Paul Kearney

The Macht — (2008-2011) Publisher: The world of Kuf, an ancient Assurian Empire, dominant, prestigious and thought to be invincible, is about to be shaken to very foundations. An exile from the empire, the Great King's brother hires a force of Ten thousand elite mercenaries of a legendary race known as the Macht to take the throne by force. But when their employer is killed, The Ten Thousand find themselves abandoned. This is the story of their fight for freedom, and marks the start of a brand new series by one of the finest writers of fantasy.

The Ten Thousand

The Ten Thousand is the first Paul Kearney book that I have read, and it is as different a fantasy as I have ever read, and in fact, it is barely a fantasy. The only fantastic elements are that it is set on a different world — Kuf — with two moons, that the “races” of humans are separated a little more by physical aspects than those in our world, and there are 5000 sets of impregnable black breastplates that were given (apparently by the goddess Antimone) to the Macht, an ancient warrior society very similar to the Greek city states that pre-dated Philip and Alexander of Macedon. Aside from that, this novel is a historical novel that borrows closely from Greek history but, by putting it in a fantasy, Kearney is able to look at the characters of this band of men without having to apologize to historians. He can tackle this story and the themes he raises with, as one of my favourite authors says, “the gloves off.” This book is a compelling and fast read, though it never kept me up until 2 a.m.

Kearney bases his story on the story of the Ten Thousand — the Greek mercenaries who were hired by Darius to overthrow the reign of his brother, Artaxerxes II. Saying more than that will spoil the plot, but if you know ancient history, which I did prior to reading this book, the plot follows the same path, which is a steady and logical one, to its inevitable conclusions. In this story it is Arkamenes who is attempting the coup, and Ashurnan who is the reigning king.

Actually, the plot in this book really is secondary. What is most interesting about this story is how the characters, mainly Rictus and Gasca, develop, but others also, including Vorus, the renegade Macht general who works for the Kefre king seeking to destroy his countrymen. Kearney pays particularly special attention to the details of men in combat together, how they relate to each other, and how they respond under horrible pressure. This is no fairy tale story. It is a war story, and the battle scenes are graphically described, with the details of ancient phalanx style warfare set out with perfect clarity. If you are at all squeamish, this book is not for you. It is very, very violent. But then again, human history is very, very violent, and Kearney is simply being honest.

Kearney took a wonderful little snapshot of Ashurnan’s character through a reminiscence of his childhood, which included his brother Arkamenes and another childhood friend who supports Arkamenes against him. Though Ashurnan is only a supporting character, this explained so much of the way the Empire is governed. Yet, it made the Great King so very human without a ponderous pile of description, and this allowed the book to be a fast, yet fulfilling read. I found this to be a particularly effective method for avoiding long descriptive passages (which many authors are not talented enough to make interesting).

The Ten Thousand is an adult book, due to the violence and rape (no actual scenes, but indirectly referred to at several points). I suspect that anyone who has ever served in a combat zone might appreciate this book. It is a wonderful character story, and a relentless tale of battle. Kearney belongs to the gritty realism school of fantasy, and it does not get any more real than this. If it did, it would be a historical novel.

I have given The Ten Thousand 4.5 stars, for while it is a great read, it is not perfect. The ending was so abrupt (perhaps that is Kearney’s striving for reality coming through) that I was left unsatisfied. The ending was real though, and somehow felt right, if not satisfying. The exploration of the character Jason, for me, fell a little short. And the cover, which sports some really good artwork which evokes the content, is destroyed by a photo-shopped GQ model in a breastplate (ugh!). However, these minor beefs aside, Kearney clearly achieves what he set out to do with this book, and any discerning adult reader who enjoys historical novels or military fantasy would really enjoy The Ten Thousand. I will be looking out for more of Kearney, especially when I need a break from high fantasy. —Angus Bickerton

The Ten Thousand

The Ten Thousand is a historical fantasy which follows the story of two young men growing up in a very close approximation of the Greek City States known as the Macht. One has just lost his family due to war and the other has set off to find adventure as a soldier. Both of them end up enlisting in a large force of mercenaries bound for a larger empire. Their story is interesting; we follow them on their campaign through a foreign land peopled with races who aren’t human, but are close enough that they’re easily imaginable and not too fantastic.

Paul Kearney’s excellent world building is enhanced by his obvious knowledge of the historical period. The Ten Thousand seems realistic and it really draws you into the rough, violent world of a highly trained mercenary. Kearney’s writing is well-done, too, and the story moves at a nice pace. There are lots of different characters which create several relationship plotlines. I think the loyalty conflicts that some of the minor characters deal with were the best part of the story.

On the whole I enjoyed The Ten Thousand. It’s a solid effort. —John Hulet

Corvus

I was introduced to Paul Kearney’s writing when I read The Ten Thousand, and I instantly loved the way Kearney does his brand of historical fantasy. His focus is on a Greek-like, Bronze Age civilization peopled by the Macht, a war-like civilization of city-states very much like the Greece of ca. 400 BC. In both The Ten Thousand and Corvus, Kearney uses ancient history as a broad structure for telling a tale of war in all of its bloody horror.

In Corvus, Kearney brings back Rictus, one of the leaders of the Ten Thousand, mercenaries who fought their way out of the Asurian Empire after their employer failed to seize its throne, and who are very loosely based on this world’s Ten Thousand, Greeks who similarly fought their way out of Persia. Rictus has a legendary stature in the cities of the Macht, and is the general of the Dogsheads, a phalanx of mercenaries who fight in the cities’ petty and constant wars. The structure Kearney uses this time is the rise of Philip of Macedon and his son Alexander the Great. Corvus is Kearney’s Alexander, and he invites Rictus and the Dogsheads to join him in his attempt to unify the Macht into one nation and to leave their internecine squabbles in the past.

Fantasy readers may be put off that there is very little fantasy in Corvus. The Ten Thousand was well-received by critics, but received some harsh treatment on fan sites due to the scarcity of fantastical elements (the biggest of which is the mysterious Curse of God, five thousand impenetrable cuirasses gifted to the Macht in their pre-history). I do not understand the criticism, as these are fast-paced, character-driven books that open up the reader to something most of us do not understand: war. Kearney pulls no punches in his descriptions of battles, and he does it better than anyone. When I read about his battles, I feel like I am in a blimp overlooking a football game, as I can see, in my mind’s eye, everything. No writer I know of has done it with Kearney’s skill, and he demonstrates so very well the horror and futility of war. Where Guy Gavriel Kay writes his historical fantasy with beauty and lyricism, Kearney writes his with harsh reality and perfect precision.

Kearney’s prose is economical and fast-paced, but the books in the Macht series do not attempt the breadth that his Monarchies of God series did. Corvus is, by the author’s choice, a different and less-complex book, and it is focused strictly on the Macht war and its protagonists, not an over-arching story line. Kearney could have made Corvus a much bigger book, with more political intrigue, more characters, and more depth. After all, in this historical fantasy construct, he has an enormous amount of material at his disposal, but Kearney chooses not to use all of this possible material. He eschews the idea of a big, sprawling epic (and I like big sprawling epics) and instead gives us a detailed piece of the whole story. I am beginning to like this kind of book more, as it is a quick read (I read it in a day), entertaining and yet significant, but it does not provide me with the depth that I usually crave when I read.

Kearney does an excellent job of showing the characters on both sides of the conflict (Corvus, the unifying would-be-king, and Karnos, the man of the people, standing up to tyranny for the freedom of his city), and the primary characters are developed well and with an ease that demonstrates Kearney’s talent. Readers of Glen Cook or Steven Erikson would likely appreciate Corvus; however, do not be afraid of the lack of magic. Also, it is definitely R-rated, due to the violence, language, sexuality, and scenes of rape. Fans of historical fiction would also enjoy Corvus, as in many ways, this series is closer to history than it is to fantasy. A very good read, and Kearney has once again demonstrated that he is criminally under-read.  —Angus Bickerton