The Essential Bordertown: A Traveller’s Guide to the Edge of Faerie (1998) Terri Windling & Delia Sherman The Essential Bordertown is a collection of short stories set in Bordertown, the land between our world and Faerie. The stories are written with a teenage audiences in mind, with primarily teenage characters, and parts of a “traveler’s […]

Swordspoint: A Melodrama of Manners (1987) Ellen Kushner I couldn’t help myself. I re-read Swordspoint. Sometimes when you’re feeling bad, you just have to turn to favorites.

Swordspoint: A Melodrama of Manners (1987) Ellen Kushner Despite my best efforts, I ended up re-reading Swordspoint again. I really love this book–and with good reason. Here, see for yourself: 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 […]

The Privilege of the Sword (2006) Ellen Kushner There are a handful of authors whose books I actively seek out, looking for crumbs of news of upcoming books: Sean Russell, Guy Gavriel Kay, Charles de Lint, and also Ellen Kushner. Well, July has been a good month for me; new Charles de Lint, and even […]

Swordspoint: A Melodrama of Manners (1987) Ellen Kushner While waiting for the last book in Sean Russell’s ‘The Swan’s War’ to arrive, I decided to indulge in a book I’ve read fairly recently and loved. This book is just as gorgeous as I remember. The writing is absolutely lovely, drawing me into the story from […]

Thomas the Rhymer (1990) Ellen Kushner I thoroughly enjoyed Ellen Kushner’s Swordspoint, so I was excited when I saw that Thomas the Rhymer was being re-released. Thomas the Rhymer is one of the books that managed to be precisely what I want to read. The tale is of Thomas the Rhymer, minstrel who falls for […]

The Fall of the Kings (2002) Ellen Kushner and Delia Sherman This book is set in the same world as Swordspoint, about two generations later. The story begins at the University, where Basil St Cloud is a young Doctor of History at the University. It is there that he meets Theron Campion, son of the […]

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 […]