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Privilege of the Sword by Ellen Kushner
I just finished Ellen Kushner's Priviledge of the Sword and decided that everyone has to know about the existence of this book because I enjoyed it so much. You people are lucky to only know me on the internet and can decide to either click the cut or not, while my rl friends can only pretend to have urgent callings they must attend to.
Privilege of the Sword is highly entertaining and also an extraordinary book. It left me with the need to read just another one like it but sadly there really is none. It is the sequel to the novel Swordspoint but it can be easily read as a stand alone story. It's more fun if you already know the recurring characters around Richard and Alec, but it is not necessary.
The story is set in a classic swashbuckling fantasy world, in a city ruled by a sceming nobility who killed off their last king ages ago. The nobles have their feuds amongst each other and most of the time they are handled through duels. The nobles don't fight themselves but use professional swordsmen instead. The swordsmen are payed duelists but also assasins. If a noblemen has no swordsmen nearby when he's challengend he'll have to fight himself and will most likely be killed.
Swordspoint revolved around a swordsmen anmed Richard St. Vier, who is currently the best blade in the city and highly sought after. He lives with his mad runaway noble boyfriend Alec in the shady riverside district and kills for money as well as on Alec's whim (and as long as it's a challenge).
In the end of Swordspoint there are three short stories, one of them is called "Thw swordsman whose name was not death". The story deals with something that is barely touched on in the first book, Richard and Alec's failure to deal with the wretched role of women in their society and a bit of Alec's family history and why exactly he decided to run and oppose his family.
In PotS the topic is examined more closely and from a lot more sides, when Alec, meanwile the mad duke Tremontaine forces his unsuspecting niece Katherin to join him in the city and become a swordswoman, because he happens to find that entertaining.
Katherine is very much an average young girl in her world that dreams of balls, nice dresses and dashing suitors, so she is less than thrilled when her mad uncle pressures her into running around in men's clothes and picking up the sword.
What Alec does to her is radical and not too far removed from what was done to his sister when she was forced to marry and sold off for some land. Now he basically buys her daughter from her for the same land and occtruates a lifestyle on her she'd never chosen for herself.
The question if his imposing ways are better than their parents always stays blurry, but ultimately in Katherine's case, Alec empowers her to decide for herself what she wants to do with her life.
The story also follows her aquaintance Artemisia who is having her debut on the towns ballrooms the way Katherine would have dreamed it up for herself. But she ends up in a situation where it quickly becomes clear she's just cattle about to be sold and for all the talk of men defending women's honors, she'll find no one who'd defend her will.
Katherine on the other hand is by the end of the book a woman who goes whereever she pleases and who'll not have other people make descisions for her, even if the mad Duke started her off on that path.
Alec did it out bitterness, because he resents his sister's fate and the fact that she did not fight it with teeth and claws. His judging of her actions is unfair, his methods of revenge/rebellion are pretty clumsy, just lashing out at conventions, but ultimately lead him to really defend Katherine's choices.
Other than Swordspoint, which only had the Duchess Tremontaine, this one has a lot of interesting female characters. There's Katherine herself, who's just fun while she has her coming of age warped by her scandalous mad uncle, who has his lover teach her fencing tricks instead of ballroom dances.
There's her mother, who basically made Alec into what he was in Swordspoint. The most interesting clash is when Alec and his sister meet and confront each other. He succeeded in making Katherine his, she has got better things to do now than go back to the country and wait for the next ballroom season. Alec has his revenge, but he also has to admit that his sister's choice doesn't quite give him the right to be so angry and imposing as he was. That her making the best out of the forced marriage was the choice she made and he can't make her hate it forever the way he did.
There's Artemisia who is a mirror image of what might had happened to Katherine if she had followed more conventional ways. And that's not even mentioning Flavia, the mad dukes partner in crime of mathematics, Teresa the playwriter struggling for indendence from her husbands family and the actress Black Rose, who goes her own way alltogether.
I find what Alec does to Katherine is a bit similar to the much disputed empowerment spell in Buffy. It's no doubt imposing, but in the end Katherine decides how she puts the skills she learned to good use and Alec doesn't interfere.
It's often seen as a fault that Buffy bestows the powers on the slayers against their will. I'm not sure I see it that way. Their not being empowered was also imposed on them, so are many other circumstances of their lives. In the end, what Buffy gives them is a chance and they can decide what they want to make of it.
It's not that Alec is never called on his beeing so intrusive in Katherin's life, but the men that end up heroes in the book are ultimately not those who rescue or conquer, but those who stand up for women having a right to chose for themselves.
Another detail about the book (and it's overflowing with wonderful details, the language alone makes it worth a read) is that it's plot is wound around a bestseller every girl in the book has read "The Swordsman who's name is not Death" is pretty much the local version of Twilight. Swordsmen comes to kill girl and fucks her instead, as Alec sums it up very unromantically (despite him himself living the whole dashing swordsman fantasy). All the men in the book snigger at the book, while the girls find it enthralling and each reads her own message in it. Katherine the little girl loves it every bit as much as Katherine the swordswoman (though she sees very different things and always finds it irritating that Fabian (the swordsman)never practises his moves).
It's an empowering fantasy at the same time as it is an escapist fantasy that leads girls like Artemisia to believe that some man is going to rescue her and that doesn't help Katherine's mother when she's force married.But it also gives the playwriter her first success on stage and the Black Rose a great and admired role. Though in the end it is replaced by a play that features a swordswoman.
Aside from all the thoughtprovoking stuff in it, the character voices alone would be worth the read, especially Alec, his remarks never failed to crack me up.
If you don't know the books, go read! I promise there is no way around loving them.
If you know them already, please, please discuss with me. I need to get my squee for this series out.
Privilege of the Sword is highly entertaining and also an extraordinary book. It left me with the need to read just another one like it but sadly there really is none. It is the sequel to the novel Swordspoint but it can be easily read as a stand alone story. It's more fun if you already know the recurring characters around Richard and Alec, but it is not necessary.
The story is set in a classic swashbuckling fantasy world, in a city ruled by a sceming nobility who killed off their last king ages ago. The nobles have their feuds amongst each other and most of the time they are handled through duels. The nobles don't fight themselves but use professional swordsmen instead. The swordsmen are payed duelists but also assasins. If a noblemen has no swordsmen nearby when he's challengend he'll have to fight himself and will most likely be killed.
Swordspoint revolved around a swordsmen anmed Richard St. Vier, who is currently the best blade in the city and highly sought after. He lives with his mad runaway noble boyfriend Alec in the shady riverside district and kills for money as well as on Alec's whim (and as long as it's a challenge).
In the end of Swordspoint there are three short stories, one of them is called "Thw swordsman whose name was not death". The story deals with something that is barely touched on in the first book, Richard and Alec's failure to deal with the wretched role of women in their society and a bit of Alec's family history and why exactly he decided to run and oppose his family.
In PotS the topic is examined more closely and from a lot more sides, when Alec, meanwile the mad duke Tremontaine forces his unsuspecting niece Katherin to join him in the city and become a swordswoman, because he happens to find that entertaining.
Katherine is very much an average young girl in her world that dreams of balls, nice dresses and dashing suitors, so she is less than thrilled when her mad uncle pressures her into running around in men's clothes and picking up the sword.
What Alec does to her is radical and not too far removed from what was done to his sister when she was forced to marry and sold off for some land. Now he basically buys her daughter from her for the same land and occtruates a lifestyle on her she'd never chosen for herself.
The question if his imposing ways are better than their parents always stays blurry, but ultimately in Katherine's case, Alec empowers her to decide for herself what she wants to do with her life.
The story also follows her aquaintance Artemisia who is having her debut on the towns ballrooms the way Katherine would have dreamed it up for herself. But she ends up in a situation where it quickly becomes clear she's just cattle about to be sold and for all the talk of men defending women's honors, she'll find no one who'd defend her will.
Katherine on the other hand is by the end of the book a woman who goes whereever she pleases and who'll not have other people make descisions for her, even if the mad Duke started her off on that path.
Alec did it out bitterness, because he resents his sister's fate and the fact that she did not fight it with teeth and claws. His judging of her actions is unfair, his methods of revenge/rebellion are pretty clumsy, just lashing out at conventions, but ultimately lead him to really defend Katherine's choices.
Other than Swordspoint, which only had the Duchess Tremontaine, this one has a lot of interesting female characters. There's Katherine herself, who's just fun while she has her coming of age warped by her scandalous mad uncle, who has his lover teach her fencing tricks instead of ballroom dances.
There's her mother, who basically made Alec into what he was in Swordspoint. The most interesting clash is when Alec and his sister meet and confront each other. He succeeded in making Katherine his, she has got better things to do now than go back to the country and wait for the next ballroom season. Alec has his revenge, but he also has to admit that his sister's choice doesn't quite give him the right to be so angry and imposing as he was. That her making the best out of the forced marriage was the choice she made and he can't make her hate it forever the way he did.
There's Artemisia who is a mirror image of what might had happened to Katherine if she had followed more conventional ways. And that's not even mentioning Flavia, the mad dukes partner in crime of mathematics, Teresa the playwriter struggling for indendence from her husbands family and the actress Black Rose, who goes her own way alltogether.
I find what Alec does to Katherine is a bit similar to the much disputed empowerment spell in Buffy. It's no doubt imposing, but in the end Katherine decides how she puts the skills she learned to good use and Alec doesn't interfere.
It's often seen as a fault that Buffy bestows the powers on the slayers against their will. I'm not sure I see it that way. Their not being empowered was also imposed on them, so are many other circumstances of their lives. In the end, what Buffy gives them is a chance and they can decide what they want to make of it.
It's not that Alec is never called on his beeing so intrusive in Katherin's life, but the men that end up heroes in the book are ultimately not those who rescue or conquer, but those who stand up for women having a right to chose for themselves.
Another detail about the book (and it's overflowing with wonderful details, the language alone makes it worth a read) is that it's plot is wound around a bestseller every girl in the book has read "The Swordsman who's name is not Death" is pretty much the local version of Twilight. Swordsmen comes to kill girl and fucks her instead, as Alec sums it up very unromantically (despite him himself living the whole dashing swordsman fantasy). All the men in the book snigger at the book, while the girls find it enthralling and each reads her own message in it. Katherine the little girl loves it every bit as much as Katherine the swordswoman (though she sees very different things and always finds it irritating that Fabian (the swordsman)never practises his moves).
It's an empowering fantasy at the same time as it is an escapist fantasy that leads girls like Artemisia to believe that some man is going to rescue her and that doesn't help Katherine's mother when she's force married.But it also gives the playwriter her first success on stage and the Black Rose a great and admired role. Though in the end it is replaced by a play that features a swordswoman.
Aside from all the thoughtprovoking stuff in it, the character voices alone would be worth the read, especially Alec, his remarks never failed to crack me up.
If you don't know the books, go read! I promise there is no way around loving them.
If you know them already, please, please discuss with me. I need to get my squee for this series out.