In Swordspoint, Ellen Kushner introduces the district of Riverside, in the city that is so ubiquitously known that it is only ever called “the city”. Here, the seedy underbelly operates by its own rules and code of conduct, and Richard St Viers, the greatest swordsman in the city, lives with the scholar Alec – when St Viers is not out killing men for hire or Alec is not gambling their money away. Meanwhile, on the Hill, the Duchess Tremontaine, the young heir Michael Godwin, Lord Horn, and the Dragon Chancellor all spin plots of their own – and who better to serve as a cog than the most talented duelist the city has ever produced?
Swordspoint conjures a neatly constructed, starkly gritty cityscape, and an intricate plot to match it. Readers who love the political machinations of George R.R. Martin’s A Game of Thrones will enjoy unraveling the webs of conspiracy. Keeping the action constrained to the city allows Kushner to layer details upon details, resulting in a rich tapestry of setting that beautifully informs and shapes the plot. Readers who enjoyed Swordspoint will be excited to hear that Kushner, along with new authors, has returned to Riverside in a selection of serial stories known as Tremontaine.
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