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Product Description
Welcome to Riverside, where the aristocratic and the ambitious battle for power in the city's ballroom, brothels and boudoirs. Into this alluring world walks Katherine, a well-bred country girl versed in the rules of conventional society. Her mistake is thinking that they apply. For Katherine's host and uncle, Alec Campion, aka the Mad Duke Tremontaine, is in charge here—and to him, rules are made to be broken. When Alec decides it would be more amusing for his niece to learn swordplay than to follow the usual path to marriage, her world changes forever. Blade in hand, it's up to Katherine to navigate a maze of secrets and scoundrels and to gain the self-discovery that comes to those who master: the privilege of the sword.
From the Trade Paperback edition.
From the Trade Paperback edition.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Mass Market Paperback
a fantasy novel from writer ellen kushner, which is set in the same world as an earlier book called Swordspoint: A Melodrama of Manners and features some of the same characters. I'd not actually read that but I had no trouble getting into this anyhow, as all the back story was very easy to follow.
Set in a feudal world ruled by nobles, it runs for roughly 459 pages and is divided into four parts each containing a varying number of chapters. It's the tale of katherine, a fifteen and a bit year old girl who is forced by family squabbles into moving from the country where she lives with her mother and brothers on a farm and coming to the big city to stay with her uncle, who intends to make a swordswoman of her.
her uncle 'the mad duke' seems to live up to his name at first, with his attention flitting from moment to moment. especially when handsome men are around. But Katherine slowly gets used to her new life and the way of the sword. swordplay in the city is not as honourable as it used to be. and when a friend of hers is badly treated by a man, honour must be satisfied..
most of this is told in the first person with katherine as the narrator, although there are the occasional scenes involving other characters when she isn't present which are told in the third person. This is a coming of age story, the tale of a girl without strong purpose finding what she wants to make of her life, and it's well written and engaging in that respect. It's not a book of action, as there are only occasional swordfights and they're formal things that are over quickly, and it's more a tale of character than plot. Thus there's not a great deal of the latter and it does cause the book to sag slightly in the middle before it grabs you again.
But all in all a pleasant and entertaining read and enough to make me want to look at the others set in this world. such as the book that apparently comes after this: The Fall of the Kings
Set in a feudal world ruled by nobles, it runs for roughly 459 pages and is divided into four parts each containing a varying number of chapters. It's the tale of katherine, a fifteen and a bit year old girl who is forced by family squabbles into moving from the country where she lives with her mother and brothers on a farm and coming to the big city to stay with her uncle, who intends to make a swordswoman of her.
her uncle 'the mad duke' seems to live up to his name at first, with his attention flitting from moment to moment. especially when handsome men are around. But Katherine slowly gets used to her new life and the way of the sword. swordplay in the city is not as honourable as it used to be. and when a friend of hers is badly treated by a man, honour must be satisfied..
most of this is told in the first person with katherine as the narrator, although there are the occasional scenes involving other characters when she isn't present which are told in the third person. This is a coming of age story, the tale of a girl without strong purpose finding what she wants to make of her life, and it's well written and engaging in that respect. It's not a book of action, as there are only occasional swordfights and they're formal things that are over quickly, and it's more a tale of character than plot. Thus there's not a great deal of the latter and it does cause the book to sag slightly in the middle before it grabs you again.
But all in all a pleasant and entertaining read and enough to make me want to look at the others set in this world. such as the book that apparently comes after this: The Fall of the Kings
14 of 21 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I was given this book by a friend to read during a long journey. Given the cover and the historical fantasy setting I wasn't sure I'd like it but within a page I knew I'd found a great new entertaining writer and by the time I was off my 'plane and into my train journey I was so completely hooked and charmed that I missed my stop and had to spend the night in entirely the wrong city.
The story and characters have romance, charm and rapier-wits that keep turning and dancing right to the last page. Kushner's style flows easily and her imagination is loaded with the rich eroticism and tantalising devilment that you would always hope for in a feisty period drama but so rarely get enough of. It's also a great study of some wonderful characters. Reader, I loved it so much, I bought my own copy.
The story and characters have romance, charm and rapier-wits that keep turning and dancing right to the last page. Kushner's style flows easily and her imagination is loaded with the rich eroticism and tantalising devilment that you would always hope for in a feisty period drama but so rarely get enough of. It's also a great study of some wonderful characters. Reader, I loved it so much, I bought my own copy.
1 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Although not as gripping (for me) as Swordpoint--it was heartbreaking to see Alec, but it was a realistic position to put him in -- it was a great insight into what happened next. I wasn't very interested in Katherine, and frankly, as an Alec and Richard fan, I would have preferred it to deal with them entirely, she bored me and I didn't feel she was ever a fully rounded character, whilst Richard and Alec, even though missing for most of the book, drove the plot along.
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