The Privilege of the Sword, by Ellen Kushner

For some reason I thought that the Small Beer Press edition of The Privilege of the Sword by Ellen Kushner was an older, "classic" fantasy novel, reprinted in a pretty edition for the sake of posterity. It turns out that I was wrong – this novel was published for the first time in 2006, in this special hardback edition simultaneously with a paperback release by Bantam Spectra. My misapprehension comes from this being a sequel and indeed a prequel to previous books in the same setting...