The Sword Unbound: Cork fantasy author Gareth Hanrahan releases second instalment of trilogy 

“It is about nostalgia. Looking back on one’s youth,” says Hanrahan, who will be signing The Sword Unbound at Waterstones Cork on Saturday, May 18. “It was supposed to feel like a sequel to a fantasy series you read in the 1990s, Dragonlance or something. To give the same emotional… ‘oh I remember when things were easy and simple and bright and everything was fun’. And then fast forward a bit to when people are a bit middle aged. And explore how that experience affects you.”

 Hanrahan, who is from Turner’s Cross in Cork city and a UCC computer science graduate, is one of the most respected authors in the fantasy milieu. He is also an accomplished writer of roleplaying game source books and adventures: one of his latest projects is a guide to Tolkien’s Mines of Moria for The One Ring RPG (a sort of Dungeons & Dragons set in Middle Earth).

He is equally acclaimed for his fiction. His first series, the ongoing Black Iron Legacy, is widely heralded for its mash-up of steampunk and urban fantasy. But he follows a more traditional path in The Sword Unbound and its prequel, The Sword Defiant, set in a conventional fantasy universe populated with wizards and warriors (a concluding volume is due in 2025).

Our hero is Sir Aelfric, a famed warrior who, years before, teamed up with nine heroic companions to drive evil from the land. However, that was a long time ago, and in middle age, Alf is torn between nostalgia for his youth and a feeling that all is not well with the world.

The dark forces may have been defeated—but what if they are stirring once more? And what of his stormy relationship with his magical blade, Spellbreaker – a sentient weapon that would much rather be serving the forces of evil than teaming up with a do-gooder?

The starting point, says Hanrahan, was lockdown and the nostalgia he experienced for his carefree 20s and his time gaming with friends in UCC’s war gaming and roleplaying society (Warps).

“On one level it is a fantasy adventure romp, written to be entertaining. The other part [is] that it started during the pandemic. I had young kids, was feeling a bit isolated. Looking back at bright college days, people I’d lost touch with. What parts of you do you carry forward into middle age?” 

The Lands of the First Born novels also tease out the cliche, so prevalent in fantasy, of the happy-ever-after ending – and whether that is ever really possible. Wait long enough, and every tale turns sour in the end. A keen history reader, Hanrahan has noticed this as a recurring theme across centuries of humanity. Nothing is forever – even a neat conclusion.

“One of the big challenge of history books is where do you stop ? Nothing ends cleanly in history. Whereas stories are all about ‘and then they live happily ever after’. Lord of the Rings gets away with it by going, ‘he [the King Arthur-like hero Aragorn] was a very good king, he ruled happily, everyone was happy’. And there were no issues whatsoever. Whereas [The Sword Unbound] basically is, you take what would be the happy ending. And then fast forward 20 years.” He gives the example of the US occupation of Baghdad following the invasion of Iraq. 

The Sword Unbound has a Baghdad of its own in the city of Necrad – once the domain on of a Sauron-style Dark Lord but, as the tale begins, a place under occupation. In theory, the locals should have welcomed Alf and his fellow heroes as bringers of freedom, truth and justice. Only it’s more complicated than that, as Alf discovers when he returns to the scene of the great triumph that has defined his life and discovers a place brimming with intrigue and dark deeds.

“You have this 1990s/2000s bit where you have them going in and liberating stuff, taking down the dictator. Then you have occupation for a few years, the Green Zone in Baghdad and trying to nation build and it all falling apart. And causing more problems.” 

Hanrahan grew up reading classics of the genre, such as Lord of the Rings, as well as playing Dungeons and Dragons, the famous roleplaying game. But fantasy has changed. Today, the social media platform TikTok has fuelled the success of authors such as RF Kuang and Leigh Bardugo.

Then there is the fantasy-adjacent genre of Romantasy – a mash-up of fantasy and romance – and authors such as Sarah Maas and Rebecca Yarros, who are shifting books in quantities not witnessed since the heights of Potter-mania (Maas has sold 38 million books and counting).

“Romantasy has exploded in the last few years and BookTok is a whole other world to me. I know it’s over there and it’s massive. It’s not something I’ve gotten involved in, and I possibly should. Although I’m also possibly 20 years too old for it,” Hanrahan says.

The lesson he has learned from his years as a writer is that success or failure is often a matter of luck. You have to write the best book you can and trust fate will take care of the rest.

“The main thing as an author is that you have very little control. Maybe you’ll catch the grimdark wave [as epitomised by authors such as Game of Thrones’ George RR Martin and Joe Abercrombie] of a few years ago and sell hugely. You don’t know what the next big thing will be. All you can do is write the book you want to write as well as you can. ”

•  The Sword Unbound is published by Orbit. Gareth Hanrahan will be signing the book at Waterstones Cork on Saturday, May 18, from 3pm