The existing audios are well worth a listen.
I came to these books through the Neil Gaiman Presents audiobook series – both Swordspoint and The Privilege of the Sword have been recorded, read by the author with key scenes fully dramatised (and a TFotK audiobook is, I believe, in production). It has the same attention to detail in its character interactions and developments, though it is less of an adventure (a la Swordspoint) or a coming-of-age story (TPotS), with more political action.
The Fall of the Kings is set some years after TPotS, and focuses on Alec’s son, Theron. TPotS also introduces Katherine’s friend Artemisia, who doesn’t have a mad uncle or a sword but does have a gripping Regency-drama-style subplot.
Partly because she is a very well-written depiction of a teenage girl, and partly because she is just pretty awesome. I actually came to TPotS before Swordspoint (the novels can be read in any order), and I soon realised that Katherine was the kind of teenage hero that I would have dearly loved to come across in my teens. The later novel The Privilege of the Sword follows Swordspoint chronologically, though the focus shifts from Richard and Alec to Katherine Talbert, Alec’s spirited fifteen year old niece, who is dismayed when her crazy uncle summons her to the city in order to learn swordmanship. Richard and Alec are some of the most engaging characters I have come across in a lifetime of reading, and the supporting cast are realised just as well. I won’t give anything away – I’d like you to be able to discover the joys of this series for yourself – but Swordspoint never gets dull, there is always something happening, be it a duel with swords or with words. But the novel is not only about Richard – there is also the enigmatic figure of Alec, Richard’s lover, a student with a past he doesn’t talk about. It is home to thieves, rogues, poor students and daring swordsmen.Īnd it is one such swordsman who features in the first novel, Swordspoint. Richard St Vier is intelligent, and honourable, and he has a reputation for being the best swordsman in the city.
Riverside is the oldest, and least reputable, part of the nameless city that Kushner’s characters inhabit. They are what I suppose you would call speculative fiction (not fantasy in the traditional sense, there are no elves or dragons to be seen), though they also have something in common with historical novels set in the Regency era. Ellen Kushner’s Riverside series is made up of three novels – Swordspoint, The Fall of the Kings and The Privilege of the Sword – and one short story, The Man with the Knives.
0 kommentar(er)
