The Sea Beggars Series Reading Order

Stranded deep within a hostile empire, the elite mercenary company known as the Ten Thousand faces an impossible journey… Stranded deep within a hostile empire, the elite mercenary company known as the Ten Thousand faces an impossible journey home. Betrayed and surrounded, their gruff general must forge a path through war-torn lands teeming with assassins, monstrous beasts, and the relentless armies of their enemies. Every mile is a brutal test of their dwindling numbers and unbreakable will, as they fight not for glory, but for sheer survival. In this grim and unforgiving struggle, the very act of making it back alive might demand a price that strips them of everything they once were. read more

A wonderful, magical book, full of ancient myth, set in 1930s Oxford between the wars. Anna is twelve, and she has alrea… A wonderful, magical book, full of ancient myth, set in 1930s Oxford between the wars. Anna is twelve, and she has already killed a man. Except he was not a man at the time. It is 1930 and the new decade is complicated, even in the depths of rural Oxfordshire. An orphan from a faraway country, Anna lives with an old farmer named Gabriel who may be a demon, or an angel, or both. Her best friends are a doll named Pie and a werewolf. Her long-lost mother was an Anatolian witch, and there are those who say that in Anna the witchcraft lurks too. She does not desire it. As she says to her friend C.S. Lewis, “All I want is for life to be normal, without complications. I just want to be an ordinary girl.” But she no longer lives in the ordinary world. Another has opened out beyond her own, beneath 1930’s England. It is the Old World of myth and story, and it is not a fairy-tale. It is a darkness filled with eyes and teeth. read more

A stunning blend of visionary storytelling and majestic prose, The Mark of Ran is a new masterpiece of imaginative ficti… A stunning blend of visionary storytelling and majestic prose, The Mark of Ran is a new masterpiece of imaginative fiction. In this epic adventure, Paul Kearney records the voyages of a reluctant hero, a band of outcasts, and a quest into the unknown no one has ever dared before . . . In a world abandoned by its Creator, an ancient race once existed—one with powers mankind cannot imagine. Some believe they were the last of the angels. Others think they were demons. Rol Cortishane was raised in a remote fishing village with no idea of his true place in the world. But in his veins runs the blood of this long-forgotten race and he shares their dangerous destiny. Driven from home, accused of witchcraft and black magic, Rol takes refuge in the brooding tower sanctuary of the enigmatic Michal Psellos. There Rol is trained in the assassin’s craft and tutored by the beautiful but troubled Rowen. It’s no accident that Rol and Rowen have been brought together, but the truth about their past is a secret they will have to fight to discover. Now they’ve set their sights across the sea in search of the Hidden City and an adventure that will make them legends . . . if it doesn’ t kill them first. Praise for The Mark of Ran “[A] gritty fantasy swashbuckler . . . Kearney’s crisp, often lyrical writing shines brightest when his characters take to the sea.”—Publishers Weekly “One of the very best fantasy writers around.”—Steven Erikson read more