment. Read more
Published 21 months ago by DWMJH

5.0 out of 5 stars Shiver me Timbers!
I shamelessly picked up this book in my local Waterstones because the cover shouted out at me! I was very interested in seeing how a maritime ship based fantasy novel would go and... Read more
Published on 11 Jun 2007 by Martin Belcher

4.0 out of 5 stars A book of two halves...
The first thing I will say is that I really enjoyed this book, I read it fast (as I do when I love a book) and am looking forward to the next installment. Read more
Published on 17 Oct 2005 by Cr Gibbs

5.0 out of 5 stars Well, I know I loved it but...
Okay, here's the deal: I absolutely flipped over Paul Kearney's Monarchies of God series. When I saw he had this book out-- BAM, I ordered it, and my fingertips were tingling... Read more
Published on 2 Sep 2005 by Charlotte Harley

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