Swordspoint by Ellen Kushner
269 pages
Published 1987
Read from November 20 to November 24
Rating: ★★★★ out of 5
With its languid nobles, dashing rogues, Louis Quatorze meets Sir Walter Raleigh esthetic, bisexual eroticism, ritualized violence, political scheming, and plots-within-plots denouement, Swordspoint could be seen as the grand-mère of Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel's Dart -- though Kushner's sensual sensibilities here hew closer to Thomas Canty than to Fetlife. The schemes of nobility require a deeper cast list, perhaps, than the page count can support. The only two characters that seem adequately fleshed out are the central swordsman, Richard St. Vier, and his enigmatic boyfriend Alec; the rest of the players are sketches only, deftly enough drawn, suggesting depths but never revealing them. I would have liked to know more about the Duchess Tremontaine and Katherine Blount, who seem like they could have supported novels in their own right had the focus been on them -- they certainly have the presence of leading characters, even if they lack much in the way of development. (Perhaps the various Riverside sequels will serve them better? I honestly have no idea what to expect from the ensuing volumes; the fifteen year gap between Swordspoint and The Fall of the Kings suggests either a brilliant new direction or a desperate cash-grab.) One-note characters aside, this was a lush and quite fetching novel, and I can only hope the rest of the series lives up to it.
Also, let's spare a moment to mention just how remarkable it is that a mainstream fantasy novel would have several openly bisexual characters -- in 1987!
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