Book one-hundred-and-thirty-four: Swordspoint

Swordspoint (2003/1987)
Ellen Kushner

Rating: 3.75/5
[The 115: 16/115]

I found this quite hard to get into at the beginning: it was intriguing, but not much was happening, all these people where sitting around talking about people I didn’t know.

But then all of a sudden it got really good – I knew who everyone was, worked out what the hell was going on and what I didn’t know got ever more interesting… In the end it was very rewarding read.

In the highly stratified world of Kushner's nameless old city, the aristocrats living in fine mansions on the Hill settle their differences by sending to the thieves' den of Riverside for swordsmen who will fight to the death for a point of someone else's honor.

Young Lord Michael Godwin is so taken by these romantic figures that he studies the art himselfuntil challenged by the best of them. Master of the Sword, Richard St. Vier is picky in his contracts and precise in his killing but he nevertheless becomes embroiled in the nobility's political, social and sexual intrigues. When his lover Alec is kidnapped by Lord Horn, St. Vier must take drastic action.

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Finished: Saturday 11/8