Customer Reviews

Point of Dreams

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4 star:		(2)
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***1/2 stars to be more truthful...

For those of you who've read Point of Hopes and are hoping for more romance between Philip and Nico you won't be totally disappointed. Unfortunately, the authors made the odd choice of setting Point of Dreams 6 months after the case of the missing children has been solved and Nico and Philip are already involved physically and are moving quickly toward 'leman' status. There is no sex of any kind in this novel so if you are looking to be titilated and nothing else, look elsewhere. You won't even be allowed to witness a passionate kiss between the lovers. The reader is treated to a few charming and cozy domestic scenes in which Philip's nurturing nature emerges. Perhaps the authors wanted them to be at the more comfortable stage for this story in which case I wish they had saved it for another book so we could have been the voyeurs of the early stages of their romance. You know, the ROMANTIC parts! In the first book we are left hanging with vague feelings of attraction the men feel toward each other but barely acknowledge to themselves beyond vague feelings. The artistic decision to bypass the magical early moments of mutual attraction is questionable.

The mystery wasn't too hard to figure out and it took me awhile to figure out the significance of the flowers and the Alphabet book. I imagine the flowers, which were raised from expensive and delicate corms were based on the violent,intrigue-filled history of tulips in Western culture, albeit with a different twist. In this novel, the flowers are believed to have magic properties when used in conjuction with the book in question. It is Rathe's job to discover if there is any validity to the magic or if it is just a hoax. I would have liked to have seen more of Chresta Aconin, the playwrite responsible for the furor over the Alphabet and the corms. He is obviously based on poet/playwrite Christopher Marlowe, or at least Scott's characterization of him in Armour of Light.

That said, I enjoyed the book for the characters and the setting. I do look forward to another "Point" novel as there is the makings of a very engaging series here.

Scott's and Barnett's previous collaboration, the fantasy-mystery hybrid Point of Hopes, introduced Nicholas Rathe, Adjunct Point (a kind of senior police officer) in the city of Astreiant, part of a fantasy world where astrology and alchemy function as reliably as physics and chemistry. Point of Dreams returns to that world, and to Rathe, caught up in another dangerous mystery.

Every winter in Astreiant, a masque is held. Based on ancient traditions and aligned with the stars, it's integral to the health of the queen and the realm--and more important now than ever, for the queen is soon to announce her chosen successor. This year, the play that's the source of the masque is itself sourced in an ancient text, the Alphabet of Desire, a compendium of flower- and plant-based spells, which most people believe to be a hoax but which may, just possibly, be real.

When a body is found on the rehearsal stage, inexplicably drowned in the absence of any water, Rathe is called in to investigate. He has enough headaches, what with trying to control the craze for flower corms produced by the coming masque, coping with the disturbances of the ghost-tide (a time of year when astrological conjunctions cause the ghosts of the dead to return), and negotiating the complications of a relationship with a new lover; he isn't thrilled at the idea of dealing with theatrical egos and touchy nobles as well. But it soon becomes clear that this is not just a simple revenge or jealousy killing. More deaths ensue, all linked in some way to the masque and its actors. Rathe begins to suspect that someone, somewhere, has a working version of the Alphabet, and is using it to commit murder. But who? And why? It's up to Rathe, with the help of his lover Philip Eslingen, to find out.

Readers of police procedurals will recognize the form of Point of Dreams, if not the details, which are necessarily changed by the fantasy setting. Rathe attends an autopsy (or the alchemical equivalent); he consults various experts, magical and non-; he copes with hostile colleagues and the over-eager press; he reports to his chief (who is sympathetic) and to a board of supervisors (who are not); and in the end, takes matters into his own hands, for a solution that's only just inside the law. Scott and Barnett blend the genres deftly, transposing their mystery plot seamlessly into their magical world, effectively building suspense and scattering both clues and red herrings with panache. The writing is skillful, as is the characterization: Rathe and Eslingen are sympathetic protagonists, and even minor players are very sharp. And theater buffs like me will love the theatrical details, which carry the authority of real experience.

Best of all, though, is the world building. Scott and Barnett have created a setting so densely detailed that it's at times hard to remember you aren't reading about a real place. Astreiant is both hauntingly familiar (reminiscent, to me at least, of 17th century Holland in the grip of the tulip craze) and convincingly alien, a place in which gender roles are comprehensively reversed, same-sex relationships are as common as ordinary marriages, and everything is touched by magic and shaped by the stars. The authors have built a fascinatingly complex astrological/alchemical magic system; they've also (much more difficult) made it convincing as a pseudo-scientific discipline, which works according to consistent, objective rules and is thoroughly woven into the fabric of everyday life, but always holds out the prospect of the wondrous, the dangerous, and the unknown.

Those who haven't read the previous book may find it a bit challenging at first to absorb the plethora of titles, terms, and references, but there's enough background that new readers will quickly find their feet. Both well-crafted mystery and engagingly different fantasy, Point of Dreams is an altogether rewarding reading experience.

I set this aside with a feeling of satisfaction, as if I'd had a good meal. The mystery was well-done, the fantastic elements of the story and the world well-conceived, the backstory well-integrated and relatively easy to pick up once I got into the rhythm of the plot.

Scott and Barnett write with an attention to detail and a richness of atmosphere not often found in fantasy. The story moves along leisurely, over the course of a few days, and (forgive the clumsy metaphor) feels like dark chocolate syrup, rich, bittersweet, and luxurious. The Italian Renaissance atmosphere (to me, the city seems like Venice) and the stylized social structure is fascinating. The behind-the-scenes theatre action seems true-to-life, at least so far as my theatre experience has been.

It seems to me the society is matriarchal, as all the truly powerful positions were held by women, which is a refreshing change from most fantasy. And everyone seemed to have a mother, but I can't recall a mention of anyone's father.

And I rather like the idea of the "ghost-tide," in which our dead appear to us at a particular time of year. I wouldn't mind seeing my paternal grandparents again.

I'll be keeping my eye out for the previous two novels set in this world.

In the city-state Astreiant, it is the time of the year when ghosts are visible so city lawyer Kurin Holles expected to see the apparition of his lover, but the specter fails to appear. Kurin knows the most likely reason is his beloved is magically unable to return, which leads to the conclusion that her death was caused by a murderer. Adjunct Point Nico Rathe asks his superiors for permission to investigate the death, especially since the victim possessed a copy of the spellbook The Alphabet of Desire. However, the assignment goes to a subordinate Voillemin, who intends to do nothing in order to further his career. Nico decides to serendipitously make inquiries.

Former soldier Philip Eslingen provides weapons training to those performing in the upcoming The Alphabet of Desire midwinter festival. Soon corpses begin to appear on stage accompanied by the appearance of The Alphabet of Desire spellbook. The book provides a link back to Nico's other case, but if the cop digs too deep he will learn what death by magic means.

POINT OF DREAMS cleverly places a well-crafted murder mystery inside an enchanting fantasy tale. The cast makes this Renaissance world of magic seem real as Nico and Phillip are wonderful heroes while every hard worker has had to deal with a sycophant shirker like Voillemein. The taut story line works in such a way that fans of both genres will enjoy the plot and seek out the previous novel of Melissa Scott & Lisa A Barnett set in this realm, POINT OF HOPE.

Harriet Klausner

The story begins with an unbelievable murder. A man drowned on a dry stage and no discernable motive for the murder. Rathe must discover means of death to uncover its perpetrator but as the murderer steps up his killing spree with a mounting pile of bodies that don't seem to have any connection to eachother, answers are hard to come by. The book featres pointsman Nicholas Rathe, now adjunct point, and his "Leman" Philip Ensligen as they attempt to solve a seemingly impossible case with the possible existance of a real working copy of the alphabet becoming more likely.

All in all not a very sophisticated mystery, the murderer was easy to pick out right near the beginning, but the story unfolded in a way that allowed you to be just that little step ahead of the characters that makes you feel smart but doesn't give away the whole plot. The world was both strikingly like and unlike ours and contained enough elements of magic to satisfy any fantasy fan, with enough authenticity to make everyone else happy. Conclusion?: An exciting, climatic book well worth a few extra bucks and a few extra hours.

This second episode of the late Renaissance series centred on pointsman (a policeman of sorts) Rathe is similar at first sight to the first but subtly different nonetheless, as if the two plots belonged to one of the two authors each.

The first was more focused on the mistery, on the action that brings to its solving and fleshed out with countless details about the lower class characters' way of life.

In this second one, the mistery seems not to be the focus of the narrative, it rather seems an excuse to examine characters interaction and the ways of upper classes of the same society. This is true to the point that the identity of the murder is quite clear from the first pages, as are his/her (I will not give you any hint though) motives.

In a way the novel suffers from this choice. It also suffers from the understated tone chosen by the author to describe people's feelings. I think it a good idea to let us face the intimate relationship between the two main characters (two men, by the way) as an already given fact, but this choice of understatement runs so far that we face a feeble characterization too: not that it is lacking, it is just superficially attended to, it lacks depth: you cannot really relate to any of them.

Nonetheless this novel deserves in my opinion five stars. The quality of the writing is high, the fastidious attention to details, the original society depicted. They all make this a worthwhile read. I only feel like complaining about a minor detail: that the authors, to make their point about a society ruled by women use "her" and "she" as general pronouns when the sex of the person is not known. This feels quite unnecessary.

Another problem, but I guess it comes from a deliberate choice too, is that even after two novels, the structure of the astreiant's society and even its basic geography are still unclear: the authors never taking the trouble of making clear, e.g. what the regents actually do, what the metropolitan is, etc. Outright explanations are likely to be clumsy, but the authors could have found a way to give us at least the more essential details.

Point of Dreams is the plain little sister of the delightful fantasy/mystery Point of Hopes. Though the books share background, genre, and main characters, Dreams just doesn't shine the way Hopes did.

The plot of Dreams is fairly weak. It's hard to write SF/mystery that obeys all the rules of traditional mysteries, and though Barnett and Scott succeeded in Hopes, they fail here - the mystery is remarkably easy to solve and is transparently clear by the book's midpoint.

Also, the setting, which was easily the best part of Hopes, is in Dreams just a backdrop for a (relatively) normal theater production. Hopes established a fascinating world. Dreams inhabits a tiny portion of it.

The real problem, though, is the further development of the main characters. At the start of Dreams, Rathe and Eslingen are living together, having gone from unexpressed mutual interest to an ongoing, committed relationship between books. Scott and Barnett, in choosing not to show the early stages of the romance, are making an unusual, daring, and ultimately unsuccessful choice. They can't, or won't, write the relationship convincingly without the early bits. (I love Melissa Scott's writing, and I honestly believe she *could* do this right, but that only makes this book's failure worse.)

In Dreams, it's hard to believe that Rathe and Eslingen actually love each other. In the brief interludes they spend together, they show very little affection, let alone romantic love. The strongest emotion they seem to feel is mutual jealousy; that's not exactly proof of true love. And it doesn't help that the one passionate sequence in the book is between Rathe and an ex-lover. The intensity of that bit just underscores the absence of any such feeling between our heroes.

Despite the problems, though, the book is still a good one. Fantasy/mysteries are rare, as I said, and the book would be worth reading for that alone. Add in the marvelous setting and the light, fun writing, and Point of Dreams becomes more than worth the purchase price. I just hope that the third book in the series reveals more kinship with Hopes than with Dreams.

This book made me incredibly happy! I really enjoyed "Point of Hopes", the first book, and was delighted to get a chance to return to that world and characters. I was pleased right off that Eslingen and Rathe had got together, as I wasn't clear in the first book if that was going to happen, and the incurable romantic in me thought that they should. The mystery in the book was well done. It can be difficult to do a fantasy and a mystery in the same book and not have one come out poorly, but it works here. The world is well-crafted and the mystery fits within it neatly. There is some nice dryly humorous bits in the book as well, and of course, romance. I even like the cover! Now they just need to get the necromancer a date....

I hope these authors return to this series... frequently!

If you have not read "Point of Dreams" or its prequel, "Point of Hopes," give yourself a treat and do so. A perfect blend of mystery, fantasy, and historical. There's something here to delight just about any reader.

Buy this book so the publisher will contract for another one! It is a sequel to the authors' Point of Hopes, and both of them are very worth while fantasy reads. The characters are warm and compelling; the mystery is complicated and interesting; and the fantasy universe is detailed and believable, somewhat reminiscent of the charm and the combination of mystery and magic in Randell Garrett's "Lord Darcy" series, the slyness of Leiber's Lankhmar, and the daily griminess of Thieves World's Sanctuary, but certainly unique and stylish enough to stand out from the myriad fantasy universes now in print. I bought it the first day it was available on Amazon, and now I am going to buy some copies for gifts. I hope the authors and Our Heroes --painfully honorable Adjunct Point Rathe and slightly scoundrely ex-soldier Eslingen-- will be encouraged to work their way 'round all the other "points" (districts) in the city of Astreiant in future adventures.