The Ten Thousand

Paul Kearny is one of the most underrated fantasy authors out there. He’s written a host of awesome military fantasy books and has been mostly ignored by the wider public for it. A shame, as he writes some of the most entertaining military fantasy out there. The Ten Thousand is loosely based on an ancient historical work by the Greek author Xenophon. The book describes how Cyrus the Younger hired a mercenary force of ten thousand as part of a scheme to overthrow his older brother; when Cyrus dies, his now defunct mercenary army is forced to fight its way out of a hostile empire to return home. It’s a compelling re-imagining of the ancient tale, brought to vivid life by one of the best epic fantasy writers out there. The author does a great job at creating some compelling characters - you really feel for them as they are tossed into a pretty much hopeless survival situation. Kearney has a real talent for paining a living, breathing battlefield, right up there with (and arguably surpassing) some of the other greats in the genre, such as Erickson and Martin. Brutal battles that challenge the key characters, forcing them to grow in both wisdom and perception. With the changing battle scenarios, the characters themselves also evolve as well. Absolutely recommended if you enjoy the gritty and brutal military fantasy worlds of Bakker, Martin, Cook, and Erikson. Kearney has also written another compelling military fantasy saga, The Voyage of Hawkwood, which is more of an epic sword-and-sorcery military fantasy than The Ten Thousand (which is mostly historical fiction with a bit of fantasy mixed in).