Paul Kearney (born 1967) is a

Northern Irish Northern Irish people is a demonym for all people born in Northern Ireland or people who are entitled to reside in Northern Ireland without any restriction on their period of residence. Most Northern Irish people either identify as Northern ...

fantasy author This is a list of fantasy authors, authors known for writing works of fantasy, fantasy literature, or related genres of magic realism, horror fiction, science fantasy. Many of the authors are known for work outside the fantasy genres. A ...

. He is noted for his work in the epic fantasy subgenre and his work has been compared to that of

David Gemmell David Andrew Gemmell (; 1 August 1948 – 28 July 2006) was a British author of heroic fantasy, best known for his debut novel, ''Legend (Gemmell novel), Legend''. A former journalist and newspaper editor, Gemmell had his first work of fict ...

Life

Kearney was born in

Ballymena Ballymena ( ; from ga, an Baile Meánach , meaning 'the middle townland') is a town in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It is part of the Borough of Mid and East Antrim. The town is built on land given to the Adair family by King Charles I i ...

, Northern Ireland, in 1967. He studied

Anglo-Saxon The Anglo-Saxons were a Cultural identity, cultural group who inhabited England in the Early Middle Ages. They traced their origins to settlers who came to Britain from mainland Europe in the 5th century. However, the ethnogenesis of the Anglo- ...

Middle English Middle English (abbreviated to ME) is a form of the English language that was spoken after the Norman conquest of 1066, until the late 15th century. The English language underwent distinct variations and developments following the Old English p ...

, and

Old Norse Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and t ...

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

before spending several years in both the United States and

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before returning to Northern Ireland. He currently lives and writes in

County Down County Down () is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the traditional thirty-two counties of Ireland. It covers an area of and has a population of 531,665. It borders County Antrim to the ...

Writings

Kearney made his name with the stand-alone

novel A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itsel ...

s ''The Way to Babylon'' (1992), ''A Different Kingdom'' (1993) and ''Riding the Unicorn'' (1994). All these novels had some common threads, most notably the use of a hero from our world who journeys into a fantastical one. Despite strong reviews, these books had commercially disappointing sales, and Kearney was asked to consider a more traditional fantasy epic. The outcome was the ''

Monarchies of God ''The Monarchies of God'' is an epic fantasy series written by Irish author Paul Kearney. This series was published between 1995 and 2002 in five volumes. The series is noteworthy for its ruthlessness in dispatching major characters, its large ...

'', which brought him a measure of success, and ran to five volumes. After finishing the ''Monarchies'' series, Kearney embarked on a new series, ''

The Sea Beggars ''The Sea Beggars'' is an incomplete book series by Paul Kearney. It began with ''The Mark of Ran'' (2004) and tells the story of Rol Cortishane. It is based almost entirely around ocean-based adventures. A second volume, ''This Forsaken Earth'' ...

'', which began with ''The Mark of Ran'' (2004) and tells the story of Rol Cortishane. It is based almost entirely around ocean-based adventures. A second volume, ''This Forsaken Earth'', was published in July 2006. The series was expected to be four books long and the third had nearly been completed when the series was unexpectedly dropped by Bantam in May 2007. However, Kearney was quickly signed-up by publisher Solaris Books, who contracted him to write a new fantasy epic entitled ''The Ten Thousand'' and based loosely on the Anabasis of

Xenophon Xenophon of Athens (; grc, wikt:Ξενοφῶν, Ξενοφῶν ; – probably 355 or 354 BC) was a Greek military leader, philosopher, and historian, born in Athens. At the age of 30, Xenophon was elected commander of one of the biggest Anci ...

. This book was published in August 2008. Solaris also re-issued the ''Monarchies of God'' series as a two-volume omnibus edition and intends to publish the finished ''Sea Beggars'' series as soon as Bantam give up the publishing rights. Kearney has also written a tie-in novel based on the ''

Primeval Primeval may refer to: * Primeval forest, an area of forest that has attained great age * Primeval number, a positive integer satisfying certain conditions * Primeval history, name given by biblical scholars to the first eleven chapters of the Bo ...

'' TV series. In 2009, after a hiatus brought about by Solaris' purchase by Rebellion Books, Kearney was contracted for two additional books set in the world of ''The Ten Thousand'' and the ''Monarchies'' omnibuses was scheduled for late 2010 publication. In 2009 Kearney was longlisted for the inaugural David Gemmell Legend Award for Best Fantasy Novel.

Bibliography

Short Stories * "South Mountain" (2014, in ''Dangerous Games'') Novels * ''The Way to Babylon'' (1992) * ''A Different Kingdom'' (1993) * ''Riding the Unicorn'' (1994) * ''Primeval: The Lost Island'' (2008) * ''The Wolf in the Attic'' (2016) * ''The Other Side of Things'' (2019) The

# ''Hawkwood's Voyage'' (1995) # ''The Heretic Kings'' (1996) # ''The Iron Wars'' (1999) # ''The Second Empire'' (2000) # ''Ships from the West'' (2002) * ''Hawkwood and the Kings'' (2010, the first volume of an omnibus edition, collecting Books 1-2) * ''Century of the Soldier'' (2010, the second volume of an omnibus edition, collecting Books 3-5)

# ''The Mark of Ran'' (2004) # ''This Forsaken Earth'' (2006) # ''Storm of the Dead'' (unpublished) The series was dropped by the original publisher after the second book was published. In 2011 the series was picked up by Solaris, who were due to publish the completed series as an omnibus in 2012 but this was delayed indefinitely due to legal issues with the American publisher. However, due to the US publishers never releasing the rights for the final book, Solaris were unable to publish any of them.

The Macht ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in En ...

# ''

The Ten Thousand The Ten Thousand ( grc, οἱ Μύριοι, ''oi Myrioi'') were a force of mercenary units, mainly Greeks, employed by Cyrus the Younger to attempt to wrest the throne of the Persian Empire from his brother, Artaxerxes II. Their march to the Bat ...

'' (2008) # ''Corvus'' (2010) # ''Kings of Morning'' (2012) Warhammer: * "Broken Blood", short story in ''Death & Dishonour'' (2010) Warhammer 40.000: * "The Last Detail", short story in ''Legends of the Space Marines'' (2010) * "The Blind King", short story (2015) * ''Umbra Summus'', novel, was to be released in May 2015 but currently on hold due to legal issues. * ''Calgar's Siege'' (2017), novel * ''Calgar's Fury'' (2017), novel * ''Calgar's Reckoning'' (2018), novel Other: The Dumps (2010), The Burning Horse (2019).

References

External links

*
Interview with Paul Kearney
a
SFFWorld.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kearney, Paul Living people People from County Antrim Male novelists from Northern Ireland 1967 births