The Iron Wars (Monarchies of God) Book

Paul Kearney's ongoing fantasy series "The Monarchies of God" began with Hawkwood's Voyage and The Heretic Kings. Volume Three's title, The Iron Wars, aptly reflects the tough, bleak battles that dominate the book. In an alternate-historical setting where armies use both swords and crude firearms like arquebuses, the overarching conflict is semi-religious. Western kingdoms have two rival churches based on a Saint's teachings, while their Oriental foes believe only in the Prophet--a grim and long-hidden irony being that these two spiritual leaders were the same man. Magic exists in strange, grisly forms but is fading, hounded by the church yet occasionally biting back. One plot strand, a voyage to a legendary western continent, remains offstage throughout this book. The focus is on a brutally realistic war in which major characters have already died or been maimed, and where the West's most able military leader is not only fighting overwhelming odds but is continually threatened by his own side's betrayals, snobbery and factional plotting. At the climax there's an arousing, hopeless-seeming battle which doesn't so much end as pause for breath after too much slaughter. Evidently a fourth book must follow. This is strong stuff, not for the squeamish. --David LangfordRead More