The Ultimate Fantasy Series Ranking

Author page

Paul Kearney

2 universes Last reviewed 2026-09-23

Paul Kearney was born in 1967 in Ballymena, Northern Ireland. He studied Anglo-Saxon, Middle English, and Old Norse at Oxford University, later spending time in the United States and Denmark before settling in County Down, Northern Ireland. Kearney established himself as a fantasy author with standalone novels including The Way to Babylon (1992), A Different Kingdom (1993), and Riding the Unicorn (1994); though critically praised, these had commercially disappointing sales. He achieved greater success with the five-volume Monarchies of God series. His later work includes The Sea Beggars series, beginning in 2004 with The Mark of Ran and This Forsaken Earth, which focused on ocean-based adventures but was discontinued by publisher Bantam in 2007. He then partnered with Solaris Books for The Ten Thousand (2008), a fantasy epic inspired by Xenophon's Anabasis, followed by Corvus and Kings of Morning. Kearney also wrote The Wolf in the Attic (2016) and has contributed tie-in fiction for the Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000 franchises. In 2009 he received a longlist nomination for the inaugural David Gemmell Legend Award for Best Fantasy Novel, cementing his reputation as a writer of gritty, historically grounded military fantasy.

Universe(s)

The Monarchies of God

  • Core Canon books: 5
  • Current rank: #604 in the official ranking
  • Weighted average: 3.87
  • Award recognitions: None recorded

The Macht

  • Core Canon books: 3
  • Current rank: #610 in the official ranking
  • Weighted average: 3.87
  • Award recognitions: None recorded

Books

Aggregate across all universes

These are separate, unrelated universes; the totals below are plain sums of already-published per-universe facts, never a blended or averaged score across them. See each universe's own figures above.

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