Swordspoint

Swordspoint: A Melodrama of Manners (1987) Ellen Kushner

This is a marvelous book.

Richard St Vier is a swordsman in a time and places where nobles hire swordsmen to fight their duels and to make points of honor. The system was originally created to formalize dueling, and to, one imagines, reduce the number of deaths that occurred because of dueling. Although a swordsman could challenge a noble to a duel, most duels occur between hired swordsmen.

And of those swordsmen, St Vier is the best. He will not take a written contract, relying upon the honor of the nobles who hire him to keep him from prison. St Vier’s lover, Alex, is an enigma. Kicked out of the university, Alex lives seemingly only to offend those around him, which, much to his delight, frequently leads to St Vier killing those who would take action after taking offense.

The falling snow made it hard for him to see. The fight hadn’t winded him, but he was hot and sweaty, and he could feel his heart pounding in his chest. He ignored it, making for Riverside, where no one was likely to follow him.

He could have stayed, if he’d wanted to. The swordfight had been very impressive, and the party guests and its outcome would be talked about for weeks. But if he stayed, the swordsman knew that he would be offered wine, and rich pastry, and asked boring questions about his technique, and difficult questions about who had arranged the right. he ran on.

There is a bit of sex in this book, so I would not recommend it for a younger reader, but it’s not a lot of sex.

The version I read has the bonus of three short stories, all well worth reading, though mostly because I didn’t want to let the characters go.

I highly recommend this book–it’s the kind of Fantasy I love best–no elves, no dragons, just fantastic characters that happen not to live in our reality.

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