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The World of Riverside #2.5
The Man with the Knives
A tale of loss and healing, set in Kushner's Riverside series.
32 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2010
276 people want to read
About the author
Ellen Kushner
139 books606 followersEllen 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
December 5, 2017
Ellen Kushner's much-loved 1998 story, "The Death of the Duke", tells how Sophia, a lonely village physician, well past the age for being wed, met and married a stranger, "half-crazed with grief over the loss of his lover." Her new story, "The Man with the Knives" (available as a chapbook from Temporary Culture) fills in the details of that courtship.
The story is told in a lyrical, almost poetical style, rather than a straightforward narrative, with Sophia's and Alec's alternating points of view (as well as a haunting refrain) used very effectively. Thomas Canty's lush decorations enhance the dreamlike quality of the story. Ms. Kushner's prose and imagery are gorgeous, as always:
It would take a heart of stone not to rejoice with Sophia in her new-found love, even if she seems blessedly oblivious to the fact that her house of joy is built on Alec's grief. "I'm happy, so happy," she trills, her villagers rejoicing with her, while Alec continues to relive the events surrounding his lover's death, crying out in his sleep until the first words of his language that Sophia learns are no, stop. Alec's self-loathing, buried for years under his various personas - runaway scholar, mad duke, lord-in-exile - rises to the surface once again ("He was going die here, like an old crow, or an abandoned dog"). It's simply heartrending to read his misery, his doubt and despair. ("Hadn't they been happy? Hadn't they?")
Neither Richard nor Sophia know anything of his past when they encounter him; they can only sense that he carries secrets that he'll not willingly share. But both see in him something rich and rare and worthy, and it is their unconditional love, both in Swordspoint and "The Man with the Knives", that ultimately brings him comfort and healing and a measure of peace.
The story is told in a lyrical, almost poetical style, rather than a straightforward narrative, with Sophia's and Alec's alternating points of view (as well as a haunting refrain) used very effectively. Thomas Canty's lush decorations enhance the dreamlike quality of the story. Ms. Kushner's prose and imagery are gorgeous, as always:
...it was as if his body had been calling her from the start, glowing like candleflame even beneath his rags, and she the moth drawn to the heat of his skin, his white, fine-grained skin, his long and supple hands. his sharp and delicate bones, his harsh and fallen face with its green eyes, a green like nothing else she'd ever seen in a living being.
It would take a heart of stone not to rejoice with Sophia in her new-found love, even if she seems blessedly oblivious to the fact that her house of joy is built on Alec's grief. "I'm happy, so happy," she trills, her villagers rejoicing with her, while Alec continues to relive the events surrounding his lover's death, crying out in his sleep until the first words of his language that Sophia learns are no, stop. Alec's self-loathing, buried for years under his various personas - runaway scholar, mad duke, lord-in-exile - rises to the surface once again ("He was going die here, like an old crow, or an abandoned dog"). It's simply heartrending to read his misery, his doubt and despair. ("Hadn't they been happy? Hadn't they?")
Neither Richard nor Sophia know anything of his past when they encounter him; they can only sense that he carries secrets that he'll not willingly share. But both see in him something rich and rare and worthy, and it is their unconditional love, both in Swordspoint and "The Man with the Knives", that ultimately brings him comfort and healing and a measure of peace.
December 31, 2016
#30 short story.
It would help if I knew a little of the background for one of the characters in this story; I think it would have helped explain some things. That said, beautifully written short about two people coming together. Beautiful illustrations, too.
It would help if I knew a little of the background for one of the characters in this story; I think it would have helped explain some things. That said, beautifully written short about two people coming together. Beautiful illustrations, too.
October 3, 2014
I was first introduced to Ellen Kushner’s work through her novel Swordspoint which became a quick and lasting favorite of mine. Kushner has a way of writing that carries both descriptive and emotional power without tipping into the realm of wordy or sappy. Her characters are neither too strong nor too weak, but that wonderful middle ground at which a fictional figure becomes a believable human.
Read my full review here.
Read my full review here.
July 25, 2012
Finally, I have hunted down the sad but satisfying answer to the one question I had lingering after finishing the Riverside trilogy.
August 22, 2012
With illustration from tor.com here: http://www.tor.com/stories/2010/12/th...
January 6, 2016
WHY DID I DO THIS TO MYSELF.
(Brilliant, of course. Read after Swordspoint and also after bracing your entire soul.)
(Brilliant, of course. Read after Swordspoint and also after bracing your entire soul.)
March 8, 2019
WHY DID I DO THIS TO MYSELF.
I fell in love with Ellen Kushner's Swordspoint about 10 years ago, then eventually got around to reading the other books set in Riverside. Didn't know that this existed until now and I read it immediatedly (while murmuring I'm gonna regret this to myself over and over) because I had to know what happened to Richard and Alec. Even after 10 years, I HAD TO KNOW. All I had was hints from the other books in the series and short stories.
I knew it wasn't going to be happy (I mean, The Death of the Duke mentions Alec being half-mad with grief when meeting Sofia) but damn, this hurt. That last sentence absolutely slayed me. Kushner's prose is absolutely stunning.
I fell in love with Ellen Kushner's Swordspoint about 10 years ago, then eventually got around to reading the other books set in Riverside. Didn't know that this existed until now and I read it immediatedly (while murmuring I'm gonna regret this to myself over and over) because I had to know what happened to Richard and Alec. Even after 10 years, I HAD TO KNOW. All I had was hints from the other books in the series and short stories.
I knew it wasn't going to be happy (I mean, The Death of the Duke mentions Alec being half-mad with grief when meeting Sofia) but damn, this hurt. That last sentence absolutely slayed me. Kushner's prose is absolutely stunning.
February 15, 2020
Having read "Swordspoint" and "Privilege of the Sword," this absolutely broke me. I've never cried at a story before and yet this one continuously comes back up and stabs me right in the ribs. Repeatedly. I get so emotional over this that people bring it up out of the blue just for fun! And make jokes! I'm too invested.
October 10, 2025
Broke down crying 👍🏻 why can't they ever be happy :(
January 25, 2013
Sad and gorgeous, and sweet-bitter and lingering as the ghost of poisoned honey. I was so glad to lay eyes upon this last piece of the missing years between The Privilege of the Sword and The Fall of the Kings, and revisit one of my most beloved characters. I'm a sucker for a good, tragic tale, and Kushner's works always have that quality for me, that echo of underlying sadness, though witty and saucy and finely crafted they may be. And the illustrations are lovely. Brilliant. Swordspoint has ever been on my highly selective top shelf of fantasy books, and anything from that series has always claimed a space beside it. It's all wonderful stuff, and I find myself always left wanting for more.
June 14, 2010
As wonderful a read as ever, but far, far too short... and as unfair as it is, I have yet to conquer the sensation that this is not 'my' Alec - or come to that 'my' Sophia, from whose character there seems to be some piece missing that would explain the transition from the woman Alec meets on his island to the Sophia of Fall of the Kings.
Partly, I must admit, the problem is that what I wanted was more Alec & Richard, and while I respect Ellen Kushner's right to write for herself or even (gasp!) other readers... OK, fine, I'm sulking.
Partly, I must admit, the problem is that what I wanted was more Alec & Richard, and while I respect Ellen Kushner's right to write for herself or even (gasp!) other readers... OK, fine, I'm sulking.
July 30, 2015
I finished this short book (a pamphlet, really - it maybe took fifteen minutes to read), and just said "holy sh*t" as an expression of wonder, of the way this story is a small little jewel you did not expect to find.
That said, if you haven't read Kusher's previous novel "Swordspoint" it will have much less of an effect; probably a three-star rating in that case.
The illustrations by Thomas Canty are, as with all his work, haunting and beautiful.
That said, if you haven't read Kusher's previous novel "Swordspoint" it will have much less of an effect; probably a three-star rating in that case.
The illustrations by Thomas Canty are, as with all his work, haunting and beautiful.
June 6, 2010
Set in the Swordspoint universe, heartbreaking and beautiful. Not only is every word perfect, but Tom Canty's spot illustrations in black and white and lyrical line and form, are simply gorgeous.
February 19, 2012
A love story pared down to essentials, raw and distant at the same time; lyrical. You can read it as an after-thread to other "Swordspoint" stories (one of the people involved is named Campion), but to take the shorter wordcount as a slighter story would be to miss the point.
November 13, 2013
Beautiful, moving story. I am a huge fan of this world and these characters, and despite the fact that I cried over this, it was very satisfying. The way Kushner uses language in this story is just exquisite. Also, I'm a sucker for eternal love.
July 8, 2010
Beautiful and sad. Even had I not known the story behind this one, I think I would've been enraptured by the language.
October 27, 2010
Beautifully written short story in a handsome little package.
January 23, 2011
Such a simple story, and it ends well, but it broke my heart in the best of ways.
July 5, 2011
Sad :-(
February 21, 2013
Kushner can definitely write. This story is very well told and the use of language is excellent. However, it never really clicked for me. It seemed somehow uninteresting in the end.
January 7, 2016
That was very sad, sweet and joyful. I'm not sure how it fits with the Riverside stories but I liked it
July 17, 2016
Short and beautiful and I am now a broken person.
April 17, 2020
how DARE YOU KILL OFF RICHARD ST. VIER???!!!!
January 29, 2019
4.5 stars. Well that was cheery. Lyrical, atmospheric, but generally depressing short piece that reveals what happens to a couple of the characters from Swordspoint. That book not being particularly fresh in my mind, it took me a while to figure out and then be sure who I was reading about here. The story also shifts back and forth between two people and occasionally I'd be partway into a line or paragraph before realizing it had switched again. But despite the complaints, it was good.
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews