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Tremontaine #2.2
Old in Mischief
Swordplay, scandal, and sex—welcome to the world of Tremontaine, a glittering new entry in Ellen Kushner's classic Riverside series.
This is the 2nd episode in the second season of Tremontaine, a 13-episode serial from Serial Box Publishing. This episode written by Tessa Gratton.
When Micah and Joshua venture into Riverside, they accidentally rouse the interest of local criminals, forcing Kaab to come to their rescue. Meanwhile, a formal duel on the Hill brings Vincent Applethorpe to the covetous attention of both the Duchess Tremontaine and the Chartil ambassador, Reza.
Welcome to Tremontaine, where ambition, love affairs, and rivalries dance with deadly results. A Duchess whose beauty is matched only by her cunning; a handsome young scholar with more passion than sense; a foreigner in a playground of swordplay and secrets; and a mathematical genius whose discoveries herald revolution when games of politics begin, no one is safe. Keep your wit as sharp as your steel in this world where politics is everything, and outcasts are the tastemakers.
This is the 2nd episode in the second season of Tremontaine, a 13-episode serial from Serial Box Publishing. This episode written by Tessa Gratton.
When Micah and Joshua venture into Riverside, they accidentally rouse the interest of local criminals, forcing Kaab to come to their rescue. Meanwhile, a formal duel on the Hill brings Vincent Applethorpe to the covetous attention of both the Duchess Tremontaine and the Chartil ambassador, Reza.
Welcome to Tremontaine, where ambition, love affairs, and rivalries dance with deadly results. A Duchess whose beauty is matched only by her cunning; a handsome young scholar with more passion than sense; a foreigner in a playground of swordplay and secrets; and a mathematical genius whose discoveries herald revolution when games of politics begin, no one is safe. Keep your wit as sharp as your steel in this world where politics is everything, and outcasts are the tastemakers.
- GenresFantasyUrban Fantasy
41 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 25, 2016
About the author
Tessa Gratton
80 books1,978 followersTessa Gratton is the author of adult and YA SFF novels and short stories that have been translated into twenty-two languages, nominated twice for the Otherwise Award, and several have been Junior Library Guild Selections. Her most recent novels are the dark queer fairy tales Strange Grace and Night Shine, and queer the Shakespeare retelling Lady Hotspur. Her upcoming work includes the YA fantasy Chaos and Flame (2023), and novels of Star Wars: The High Republic. Though she has lived all over the world, she currently resides at the edge of the Kansas prairie with her wife. Queer, nonbinary, she/any.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
October 30, 2016
*blinks* Well hello, Shade and Florian. Sounds like you are the sexy, bloody precursors to Alec and St Vier. I am down with this.
Also, MICAH! It still endlessly amuses me that . I hope Micah gets lots of page time in season 2.
Also, MICAH! It still endlessly amuses me that . I hope Micah gets lots of page time in season 2.
January 25, 2022
Thanks to netgalley.com and Serial Box publishing for the advance ARC copy for my honest review.
I liked 'Old In Mischief', liked that it's mostly set in Riverside, had all the characters in the series I like; Vincent, Tess, Ixkaab Balam, and Micah and liked the new wrinkle in the storyline.
That Ixkaab is faking splitting from her Kinwiinik trader family, so she can investigate who is stealing the chocolate they import from the warehouses and docks. Was surprised that you learn who the thieves are, although Ixkaab will eventually figure it out, with each new episode it end up in an epic conclusion and know it'll keep me reading.
I liked 'Old In Mischief', liked that it's mostly set in Riverside, had all the characters in the series I like; Vincent, Tess, Ixkaab Balam, and Micah and liked the new wrinkle in the storyline.
That Ixkaab is faking splitting from her Kinwiinik trader family, so she can investigate who is stealing the chocolate they import from the warehouses and docks. Was surprised that you learn who the thieves are, although Ixkaab will eventually figure it out, with each new episode it end up in an epic conclusion and know it'll keep me reading.
April 27, 2017
I thought that this book was solid in the content and it was really all about scene setting and introducing the characters and refreshing your memory from the previous series. 3 stars from me for this one, looking forward to part three.
November 20, 2016
Tremontaine Season 2 Episode 2: "Old in Mischief"
by Ellen Kushner, Mary Anne Mohanraj, Alaya Dawn Johnson, Joel Derfner, Racheline Maltese, Paul Witcover, and Tessa Gratton
The Riverside town is the heartbeat of the world, it is the trade center, the place where boats from foreign lands tie up and empties their wares that are traded throughout the city. The elements of the city leak into Riverside, as the elements of Riverside sleek into the city. The scholars come to earn a little cash, the cutpurses and cutthroats follow the unsuspecting victims to their homes outside the reaches of Riverside. The characters of both parts of the world overlap and overlay each other as hired swords are rubbing shoulders with the lords and ladies.
by Ellen Kushner, Mary Anne Mohanraj, Alaya Dawn Johnson, Joel Derfner, Racheline Maltese, Paul Witcover, and Tessa Gratton
The Riverside town is the heartbeat of the world, it is the trade center, the place where boats from foreign lands tie up and empties their wares that are traded throughout the city. The elements of the city leak into Riverside, as the elements of Riverside sleek into the city. The scholars come to earn a little cash, the cutpurses and cutthroats follow the unsuspecting victims to their homes outside the reaches of Riverside. The characters of both parts of the world overlap and overlay each other as hired swords are rubbing shoulders with the lords and ladies.
November 15, 2016
Plots and counterplots
As always in the world of Tremontaine, everyone is both a conspirator and a target, depending on one's perspective. It looks like the Duchess has made a new ally, but also looks to be at risk of making some new enemies (or of stirring up some old ones).
As always in the world of Tremontaine, everyone is both a conspirator and a target, depending on one's perspective. It looks like the Duchess has made a new ally, but also looks to be at risk of making some new enemies (or of stirring up some old ones).
December 10, 2016
I'm waiting for the second season to pick up the pace and get going with the story, but instead this chapter was an exercise in secondary plotlines and very little plot movement.
February 22, 2017
I can't say enough how much I love the series!
December 8, 2016
Oops! I forgot to write a bit about this episode when I read it!
Well, it was fun, as always!
This is the one where we get a little bit familiar with a new character... a sexxxy Asian (I mean, from "Chartil") swordsman, who seems to think that dueling for pay, on others' behalf, as the Riverside custom is, is terribly uncouth - but is too polite to say so. Readers, meanwhile, get to sit in on a duel...
And in a memorable scene, Micah naively insists on going down to a Riverside tavern to gamble, as no one in her relatively safe University neighborhood will put odds on her losing, anymore....
Well, it was fun, as always!
This is the one where we get a little bit familiar with a new character... a sexxxy Asian (I mean, from "Chartil") swordsman, who seems to think that dueling for pay, on others' behalf, as the Riverside custom is, is terribly uncouth - but is too polite to say so. Readers, meanwhile, get to sit in on a duel...
And in a memorable scene, Micah naively insists on going down to a Riverside tavern to gamble, as no one in her relatively safe University neighborhood will put odds on her losing, anymore....
May 17, 2020
POV – 3rd person, multi character, often omni-present
Would I read it again – Yes!
Genre – LGBT, Fantasy, Serial, Historical, Coming-of-Age, Queer
Content Warning – mild violence, sexual situations, adultery/cheating, prostitution
Orientations – MM, MF, FF
** COPY RECEIVED THROUGH NETGALLEY **
I love the world building of this series, and the talented writers who bring it all together, but I was left heartbroken by the events of Season One and I'm hopeful that Season Two will at least offer some relief from that. I'm coming straight into this, just an hour after finishing Season One, so it's all fresh in my mind. There are still the infrequent issues of editing mistakes, changes of tense that don't always make sense, as were in Season One, but the recurring issue of font change has been eliminated, which is a relief.
Because of the format Netgalley sent, or perhaps because of how Kindle interprets them, the formatting for the first half of this series of ARC's was terrible. The documents had either one or two lines then a line of gapping, repeated throughout and it wasn't only hard on the eyes, but made it more difficult to follow in terms of flow. The second half were much better formatted.
~
Episode 2: Old in Mischief, by Tessa Gratton
★★★★☆
Pages: 41
And so begins another intriguing episode. Only, this time, we have some new characters in play: Lord Arlen, and Florian and Shade. They play different fields, but are just as sly as each other. I particularly loved the way Lord Arlen rattled Diane's confidence at the end!
When it comes to the writing, I have to admit that I was a bit disappointed. I'd hoped that the authors of Season 1 would be writing every season, so changing to a new writing style this far into the story was jarring. Especially since I didn't exactly warm to Gratton's style in the first place. There were some editing issues, expected of an ARC copy, but I also found that this one seemed to wax lyrically in a few places, characters unexpectedly drifting off into deep thoughts, and unnaturally glowing descriptions of themselves in their own POV. It just didn't feel as seamless as the writing I've come to love in this series.
It was good to see the old characters back again; Vincent getting his own POV for the first time, and with reason, Ixkaab being her usual reckless self and not thinking about others, Micah and Joshua getting themselves into trouble so unexpectedly. Even Diane stepped in, for a little while. But I was disappointed to find that there was no Rafe. I'll admit that I'm intrigued by Florian and Shade, though I worry that they'll be a problem for Joshua and Micah. I loved finally getting to see a hint of Vincent's past, and was shocked that Reza was a part of that!
Overall, it was a good episode, but I was missing Rafe, I was missing the political intrigue, and I missed the lightheartedness that Rafe often brings to the story. Joshua tried, but he was barely in it long enough to have any impact.
Favourite Quote
“Diane de Tremontaine understood with utter finality that there were layers and threads of intrigue and promise running through the political web of this City she could not even see, and she was not – yet – the most cunning spider at its heart.
But she would be.”
Would I read it again – Yes!
Genre – LGBT, Fantasy, Serial, Historical, Coming-of-Age, Queer
Content Warning – mild violence, sexual situations, adultery/cheating, prostitution
Orientations – MM, MF, FF
** COPY RECEIVED THROUGH NETGALLEY **
I love the world building of this series, and the talented writers who bring it all together, but I was left heartbroken by the events of Season One and I'm hopeful that Season Two will at least offer some relief from that. I'm coming straight into this, just an hour after finishing Season One, so it's all fresh in my mind. There are still the infrequent issues of editing mistakes, changes of tense that don't always make sense, as were in Season One, but the recurring issue of font change has been eliminated, which is a relief.
Because of the format Netgalley sent, or perhaps because of how Kindle interprets them, the formatting for the first half of this series of ARC's was terrible. The documents had either one or two lines then a line of gapping, repeated throughout and it wasn't only hard on the eyes, but made it more difficult to follow in terms of flow. The second half were much better formatted.
~
Episode 2: Old in Mischief, by Tessa Gratton
★★★★☆
Pages: 41
And so begins another intriguing episode. Only, this time, we have some new characters in play: Lord Arlen, and Florian and Shade. They play different fields, but are just as sly as each other. I particularly loved the way Lord Arlen rattled Diane's confidence at the end!
When it comes to the writing, I have to admit that I was a bit disappointed. I'd hoped that the authors of Season 1 would be writing every season, so changing to a new writing style this far into the story was jarring. Especially since I didn't exactly warm to Gratton's style in the first place. There were some editing issues, expected of an ARC copy, but I also found that this one seemed to wax lyrically in a few places, characters unexpectedly drifting off into deep thoughts, and unnaturally glowing descriptions of themselves in their own POV. It just didn't feel as seamless as the writing I've come to love in this series.
It was good to see the old characters back again; Vincent getting his own POV for the first time, and with reason, Ixkaab being her usual reckless self and not thinking about others, Micah and Joshua getting themselves into trouble so unexpectedly. Even Diane stepped in, for a little while. But I was disappointed to find that there was no Rafe. I'll admit that I'm intrigued by Florian and Shade, though I worry that they'll be a problem for Joshua and Micah. I loved finally getting to see a hint of Vincent's past, and was shocked that Reza was a part of that!
Overall, it was a good episode, but I was missing Rafe, I was missing the political intrigue, and I missed the lightheartedness that Rafe often brings to the story. Joshua tried, but he was barely in it long enough to have any impact.
Favourite Quote
“Diane de Tremontaine understood with utter finality that there were layers and threads of intrigue and promise running through the political web of this City she could not even see, and she was not – yet – the most cunning spider at its heart.
But she would be.”
Read
October 31, 2016I am going to wait & review the whole thing once this season is complete. I am happy to see Micah again! Hopefully, she'll actually get to DO something this time around!
November 3, 2016
It's not possible for Tessa Gratton to write something I don't adore
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews