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 According to tradition, the world of Umer was abandoned by its creator, and all things have since decayed. Traditions also speak of an ancient, powerful race, the Weren, whom some believed to be angels, and others, demons. Young Rol Cortishane, brought up by his grandfather in a remote fishing village, is of Weren blood. Forced to flee for his life at 15, he takes the first of his voyages involving discovery, in this case both of the coasts of Umer and of himself, and he finds danger, friendship, and bittersweet love. Kearney constructs a solid plot that is awash with maritime detail (its sordid sexual sequences could have been trimmed, however). If the characters are archetypes, they work well enough for the story so far, and since this book inaugurates a series, the Sea Beggars, they may develop less typically later. As is, it will certainly be appreciated by maritime fantasy fans. Frieda Murray Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved “[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 Paul Kearney was born and grew up in Northern Ireland. He studied English at Oxford University and has lived for several years in both Denmark and the United States. He now lives by the sea in County Down with his wife and two dogs. His other books include the acclaimed Monarchies of God sequence. One Salt-blooded "There was a god once, of course there was. an all-Father who created everything and each race to inhabit the earth. But He left us long ago, disgusted by the waywardness of His creation, and the wanton appetites of the creatures He had populated His world with. We are forsaken now, children abandoned by their father. And when God withdrew from the world, to punish us He took with Him all hope of life after death. So nothing but the worm awaits us all. No justice for the persecuted, no punishment for the wicked. And thus our world turns, spun on its axis by the greedy dreams of men." "But there are other gods, surely," Rol said. "There is Ussa, and Ran her spouse. And Gibniu of the Anvil--" "Lesser deities, bound to the earth even as we are, my boy. They are powerful, yes, and immortal, but they cannot create. They can only destroy, or warp what has already been made by the One God who abandoned us." "And the Weren, what of them?" Rol's grandfather paused, frowned. It was a long moment before he answered. "Some say that the Weren are fallen angels, exiled here on earth in punishment for an ancient sin, others that they are Man before his Fall, Man as he should have been. But the Lesser Gods, in jealousy, broke them down and enfeebled them and produced the mankind we know now. In either case the peoples of the world are but shadows of angels, just as the Ur-men, the Unfinished Ones, are shattered travesties of humanity. For this much is true about Umer, the wheeling earth we inhabit: all things are in decay now that God has left us. The world spins ever more slowly on its axis and the sun cools year by year, century upon century. One day Umer will be a frozen ball of mud, its turning stilled at last, and it shall drift about an ashen sun in which all light has died." The boy named Rol considered this. The evening light off the Wrywind Sea set his red-gold hair alight in a momentary kinship of color. His eyes were green as amethyst, pale as the shallows of a tropical lagoon. He