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Rating: 
Summary: Very Impressive!!!
Review: "The Second Empire" is book four of "The Monarchies of God" and is even better than the first three novels. Most of the book deals with the war between the Merduks and the Torunnans. Unlike the the last book of the series, people such as Richard Hawkwood, Murad, and Bardolin do make appearances, but this book really centers on Corfe Cear-Inaf. Corfe is the leader of Torunna's army and is battling a religous war with the Merduks. In the last book the monks Avila and Albrec have brought forth a document that says that Saint Ramusio, the Westerners savior, and Ahrimuz, the Merduks (Easterners) savior, were the same person. This is a fascinating discovery since the enemies really idolize the same God and the war is frivolous due to religous reasons. The plot of this book made me think about certain things that are going on in our world. There are religous clashes happening today and this book makes you wonder if Paul Kearney borrowed from current events as well as history. Kearney borrows greatly from Renaissance history and this makes for a different feel to the book compared to others. I am used to reading books that take place in the medieval times but this is different as this book has guns and other things that weren't present back in medieval times. Most epic fantasies are known to be long books that are well over the five hundred page mark. "The Second Empire" is amazingly under three hundred pages and this book is better than some of the very long stuff that you could read today. Because of this this series would be great for somebody that is not willing to read door stopper size novels. The fourth book of "The Monarchies of God" is a truly amazing read that will be enjoyed by fans of the series and fantasy fans in general. This is a great read. Happy Reading!
Rating: 
Summary: A fast-paced page turner
Review: I just finished THE SECOND EMPIRE, it's a short little book (less than 300 pages) after reading the first three of Kearney's books (HAWKWOOD'S VOYAGE, HERETIC KINGS & THE IRON WARS). All in all it took me about a week. They were all quick reads-and not too thick as modern fantasy tomes go (all of them were under 400 pages). In fact, they could have made them into a duology-though the books will continue on. I found myself skipping and speed-reading pages in THE SECOND EMPIRE because I wanted to know more and more of what happened. Most of the book won't make that much sense without the previous books-but the central plot of Corfe the soldier is the most stand alone sequence. This plot line dominates this book (it didn't dominate the previous books-and it seems to me at least that Corfe has become somewhat of an protagonist in the last two books while the other characters have faded into the distance a bit). The battle scenes are very well written, and the characterization of the interaction of the soldiers can be touching if a bit cliche. His female characters have more spine than typical fantasy-though I find the male charactes to be more of the cut-out variety (and they are the focus of the book). This isn't a book too heavy on exposition and character development, it builds enough on the previous books to center its storyline around the battles and the crescendo of a war. This is a brutal realistic fantasy, somewhat like a watered-down Renaissance version of George R. R. Martin's world. On one note, Kearney has borrowed VERY heavily from real history-and simplified it by a lot. Sometimes recognizing Venice, Constantinople or Julius Caesar can get annoying, but it's not that big of a deal. One warning though-this probably isn't 4 stars if you read it as a stand alone. But all in all, this will past the time pretty well.
Rating:
Summary: A fast-paced page turner
Review: I just finished THE SECOND EMPIRE, it's a short little book (less than 300 pages) after reading the first three of Kearney's books (HAWKWOOD'S VOYAGE, HERETIC KINGS & THE IRON WARS). All in all it took me about a week. They were all quick reads-and not too thick as modern fantasy tomes go (all of them were under 400 pages). In fact, they could have made them into a duology-though the books will continue on. I found myself skipping and speed-reading pages in THE SECOND EMPIRE because I wanted to know more and more of what happened. Most of the book won't make that much sense without the previous books-but the central plot of Corfe the soldier is the most stand alone sequence. This plot line dominates this book (it didn't dominate the previous books-and it seems to me at least that Corfe has become somewhat of an protagonist in the last two books while the other characters have faded into the distance a bit). The battle scenes are very well written, and the characterization of the interaction of the soldiers can be touching if a bit cliche. His female characters have more spine than typical fantasy-though I find the male charactes to be more of the cut-out variety (and they are the focus of the book). This isn't a book too heavy on exposition and character development, it builds enough on the previous books to center its storyline around the battles and the crescendo of a war. This is a brutal realistic fantasy, somewhat like a watered-down Renaissance version of George R. R. Martin's world. On one note, Kearney has borrowed VERY heavily from real history-and simplified it by a lot. Sometimes recognizing Venice, Constantinople or Julius Caesar can get annoying, but it's not that big of a deal. One warning though-this probably isn't 4 stars if you read it as a stand alone. But all in all, this will past the time pretty well.
Rating:
Summary: The Story Continues
Review: The first book did not totally grip me, but by the time the third and fourth appeared I was fully enthralled. A truly gripping story with all the intrigue and twists you could want. The characters are gritty and composed of the kind of flaws that bring them to life. I agree with some of the editing comments, but it did not reduce my enjoyment of the yarn as a whole. Bravo and I eagerly await the next one.
Rating: 
Summary: Still going..anyone know how many books are in this series
Review: The second empire continues the war with Corfe battling endlessly to save the beleagured country. There is a little more about the beast from the west and hawkwoods return voyage but only enough to set us up for the next book.
I think the previous 3 books are probably better since more seemed to happen in them, but this has to be read to get to the next book, and probably the next one after that. I found myself bored with the endless battles and uncertain as to the use of Corfe's ex wife as the sultans concubine and queen ( I don't think thats a spoiler since it is indicated in "iron wars". I do wish there was some indication as to the number of books in this series since I am not sure my interest in the characters can be sustained for another 4 books. This book is really one endless battle and could probably have been contained in one or two chapters instead of a whole book. Maybe you should skip it and just read the "what has gone before" in book number 5.
Rating:
Summary: Still going..anyone know how many books are in this series
Review: The second empire continues the war with Corfe battling endlessly to save the beleagured country. There is a little more about the beast from the west and hawkwoods return voyage but only enough to set us up for the next book.
I think the previous 3 books are probably better since more seemed to happen in them, but this has to be read to get to the next book, and probably the next one after that. I found myself bored with the endless battles and uncertain as to the use of Corfe's ex wife as the sultans concubine and queen ( I don't think thats a spoiler since it is indicated in "iron wars". I do wish there was some indication as to the number of books in this series since I am not sure my interest in the characters can be sustained for another 4 books. This book is really one endless battle and could probably have been contained in one or two chapters instead of a whole book. Maybe you should skip it and just read the "what has gone before" in book number 5.
Rating:
Summary: The Story Continues
Review: There's no doubt that Paul Kearney has the ability to spin a powerful yarn. The politics, the drama, the plot twists, the characters, they're all there. But I base my rating of a story's quality on its ability to hold my attention. And nothing diverts my attention more than flagrant spelling errors which should have been caught in the proofreading stage. These appear throughout the novel. Rather than galley proof reviews, "The Second Empire" was apparently given a quick run through a spellchecker, without regard for the results. When I read "I am tyred, Betanza thought. I am tyred, and I am older than I think I am.", I imagined Betanza as a golf cart rather than leader of the Inceptine Order. If the author is tired of the story, he should just finish it and spin us another fascinating tale. Ace Books should be more careful.
Rating: 
Summary: Yeah, but...
Review: There's no doubt that Paul Kearney has the ability to spin a powerful yarn. The politics, the drama, the plot twists, the characters, they're all there. But I base my rating of a story's quality on its ability to hold my attention. And nothing diverts my attention more than flagrant spelling errors which should have been caught in the proofreading stage. These appear throughout the novel. Rather than galley proof reviews, "The Second Empire" was apparently given a quick run through a spellchecker, without regard for the results. When I read "I am tyred, Betanza thought. I am tyred, and I am older than I think I am.", I imagined Betanza as a golf cart rather than leader of the Inceptine Order. If the author is tired of the story, he should just finish it and spin us another fascinating tale. Ace Books should be more careful.
Rating:
Summary: A marvellous piece of work!
Review: This fourth book of "The Monarchies of God" is full of action!
The Second Empire mainly concentrate about Torunnas war against the Merduks. We also learn what happend with Hawkwood, Bardolin and Murad and their return to Hebrion, not to mention the Ramusian Church and their internal struggle.
This book describes war in a very realistic way, with the heroic warrior, what they think before going to battle, the death and the sorrow afterward over dead comerads. For those of you who don't like to read about war and battles this is not the book for you! I think that you then easely can read about it in: "what went before" in the fifth book. But then again, if you can't handle to read about war... Well, then why read this serie? It's full of violence and describes human kind as we can be at our worst, and we can also see parallel to the European history where the church controlled the lives of the people and it's struggle with the different king/s.
The first three books are just as good as this one.
This serie is a fresh contribution to the world of fantasy.
I can't recommend it enough!
ENJOY!
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