{"id":25,"date":"2004-06-01T12:34:11","date_gmt":"2004-06-01T19:34:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/?p=25"},"modified":"2021-05-30T21:26:27","modified_gmt":"2021-05-31T01:26:27","slug":"the-fall-of-the-kings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/25","title":{"rendered":"The Fall of the Kings"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Fall of the Kings<\/i> (2002) Ellen Kushner<\/a> and Delia Sherman<\/p>\n

This book is set in the same world as Swordspoint<\/i>, 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 Mad Duke and heir to Tremontaine.<\/p>\n

I liked this book far less than I liked Swordspoint<\/i>, which means that it’s still a good book, although not a great book. What kept it from being great is that I just didn’t care as much about the main characters as I did in Swordspoint<\/i>. I was fond of some of the secondary characters, especially Justis, but I just couldn’t get really attached to the main characters. I almost felt as if the author(s) knew that she (they) was (were) going to do bad things to some of the characters, and so didn’t want to get too attached, so that she (they) could go through with it. <\/p>\n

The other problem I had was that there was just too much sex for my tastes. Sure it may necessary to describe the sexual relationship between characters, because of the relationship between Kings and Wizards in history; I just don’t care to read about all the details. Of course it wasn’t as bad as I’m making it sound, I just would have preferred more detailed swordfights and fewer detailed sex scenes. (Which right there tells you plenty about me I suppose.)<\/p>\n

Tied in, is the fact that when some of the characters made claims of being in love, I just didn’t believe it. Lust I could believe. Obsession I could believe. But love? The story would have been far stronger if I could have believed it was a love story. I just didn’t.<\/p>\n

Oddly enough, I enjoyed the bits about research and scholarship, but then I do work in academia, so that shouldn’t come as a huge surprise I suppose.<\/p>\n

But, all in all, the book had political intrigue, romantic intrigue, and a fantastic plot, so the it is is well worth reading, despite my misgivings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2,291],"tags":[82],"class_list":["post-25","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fantasy","category-paper","tag-ellen-kushner"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/piQkW-p","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":6193,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/6193","url_meta":{"origin":25,"position":0},"title":"Tremontaine: Season One Volume One","author":"Michelle","date":"November 13, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Tremontaine: Season One Volume One (2016) by Patty Bryant, Joel Derfner, Alaya Dawn Johnson, Ellen Kushner, Malinda Lo, Racheline Maltese and Paul Witcover Let me explain... No, let me sum up. There is a book called Swordspoint by Ellen Kushner that is one of my favorites--a comfort read. After Swordspoint\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "7.5\/10"","block_context":{"text":"7.5\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/7-5-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"tremontaine-series-cover","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Tremontaine-Series-Cover.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2129,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/2129","url_meta":{"origin":25,"position":1},"title":"Swordspoint","author":"Michelle","date":"December 9, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Swordspoint: A Melodrama of Manners (1987) Ellen Kushner Why yes, I did just re-read Swordspoint. And it was good. Published by Bantam Rating: 10\/10","rel":"","context":"In "10\/10"","block_context":{"text":"10\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/10-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2005\/06\/Swordspoint-e1510885578236.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":388,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/388","url_meta":{"origin":25,"position":2},"title":"Swordspoint","author":"Michelle","date":"June 3, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"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.","rel":"","context":"In "Fantasy"","block_context":{"text":"Fantasy","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/fantasy"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2005\/06\/Swordspoint-e1510885578236.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":288,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/288","url_meta":{"origin":25,"position":3},"title":"The Privilege of the Sword","author":"Michelle","date":"July 29, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"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\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "9\/10"","block_context":{"text":"9\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/9-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/Privilege-of-the-Sword.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2527,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/2527","url_meta":{"origin":25,"position":4},"title":"Swordspoint","author":"Michelle","date":"September 13, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Swordspoint: A Melodrama of Manners (1987) Ellen Kushner I just couldn't help myself. Every year or so I need to reread this book--because it's simply that awesome. Rating: 10\/10","rel":"","context":"In "10\/10"","block_context":{"text":"10\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/10-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2005\/06\/Swordspoint-e1510885578236.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4045,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/4045","url_meta":{"origin":25,"position":5},"title":"Swordspoint, Audio Edition","author":"Michelle","date":"September 22, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Swordspoint (1987\/2011) by Ellen Kushner (Author, Narrator) with Dion Graham, Katherine Kellgren, Robert Fass, Nick Sullivan, Simon Jones This review is of the audio recording of Swordspoint. Please check my review of the book Swordspoint for my thoughts on the story rather than the recording. First, Ellen Kushner is the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8.5\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8.5\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-5-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"swordspoint-audio","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/swordspoint-audio.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}