Swords of Riverside

The World of Riverside #1-2

by Ellen Kushner

Omnibus includes Swordspoint and Privilege of the Sword.

Genres: Fantasy

627 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 2006

About the author

Ellen Kushner weaves together multiple careers as a writer, radio host, teacher, performer and public speaker.

A graduate of Barnard College, she also attended Bryn Mawr College, and grew up in Cleveland, Ohio. She began her career in publishing as a fiction editor in New York City, but left to write her first novel Swordspoint, which has become a cult classic, hailed as the progenitor of the “mannerpunk” (or “Fantasy of Manners”) school of urban fantasy. Swordspoint was followed by Thomas the Rhymer (World Fantasy Award and the Mythopoeic Award), and two more novels in her “Riverside” series. In 2015, Thomas the Rhymer was published in the UK as part of the Gollancz “Fantasy Masterworks” line.

In addition, her short fiction appears regularly in numerous anthologies. Her stories have been translated into a wide variety of languages, including Japanese, French, Dutch, German, Spanish, Latvian and Finnish.

Upon moving to Boston, she became a radio host for WGBH-FM. In 1996, she created Sound & Spirit, PRI’s award-winning national public radio series. With Ellen as host and writer, the program aired nationally until 2010; many of the original shows can now be heard archived online.

As a live stage performer, her solo spoken word works include Esther: the Feast of Masks, and The Golden Dreydl: a Klezmer ‘Nutcracker’ for Chanukah (with Shirim Klezmer Orchestra). In 2008, Vital Theatre commissioned her to script a full-scale theatrical version. The Klezmer Nutcracker played to sold-out audiences in New York City, with Kushner in the role of the magical Tante Miriam.

In 2012, Kushner entered the world of audiobooks, narrating and co-producing “illuminated” versions of all three of the “Riverside” novels with SueMedia Productions for Neil Gaiman Presents at Audible.com—and winning a 2013 Audie Award for Swordspoint.

Other recent projects include the urban fantasy anthology Welcome to Bordertown (co-edited with Holly Black), and The Witches of Lublin, a musical audio drama written with Elizabeth Schwartz and Yale Strom (which one Gabriel, Gracie and Wilbur Awards in 2012). In 2015 she contributed to and oversaw the creation of the online Riverside series prequel Tremontaine for Serial Box with collaborators Joel Derfner, Alaya Dawn Johnson, Malinda Lo, Racheline Maltese and Patty Bryant.

A dauntless traveler, Ellen Kushner has been a guest of honor at conventions all over the world. She regularly teaches writing at the prestigious Clarion Workshop and the Hollins University Graduate Program in Children’s Literature.

Ellen Kushner is a co-founder and past president of the Interstitial Arts Foundation, an organization supporting work that falls between genre categories. She lives in New York City with author and educator Delia Sherman, a lot of books, airplane and theater ticket stubs, and no cats whatsoever.

Reviews

[Viridian5 · Rating 4 out of 5]

I borrowed this to read the short stories but reread Swordspoint (for the umpteenth time) and The Privilege of the Sword while I had it.

First the short stories. "The Swordsman Whose Name Was Not Death" didn't stand on its own for me but introduces the story of Alec's sister and the novel that are important to The Privilege of the Sword. "Red-Cloak" seemed rather pointless. "The Death of the Duke" has its moments.

Swordspoint still holds up, and I think I liked it even better this time. The characters, the relationships, the banter, the politics.... (The unexpected-for-a-mainstream-book-in-the-'80s casual bisexuality that blew my teenage mind....)

So when I heard there'd be a sequel novel about 20 years later, I was thrilled and had a number of things I hoped for and wanted in it, but The Privilege of the Sword was not the sequel I hoped for. You barely see Alec with Richard in it, and the major scene they do get is narrated by another character who's drugged and can't even see them, which is supervillain-caliber evil. (And poor Richard....) The book spends most of its time on two characters who are so young and sheltered that sometimes they're hard to take seriously.

But, years later, on this reread, I had a kinder reaction and could judge it more on its own merits and less on it not being on what I wanted it to be. I think it also helps that I'm older, so some scenes where the younger characters have no clue about all the history and adventures the older characters around them had played better. Michael Godwin trying to protect his daughter from promiscuous men in that one scene is pretty funny. (Also, his talk when that duel is taking place at his party.)

The subplot with Perry and his lover still feels superfluous though. And The Privilege of the Sword still isn't what I hoped for.

[Nic · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a two-novels-in-one book, so when I say I read half of it, I read the first complete novel, Swordspoint. It was fantastic. I also read the two short stories included in the middle, "The Swordsman Whose Name Was Not Death" and "Red-Cloak".

The reason I am not immediately going on to read The Privilege of the Sword is twofold. It seems, from the description, to be largely about a girl dressing as a boy to learn swordplay, and it also features Alec, but with no mention of Richard. And:

1. I heart Richard and Alec together, and don't want them to be apart. (The friend who lent me this book tells me enigmatically that they eventually do end up happily ever after, but "not in this book.")

2. I typically dislike reading about (a) people learning swordplay, and (b) girls having to dress as boys to do things. I'm sure that Kushner's gorgeous writing could make these things more tolerable - I actually rather like the swordfighting teacher in Swordspoint - but these are still not topics I generally love.

I may still go on to read The Privilege of the Sword, just not immediately.

[Joyce · Rating 2 out of 5]

I listened to this, and if I could find an ISBN, I would create a record for that. It's not a bad swashbuckling fantasy tale--all three parts: Swordpoint, The Privilege of the Sword, The Fall of Kings. However, on audio, it is probably the worst use of a full cast of narrators I have ever encountered, with no rhyme or reason to who reads what and when the full cast is used. Makes a hopeless mess of the listening experience. Even the sound effects are laughable, not well-integrated. Perhaps reading provides a less frustrating experience.

[H. Givens · Rating 4 out of 5]

The novels are brilliant, but I read them elsewhere and picked this up to read/re-read the short stories. "The Swordsman Whose Name Was Not Death" and "Red-Cloak" are just passable, but there's always ugly sobbing when I read "The Death of the Duke".