Customer Reviews

The Privilege of the Sword (Swords of Riverside, Book 2)

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This is the book I have been waiting for since I first read Swordspoint, more than ten years ago.

It's not the first sequel. When The Fall of the Kings came out, a few years back, I devoured that too. And I was delighted to find old familiar names, and see how the City had changed, and I learned fascinating things about its history, and gnawed my knuckles in sheer envy over the complicated silver chocolate services... but I wasn't quite satisfied, because it had skipped a generation ahead, and it didn't really tell me what I most wanted to know, which was "what became of Richard and Alec?"

This one does.

This is a jewel of a book. At first I thought of it as a tray of pastries, each more cunning and delicious than the last -- creamy eclairs, jam tarts, marzipan fruits with their hint of cyanide bitterness under the sweet -- with all of the gowns and matchmaking and Riverside debauchery and multi-era historical details, with all of the froth of the best Georgette Heyer novels, concentrated and multiplied -- and then, as I read further on, it was as if I found another platter of savory morsels hiding behind it, because Ellen Kushner doesn't stop at the glorious surface froth. She's spent a great deal of time considering how the sordid, dreary, and messy complications we're used to in modern life would play out in the setting and the culture she's developed. It gives everything depth, and richness, and a startling reality.

If you've ever wondered what became of any of the characters from Swordspoint, you'll find it out in this book. Well, I didn't notice Nimble Willie the pickpocket, I suppose, but otherwise, they're all there. And you learn what drove Alec to live as he did, and... oh, there is SO MUCH in this book.

Also, if you are like me, you will be utterly slain by the recurrence of this line: "'Hello,' he said. 'I've brought us some fish.'"

Read it. Buy it. Buy it for all your friends, but make them read Swordspoint first.

Absolutely worth the wait.

Alec Campion, the Mad Duke, is some twenty years older than in Swordspoint, but he isn't any less a trial to his family, friends, and enemies. Dividing his time between Tremontaine House and his Riverside house, the Duke Tremontaine hosts parties ranging from the risqué to the debauched, and lives a life of dissipation.

He also quietly makes political trouble for those intent schemes that would line their own pockets at the expense of the less powerful and the less well-connected. Aside from his own affinity for the dispossessed, it doesn't hurt at all that the principal plotter against the general good is his old enemy, Anthony Deverin, Lord Ferris. Into this political and social minefield, Tremontaine brings his niece, Katherine. With the stick of a revived lawsuit challenging his sister's marriage settlement and the carrot of permanently settling the lawsuit, he forces his sister Janine to send her daughter to him--with an absolute ban on family contact for six months.

Katherine arrives with happy dreams of fine dresses and a Season in town. She quickly learns that she will have only boy's clothes, and fencing lessons. Her uncle is having her trained to be his bodyguard.

As Katherine slowly learns her way around the duke's household, the city, and a sword, she also acquires a few friends, most notably Marcus, the duke's young assistant, and Lady Artemisia Fitz-Levi, a sweet but somewhat silly young lady of her own age, who nevertheless receives and accepts a proposal of marriage from the most eligible bachelor available--the widowed Lord Ferris.

Katherine's not happy to discover she'll be going to no respectable balls, wearing no dresses, and being received by practically nobody, but she does learn to enjoy swordplay and, with Marcus, trailing and investigating one of the Duke's visitors, whom she recognizes from her one very brief attempt to visit Artemisia. Unfortunately, the next place she meets Artemisia is at the Rogues' Ball. Katherine has come with the Duke; Artemisia with her fiancé, Lord Ferris. Lord Ferris, concerned that the flighty Artemisia might call off the betrothal that he's counting on for reasons of his own, has taken advantage of this evening away from Artemisia's family, friends, and chaperones to make sure she has no choice. Artemisia begs for Katherine's help, and Katherine's personal desire to avenge and protect her friend gets tangled up with the Duke's personal and political enmity for Ferris. Everyone's keeping secrets from everyone, and things start to spiral out of control.

Like Swordspoint, this is a really fine fantasy novel with not a hint of magic to be found in it anywhere.

Recommended.

If you have a swash in need of buckling, check out Ellen Kushner's The Privilege of the Sword. Yes, it is everything you think it is: a romance (in the traditional sense of the word, not the genre sense--well, maybe that, too), a fantasy, a satire. And it is many things that you don't expect: a pointed commentary on gender, sex, family and love, and a ripping good adventure as well.

It is Kushner's willingness and ability to screw with your expectations that make the novel enjoyable. From the vulgar core beneath Lord Ferris' refined and gentlemanly exterior to the nobility of the loose-living Duke Tremontaine to the inexorable resolve of the flighty Artemisia Fitz-Levi, none of Kushner's characters is all light or all darkness. When I finished the book, I was sorry that it had ended.

There are numerous characters who made previous appearances in Kushner's other Riverside novels, but foreknowledge of their dealings is not necessary to enjoy the book. That said, many of the asides and minor details of the book are much more likely to delight those who have read Swordspoint and The Fall of the Kings than Kushner neophytes like me.

Just finished the book this morning. What a wonderful sequel to Swordspoint! I've missed the deliciously wicked, biting dialogue and impossibly twisted situations. The repartee and swordsplay make this book indulgent fun! Young Katherine Talbert is swept into the worlds of the Hill and Riverside by her uncle, the mad Duke Tremontaine. Lover and swordsman St. Vier is back too but not as you would expect! It is wonderful to see these familiar settings through Katherine's wide eyes. Ellen Kushner writes like a dream and the book is very very hard to put down for any length of time. Her "The Fall of the Kings" was great too... but this is the true sequel - the one we've been waiting for- for too long!

I finally got around to reading this one after reading review after glowing review by a host of well-known authors. THE PRIVILEGE OF THE SWORD is indeed high, swashbuckling fantasy that reads like a cross between Georgette Heyer and Guy Gavriel Kay. And for the first half of the book, I really enjoyed it.

Katherine is a very nice young noblewoman from the country. When her uncle, the Mad Duke, offers to raise her family out of impending poverty in exchange for Katherine coming to live with him in the city and training as a swordswoman, she doesn't even think about it twice. To save her family (and perhaps make a good marriage in town), Katherine jumps at the chance. Trouble is, her uncle really does appear to be "mad" and, in lieu of joining him in his bouts of debauchery and midnight carousing, Katherine is left to fend for herself. After her initial horror at wearing men's clothes, she surprises herself by taking to the art of sword fighting quite quickly. The duke's faithful servant Marcus takes her under his wing as well. The two of them quickly become friends and partners in their secret quest to find out just what the devil the duke and his secret, highborn visitors are up to.

Its rich, heady atmosphere and fast pace are the story's strong points. And the Mad Duke Tremontaine is priceless. I never did grow very close to Katherine, though. And her developing relationship with Marcus seemed forced, as though they got together for lack of having anyone better around. I didn't buy that they really cared that much for each other. I did buy that they both cared about the duke, and with good reason. I wanted more on his character and the machinations of his Hamlet-style, mad north-north-west mind. The story felt like it wanted to go in so many different directions, and explore so many characters at once, but didn't have the necessary space nor sanity to do so, that it was hard to care about the characters you wanted to. I enjoyed it for the most part. I just wish it had stayed in one place long enough for me to really fall in love.

I started reading The Privilege of the Sword just to get its flavor, and it rudely shoved aside the other books I was planning to get to first. It is a delight throughout, supremely witty, romantic, adventurous. The setting is an unnamed country that resembles Regency England to some extent. The action occurs some 20 years following the classic Swordspoint, and a few decades prior to Ellen Kushner's collaboration with her partner Delia Sherman, The Fall of the Kings. Like Swordspoint it is a "fantasy without magic", though magic explicitly returns in The Fall of the Kings.

Katherine Talbert is the 15 year old niece of Alec Campion, one of the heroes of Swordspoint, who is now the notorious Mad Duke Tremontaine. The Duke summons her to the city with the intention of making her a swordswoman. She had expected a more conventional future, but ends up taking very well to the sword, especially after instruction from the other hero of Swordspoint, the legendary Richard St. Vier, now living alone in the country. Katherine has many more experiences in the city, things like visiting a brothel, seeing a play, spying with the Duke's protégé Marcus, and more conventional entertainments such as balls. She also becomes enmeshed, without the Duke's knowledge, in a challenge against the Duke's bitter enemy, Lord Ferris, a scheming politician and abuser of women, who has stained the honor of one of Katherine's more typical female friends. Katherine is a delightful heroine, and the Mad Duke is a truly wonderful character. The dialogue is fast-paced and sharp. The minor characters are also excellent (my favorite is the Duke's mathematician friend the Ugly Girl). The plot is effective, if a bit loose-limbed at times. Over all, I loved it - a thoroughgoing pleasure.

It has been many long years between the publication of Kushner's brilliant first novel, Swordspoint (1987?), but the wait was worth it. This isn't quite the darkly bitter and romantic fairy tale that the first book was, with its tales of deadly duels fought by professionals hired by the aristocracy amidst the dark intrigue of the wealthy Hill and the crime-ridden warrens of Riverside, but it is so good to be back, even though times have changed. Riverside has been civilized somewhat by the sardonic Duke Tremontaine, who once wandered there as a poor student by the side of the legendary duelist St Vier. Into this world comes the young and innocent Katherine, sent for by the Mad Duke. He is her Uncle and her family needs his money, so she is under his control for six months and bidden to learn to be a swordsman. Thrown into a strange new world of glittering society and deadly intrigue, at which her Uncle is intricately involved, there is still enough dark and decadent dealings going on in Riverside for great deeds and romantic adventure.

Is it because each of her novels is as finely crafted as this one? Or, is it because she prefers to put thought, depth and profound consideration into her books, rather than churn out multi-volume "epics" that go on far too long?

"The Privilege of the Sword" is as wonderful as Ms. Kushner's previous novels about Riverside. I am always amazed by the exquisite detail that she includes in her stories. She includes not only seemingly frivilous descriptions about clothing, furnishings and food, but telling details about the society of Riverside--the manners, social structure and culture. Best of all, she makes her characters come alive with engaging descriptions of how they stand, their facial expressions, and of course, how they FEEL about particular situations.

And the situations in "Privilege" are VERY particular! A young, impoverished noblewoman is "sold", not into slavery, but into swordsmanship. The young lady, Katherine, is a one of the most lovable female characters to appear in a fantasy for quite some time. She defeats other swordsman in duels--and she is always as surprised as the onlookers! She becomes quite accomplished at her craft, but never stops longing to join society, and enjoy being a young woman crossing into adulthood.

The plot of this delightful book is elaborate as the snowy white lace that everyone seems to either wear, make or covet. Although it may appear to be another "swords and sorcery" fantasy, there is not one ounce of sorcery in it, but a tremendous amount of beautifully described swordplay.

And every single swordfight scene resonates with depth and meaning which propel the plot and affect the characters in profound ways.

Charming, funny and a real treat, "The Privilege of the Sword" stands head and shoulders above the glut of fantasy novels available.

Thank you for writing so "slowly", Ms. Kushner! Always worth the wait.

In "The Privilege of the Sword, Ms. Kushner elegantly displays her mastery of thr language and her knowledge of history. Then she writes a rousing story. She has chosen as a protagonist a young very protected girl who is thrusted into the male dominated world of the professional swordsmen. At the same time she must deal with the issues of a tenager just becoming aware of her sexuality. Although her frank endorsement of same sex encounters may be a bit intense for the genre, her sensitivity in exploring the psyches of the characters allow us to understand their choices.

The legions of you who have read Swordspoint and have been longing to know What Might Have Happened Next will revel in this, where Kate,the niece of Alec now Duke Tremontaine, becomes a swordswoman. Kushner has done wondrous things with images and tropes from the theatre, from the demimonde, from the world of spirited girls who learn swordsmanship, from romance novels, and inspiration from myriad other sources to craft this gorgeous tapestry of emotions, many of them dark; passions, some of them mean; and sexuality, all of it tangled. It is really really fine.