[share_ebook] Monarchies of God

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The Monarchies of God is set in a pseudo-Europe technologically and culturally on the cusp of the 15th and 16th centuries. Kearney has gone to some trouble to construct a credible alternate world that clearly mirrors our historical reality, with just enough distortion (particularly by introducing practical, reasonably powerful, reasonably subtle magic) to give it an exotic flavour. In short then, the Ramusian kingdoms (Christian), are threatened by the invading forces of the Merduks (Turks). The great city Aekir (Constantinople) has just fallen, and the Merduks are now advancing across the realm of Torunn (Hungary) towards Torunna city (Vienna). The maelstrom of battle, which Kearney realises very well indeed with brisk, clear-cut scenes of cannonade and cavalry charge, is reflected by the turmoil of politics behind the lines.

As the Torunnese fight the invaders, the other Ramusian kingdoms struggle over the succession to the Pontifical (Papal) throne. Moderates seek to prevent the accession of Himerius, a fanatical Primate, whose intolerance has already sparked a witch-burning craze in the most westerly realm, Hebrion. Power-politics, with votes traded for armies to succour the desperate Torunnese, brings Himerius to the throne he desires, only for news to reach the western kings that the former Pontiff, Macrobius, thought dead in the sack of Aekir, is in fact alive and has been brought safely into Torunn by a young officer of the Aekir garisson, Corfe.

While the Ramusian kingdoms are thus engulfed in invasion, witch-burning, conspiracy and the schism soon ignited by the rival Pontiffs, a voyage of discovery embarks from Hebrion. A small group of dweomer workers is saved from the ongoing purge by the ambitions of a scheming nobleman, Lord Murad, who conscripts Captain Richard Hawkwood to take him and his men on a trip into the distant west, where he expects to find a fabled continent, and settle it as a colony of the kingdom of Hebrion. The ship, with its mixture of noble ambition, priestly intolerance, magical subtleties and the hard, salt-water and sweat reality of a risky voyage into the unknown, becomes a microcosm of the conflicts wracking the Ramusian kingdoms as they stumble into the future, and a reflection of the conspiracies always working silently under the surface of Kearney's narrative.

This then, is a tale that brings together several of the key elements of the high renaissance period in a vivid and fast paced story. While one side of the continent falls, another reaches out across the ocean to a new world. The various kings take their sides, lining up with the two Pontiffs, choosing intolerance or moderation, rigidity or flexibility as their personal bent, military problems and desire to establish royal independence demands.

Kearney handles his characters well. There's a large cast within the confines of a 350 page book, but he sketches them clearly and distinctly, and knows how to reveal their foibles with a few phrases or lines of dialogue. Magic is perhaps less deftly treated; there is some vagueness about its precise nature, the seven disciplines into which it is formally divided being only vaguely outlined, but the balance between power and vulnerability is satisfying (wizards can be powerful, but not too powerful).

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