Update on Paul Kearney's SEA-BEGGARS series

As long-term readers may recall, back in 2007 Bantam Books decided to drop Paul Kearney's nautical fantasy series The Sea-Beggars after two books, citing disappointing sales. Kearney was picked up by Solaris who published a new trilogy (the excellent Macht series) and reprinted his earlier, classic Monarchies of God series. The expectation was that, in time, Solaris would also be able to both reprint and complete The Sea-Beggars.

In March 2011 it was announced that this would indeed be the case: Solaris would reprint the two existing books, The Mark of Ran and This Forsaken Earth, in an omnibus complete with the brand-new third and concluding volume, provisionally entitled Storm of the Dead. To make this possible, the Bantam editions had to go out of print and Bantam had to agree to give the rights back to the author.

Unfortunately, since then there has been radio silence on the matter. It can now be confirmed that the Sea-Beggars omnibus is on indefinite hold, and may not appear at all. This is due to additional contractual and legal wrangling. Whilst Bantam UK gave up the rights as planned, Bantam Spectra in the USA refused. A check of Amazon.com reveals that the two existing Sea-Beggars books are still in-print and selling in the United States, which is presumably why Bantam Spectra have decided to hold onto the rights.

If the books are still selling well enough in the USA for Bantam to want to hold onto them, this would theoretically suggest that they might be interested in publishing the third and concluding volume as a stand-alone novel. However, this is apparently not the case. If the books are not selling well enough to warrant Bantam publishing a third volume, then it is unclear why they would want to hold onto the rights to prevent the series being completed elsewhere. If the series is selling well enough to warrant hanging onto the rights, then it is unclear why Bantam would not be interested in publishing a third volume as well. As it stands, it appears that the fans who have been waiting seven years for a conclusion to this series will have to keep waiting due to the inscrutable machinations of publishing houses.

On the bright side, Solaris are reprinting Paul's first three, stand-alone novels starting in January. Here's an art blog where they talk about the process of the creating the splendid cover art to A Different Kingdom. We may also get some news on new material next year as well.

Paul Kearney's SEA-BEGGARS series to be completed

Paul Kearney's Sea-Beggars series got off to a roaring start in 2004 with the excellent The Mark of Ran, followed up by its sequel This Forsaken Earth in 2006. Unexpectedly, Bantam abruptly dropped the series, leaving Kearney briefly publisher-less before he was rescued by Solaris.


Unfortunately, Bantam UK held onto the rights to the Sea-Beggars series, preventing Kearney from completing the final book in the series, Storm of the Dead. He went on to write the well-received Macht trilogy (The Ten Thousand, Corvus and the forthcoming Kings of Morning) whilst the rights situation was thrashed out behind the scenes.

Happily, the situation has now been resolved. Solaris have acquired the rights to both the existing books and Storm of the Dead and will publish all three books in one omnibus volume in late 2012.

Jonathan Oliver, commissioning editor of Solaris Books, has acquired UK/US rights in the two previously-published SEA BEGGARS novels by Paul Kearney plus a third and final volume, STORM OF THE DEAD. They will be published in a one-volume omnibus, following the success of Kearney’s MONARCHIES OF GOD books in this form with Solaris (who also publish his Macht novels, THE TEN THOUSAND, CORVUS and the forthcoming KINGS OF MORNING). The book is due for publication late in 2012, and the agent was John Jarrold.

"Paul and I are both delighted that this series will be completed and published in its entirety by Solaris," said John Jarrold. "He is a major talent and anyone reading this or his other novels will see that very quickly."

"It’s a great pleasure to welcome Paul back to Solaris," editor-in-chief, Jonathan Oliver, said. "Fans of Paul’s will be delighted that the SEA BEGGARS series is finally seeing completion and new readers will be bowled over by the work of this brilliant and intelligent fantasy writer."

Excellent news for Paul and his fans, who'll finally be able to found out what happened to Rol Cortishane and his allies following the cliffhanger ending to This Forsaken Earth.

This Forsaken Earth by Paul Kearney

This Forsaken Earth is the second novel in Paul Kearney's Sea Beggars sequence, a planned four-volume nautical fantasy that was unfortunately cut short by Bantam's decision to drop the series. Whilst Paul Kearney has said the series will eventually be completed - the third book, Storm of the Dead, was well on the way to completion - that will have to wait until the rights revert to him from Bantam. This is a shame as this is an excellent series and the second volume does end on something of a cliffhanger.

Rol Cortishane is now a seasoned brigand, his ship - the Revenant - and its crew delighting in destroying vessels belonging to the nation of Bionar. However, Bionar is divided in a bitter civil war between Rol's half-sister and the incumbent king. When his sister calls upon Rol's aid, Rol reluctantly agrees to help her and embarks on a dangerous journey into the heart of a war-torn country.

This Forsaken Earth is notable for being a nautical epic fantasy where a good 90% of the action takes place on dry land (the source of much criticism for this novel). Well, yep, that's a shame for those expecting some Patrick O'Brien-with-wizardry antics, but on the plus side we still get a damn good story to make up for it. Kearney has lost none of his formidable skills for depicting large-scale warfare or bloody sieges, and his desperately flawed protagonists (Rol is not a very nice person at all) almost literally act like fishes out of water as they deal with the challenge of land-based combat. At the same time Rol's shadowy origins are becoming clearer and we get some hefty clues towards the end of the novel that Kearney was headed somewhere truly apocalyptic with this series.

I think that will probably be the deciding factor for many people whether they wish to read this book and its immediate predecessor, The Mark of Ran. This is an excellent book, not quite Kearney's best but still very solid, filled with action, some great plot twists and some decidedly twisted character development. But it is clearly the second act of a much bigger story, and we have an indefinite period of time to wait for the next part of the story. If you don't mind waiting, definitely check out these two books ASAP.

This Forsaken Earth (****) is apparently going out of print by Bantam, but copies can still be found in the UK and the USA.