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The Privilege of the Sword

(The World of Riverside #2)

Ellen Kushner (Goodreads Author)

3.91 · Rating details · 4,816 ratings · 415 reviews

Welcome to Riverside, where the aristocratic and the ambitious battle for power in the city's ballroom, brothels and boudoirs. Into this alluring world walks Katherine, a well-bred country girl versed in the rules of conventional society. Her mistake is thinking that they apply. For Katherine's host and uncle, Alec Campion, aka the Mad Duke Tremontaine, is in charge here ...more

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Paperback, 378 pages

Published July 25th 2006 by Spectra (first published 2006)

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Oct 18, 2008 Sherwood Smith added it · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy

readers who have not encountered the previous books set in Kushner's Riverside could read this one first with no confusion or diminishment of pleasure. One doesn't need to know the characters' back (or forward) history; as Katherine encounters them, we do too, through her descriptions both trenchant and humane. (Though it must be said certain lines and situations inevitably will resonate more with readers familiar with the previous Riverside stories.)

Kushner begins with sixteen-year-old readers who have not encountered the previous books set in Kushner's Riverside could read this one first with no confusion or diminishment of pleasure. One doesn't need to know the characters' back (or forward) history; as Katherine encounters them, we do too, through her descriptions both trenchant and humane. (Though it must be said certain lines and situations inevitably will resonate more with readers familiar with the previous Riverside stories.)

Kushner begins with sixteen-year-old Katherine, whose uncle, the Mad Duke Tremontaine, offers, out of nowhere, to cancel all debts and even to help the family out of poverty if Katherine consents to live with him for six months and train with the sword. Of course she's going to take the offer—despite the fact that young ladies do not have anything to do with swords. Here are a couple of lines from the opening graf, and what swashbuckler among us can resist?

…This was before I had ever been to the city. I had never been in a duel, or held a sword myself. I had never kissed anyone, or had anyone try to kill me, or worn a velvet cloak.

And then, for the readers who know the story, that graf finishes:

I had certainly never met my uncle the Mad Duke. Once I met him, much was explained. [pause for guffaw from those who know what that means]

Katherine does indeed learn to handle a sword. But you absolutely cannot predict what is going to happen while she goes about it. Meanwhile Katherine's first-person storyline interweaves with other points of view to make a delightful whole that covers a surprising spectrum of situations and emotions. There just isn't a note wrong anywhere, the characters are vivid, the humor a splash of light amid plenty of tense moments, introspective ones, sad ones, and some with exquisite poignance.

Two observations of things that particularly impressed me: one, the true-to-life 'secret' lives of school girls who are mostly shut away from the world for their own good. These girls read and reread romantic novels in order to decode the world—novels chosen in hopes that the glorious landscape, passionate heroes (especially heroic villains) and noble emotions found there will indeed prove to be what the girls encounter when at last given the chance to take their place in the world. Their language is a private language, the characters in the romances so well known, so endlessly discussed, they prance alongside the realtime story as dream shades.

This so resonated with my own teen experience, when encountering others who adored Man from U.N.C.L.E and Lord of the Rings and Georgette Heyer and Star Trek; what's more, this phenomenon resonates right back through literary letters and fiction clear to Charlotte Lennox who, in the 1750s, gave us The Female Quixote about a girl who raised herself on romance. As well as Jane Austen's far more fun iteration of the same plot in Northanger Abbey.

The second thing that impressed me was how, as the young people encountered the worst aspects of the world—and indeed did not always escape them—they could observe, comprehend, and still retain their own integrity. How very refreshing—and how rare, unfortunately, in far too much fiction. ...more

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Jul 30, 2007 Wealhtheow rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fantasy, mannerpunk

The book is set a dozen or so years after Swordspoint, one of my very favorite fantasy stories. Alec Campion, the Mad Duke of Tremontaine, summons his young niece to the city. He promises to alleviate her familys financial situation if shell obey his one commandshe must dress only in mens clothing and learn to fight. There are many fantasy books about young, naïve girls who learn to swordfight and defy convention, and most of them are terrible (even the Alanna series has some serious faults). ...more

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Dec 29, 2008 Lightreads rated it really liked it

Shelves: fiction, fantasy, romance, lgbt, disability

About fifteen years after Swordspoint, young Katherine is sent from the country to her uncle the mad Duke, who has a nefarious but possibly brilliant plan to turn her into the first swordswoman.

Okay, so, it went something like this:

First 100 pages: Restless twitching, sighing, picking of fingernails. God, Ellen Kushner, are you seriously telling me you're letting me down in this universe twice?

Next 100 pages: Oh? Oh! Eeee! Well, why didn't you say so earlier? Oh, but you're still doing that ...more

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Jul 10, 2007 Res rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: sff, slash-interest, locus_poll, tiptree_award

The one where Mad Duke Alec brings his 15-year-old niece, Katherine, to the city to make a swordsman of her.

Very fine when it comes to Katherine's personal life; less successful in other areas.

Katherine is adorable, and her reactions rang very true to me; I especially liked how it felt for her to put on men's clothes for the first time, and how she gradually gained enthusiasm for her fate. Her sexual awakening was done very well, too.

I enjoyed seeing the dark side of sex and marriage; I have a ...more

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Feb 01, 2008 Sarah added it

Like Swordspoint, which I also loved, this novel is an extremely entertaining read that manages to provoke far more thought than I would have expected from a book that's such pure fun. I think what I loved so much about The Privilege of the Sword is that it manages to grant the reader the very real narrative pleasure of the comedy of manners and the swashbuckling revenge tale while at the same time illuminating the gender and class politics at the very foundations of these genres. This knowing ...more

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Dec 11, 2017 caravaggion rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: lgbt, fantasy-high-fantasy

i liked this book a lot better than the first one tbh, in my opinion the characters made much more sense and again, the diversity is a+++++

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May 14, 2012 Clouds rated it liked it

Shelves: fantasy-stand-alone, fantasy, locus-fantasy, reviewed, pub-2000s

Following the resounding success of my Locus Quest, I faced a dilemma: which reading list to follow it up with? Variety is the spice of life, so Ive decided to diversify and pursue six different lists simultaneously. This book falls into my LOCUS FANTASY list.

As the Locus Sci-Fi Award winners list treated me so kindly, I figure Ill trust those same good folk to pick me some stars in their sister-list, the Locus Fantasy Award winners.

While I was working my way through the list of Locus Sci-Fi ...more

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Jun 08, 2017 Rachel rated it liked it

Shelves: read-unowned, lgbt, high-fantasy, sff

This is the second of the Riverside books that I've read, and I think I've figured out what is peculiar about them - they feel like fan fiction without a source text. Even Swordspoint, the first book, which sets up the world of Riverside and the couple, Alec and Richard, who are the clear emotional heart of that book (and in some ways of this as well, despite being in the background), seems like it is assuming our affection and investment as readers, sharing an inside joke. It works, because This is the second of the Riverside books that I've read, and I think I've figured out what is peculiar about them - they feel like fan fiction without a source text. Even Swordspoint, the first book, which sets up the world of Riverside and the couple, Alec and Richard, who are the clear emotional heart of that book (and in some ways of this as well, despite being in the background), seems like it is assuming our affection and investment as readers, sharing an inside joke. It works, because it's as easy to care about Richard and Alec as it is to care about some of the best fandom pairings out there, and because the short-handing gives us as readers the pleasant feeling of being a privileged audience, being in on something with them. But it's an interesting experience as a reader. I want to think about the generic traits that make this and some other fantasy feel like fic, where that originates (is it because fandom writers all learn from Kushner and others? are there shared sources to this?).

Anyway, Privilege of the Sword is a lot of fun, but it doesn't work as well as Swordspoint; there's something about it that feels tonally a little off. It might be that I find it hard to get invested in Katherine as a heroine when she is not in on the joke with us (similar problem sometimes with Kel in Tamora Pierce's Protector of the Small, when she interacts with Alanna and Daine - but that rings a little differently because the world of Tortall is more developed, and as readers we have had more time to become invested in it), or because I'm made somewhat uncomfortable by the way volition becomes unimportant in the fantasy-fulfillment narrative of her becoming a swordsman (it's what Alec wants for her, not what she wants for herself, she at first finds the requirement to change her gender presentation unpleasant and scary, and then she - accepts it? It becomes a source of pride and joy for her, and this makes some sense emotionally, but I couldn't quite get away from seeing it as her embodying Alec's dream for her, his own fantasy of a woman who can defend herself and cannot be coerced, not her own. Alec and Katherine's relationship is problematized, but by the end of the novel those problems sort of fade into the background, it's interesting).

Maybe my overall feeling upon finishing the book, that it was fun but didn't quite stick, came out the construction; the side plotlines don't really fit together for me, and, like some other reviewers, I would have preferred it to be all 1st or all 3rd pov. I also wanted it to go darker - I wasn't satisfied with the denouement of the libertine aristrocrat revenge plotline, it wasn't enough for me (again like the side plotlines in Protector of the Small! Hmm).

Alec and Richard remain a joy; Kushner is every effective at giving us just enough of their relationship that we still very much want more. Though I would sort of just have preferred more books straight-up about them. ...more

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Jun 26, 2016 Maija rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, favorites

I was into this book as much as Artemisia and Katherine were into The Swordsman Whose Name Was Not Death.

The ending was a bit abrupt, but not out of character. I would've wanted a more intricate ending and a few more chapters. But I'm completely willing to forgive this considering how fast my heart was beating during other parts of the story, and how lost in the story and world I was.

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Jun 13, 2019 Ashley rated it really liked it

Shelves: fantasy, class-gender-race, urban-fantasy, lgbtqia, tbr-jar-picks, unfinished-series, half-starsies

I feel bad for this book because I chose to read it at a time where I wanted something else completely tonally different, so I'm not actually sure what to rate it. Full review and rating later.

(six months later)

I DECLARE REVIEW AMNESTY. Giving it a rating though!

[3.5 stars, rounded up]

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Aug 22, 2010 Scott Marlowe (Out of this World Reviews) rated it liked it

Rating

Review

*** This review originally appeared on Out of this World Reviews. ***

The short of Ellen Kushner's The Privilege of the Sword: I liked it. Though I have to say I'm split. But, first, a brief summary:

Lady Katherine Talbert goes to live with her Uncle, the Mad Duke, who has it in for Katherine's mother (the Duke's sister) and vows to leave her alone should she commit her daughter to living with him for six months. In that time, the Mad Duke completely changes her perspective on life and her place in it, having her trained as a swords(wo)man. Once she has mastered the sword, she can no longer go back to the life she would have otherwise led. It's as much a coming-of-age story as it is about the sordid politics the Mad Duke has immersed himself in. In the end, it's up to Katherine, with her Uncle's help, to save the day.

On one hand, it's written exceptionally well. The writing flows naturally, the prose are very concise, never once does she launch into pages and pages of backstory or what I term 'excessive exposition', which is when a writer goes overboard dealing with a character's internal emotions or conflict. She keeps the story moving along from page-to-page, never really slowing with the exception of a page here and there where she gets a little too much into the intricacies of the lives of the young female aristocrats and their oh-so-harried social lives. The book was a delight to read, especially from the perspective of trying to learn, learn, learn everything I can so I can hopefully someday find success of my own with my own writing. Chalk this one up as a great learning experience.

On the other hand, there's not enough story there for my tastes. Kushner throws in a few smaller plotlines, one of which ties into Katherine's expertise with the sword, but the main plot didn't give me enough to sink my teeth into. I understand there are two other books which came out before The Privilege of the Sword (Swordspoint, The Fall of The Kings), but neither is necessary to understand this one (I haven't read either). So, what we have is Katherine learning the sword, her using her expertise to avenge a friend's honor, and the Duke playing a sort of chess game against one of his main rivals in the city. I'm afraid even that might be pushing it as the third point only comes into play towards the end.

In summary, The Privilege of the Sword is very well written but just didn't give me enough to truly enjoy it. Still, there are enough moments where it shines that I’m giving it three rockets. ...more

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Nov 24, 2019 Derek rated it really liked it

Shelves: lgbt, cloak-and-dagger

It's a soup of swashbuckling and gender politics and sexuality and coming-of-age-complicated-feelings and Jane Austin jostle-for-a-husband and some truly damaged individuals and a prequel whose presence looms over everything and a willingness to strip the Regency romance of its lace and manners and get down to the raw realpolitik of money and perceived honor and power disparity. Each one of these things is extremely interesting, and even more interesting when the story pairs any one item against ...more

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Apr 25, 2008 Sean rated it it was amazing

Shelves: glbtq2-interest, fantasy

There are some things I liked very much about this book. The moment of the main character's first sexual awakening is both hilarious and yet also believable; there are moments of brilliant wit and biting sarcasm; there are scenes of such vicious depravity and cruelty that one's breath is taken away; and there are a few moments of tender love. One problem many sequels havetrue sequels, in which previous characters appear in a new storyis that characters one has learned to love or hate, or who in ...more

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Jun 15, 2017 A.R. Hellbender rated it really liked it

3.5 stars.
This book had a lot of things I loved about it. Everyone of significance was bisexual, it had some great conflicts, and the f/f romance was the best I've ever read, even if the 2 don't actually hook up during the story.
However, I felt a complete lack of world building, and the plot didn't really start until halfway through. The ending was also very abrupt.

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Jul 29, 2015 Joseph rated it it was amazing

It is full of great and noble truths of the heart. And swordfights.

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Oct 16, 2013 Therese Arkenberg rated it it was amazing

Alec Campion, the Mad Duke Tremontain, is jaded and disgusted with the behavior of his fellow nobility. Their facade of elegance and respectability is a sham, while they abuse their wealth, power, and privilegesincluding the privilege to sic trained swordsmen on anyone they disagree with. Alec decides to twist that latter privilege on its head by inviting his niece Kate from the countryside and training her to become his swordswoman/bodyguard.

This is a sequel to the original Riverside novel, Alec Campion, the “Mad Duke” Tremontain, is jaded and disgusted with the behavior of his fellow nobility. Their facade of elegance and respectability is a sham, while they abuse their wealth, power, and privileges—including the privilege to sic trained swordsmen on anyone they disagree with. Alec decides to twist that latter privilege on its head by inviting his niece Kate from the countryside and training her to become his swordswoman/bodyguard.

This is a sequel to the original Riverside novel, Swordspoint, where Alec first appeared. I like him better in this new, older incarnation. He is still, as they call it, mad, but the method to his madness is much more apparent—he puts it: “I can’t make the rules, so I like breaking them.” He’s gone from being a poor student in disgrace with his family to a wealthy duke bringing disgrace on his family, using his resources guided by his insanity to poke fun (and sometimes poke holes in) the rest of the nobility. This means, weirdly enough, that this hostile, depressing, and depressed man is making things better for everyone who isn’t even more of a bastard than he is.

Then there’s Katherine, who is a very sympathetic character. Compassionate and relatively astute, she’s still a very ordinary, down-to-earth person who is disturbed and baffled in turns by Alec and by the rest of the city. Although in the opening I feared she might suffer from Generic YA Heroine Syndrome—she finds sewing tedious, and the plot of the book does involve her transgressing gender roles in a way that in lesser hands could devolve into “Wow, I’m so glad I’m not like those sheep-like other girls and am instead doing such wonderful masculine things—yay, feminism”—I should have expected better from Kushner. This book has a much more nuanced perspective, although I would argue it’s still ultimately feminist. LGBT-positive, class-conscious feminism that recognizes there are lots of ways to be an awesome female character (in addition to Kate the swordswoman, we have a lady mathematician, a playwright, two actresses—one of whom plays men’s roles or “trouser” roles—and Artemisia, who is in some ways a typical lady of this society but who escapes her gilded cage through sheer defiance, and some help from Kate). And Kate doesn’t wholeheartedly embrace her “masculine” role, at least at first. Wearing men’s clothes is genuinely uncomfortable for her.

There is also a great line from Kate after she sees her first duel. Her teacher worries the blood concerned her, but she points out most women see more blood every month.

Speaking of great lines, there are moments of breathtaking visuals, to the point that I got flat-out envious of Kushner’s ability to do that with words. She uses an interesting technique of interspersing Kate’s 1st-person POV with other viewpoints in 3rd person, for reasons I can’t quite determine. It does work, though, and makes Kate that much more approachable. The wider cast of characters—including many more women—and somewhat more optimistic outlook make this book an easier read than the original Swordspoint. That doesn’t mean it got dumbed down—if Swordspoint made the same sort of nuanced feminist analysis as Privilege, I missed it because I was trying too hard to figure out what was going on with people’s indirect dialogue, sarcasm, and general nastiness.

For all that, I missed the central relationship of Swordspoint, at least at the start. Although it does reappear, in a way that—limiting spoilers—makes Kate’s training and transformation into a very passable swordfighter much less tedious and much more believeable than I feared. Training montages generally bore me, but this one was less about learning skills (although Kate did that) and more about her emotional relationship with her mentor.

Also, Alec Campion made me tear up with a line about fish. Along with probably anyone who read Swordspoint.

I was wondering at times if Kate would, like her uncle, enter a same-sex relationship, and there was one point which seemed very promising. In the end, I understand and like what Kushner did instead. Her heterosexual relationships are nuanced and subversive (especially the romance of Lucius Perry, a highborn man who is a prostitute in a male brothel some nights to support his relationship with a woman in a crumbling marriage). And this is not to erase the bisexual reading, which seems likely for many if not most characters.

I said this was an easy read—I that mean emotionally more than intellectually It was extremely cathartic, so cathartic that I saved passages I knew would contain Kate kicking patriarchal behind to cleanse the nasty aftertaste of another novel I was reading at the time. Non-spoilery thoughts on the ending: very open-ended in several areas to allow for the next book, but also very satisfying for me. Although, as another reviewer pointed out, the story is Kate’s, but the climax is really Alec’s. This is nagging from a storytelling standpoint, although it makes a sort of sense given the events and the personalities involved (I’m sure Alec would feel his solution is the only one available). I’ll give Kate and her friends this happy ending—they certainly deserve it. ...more

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Jul 29, 2012 Bee rated it it was amazing

This is one of the oddest sequels I've ever read - so much time has passed, and all the characters have changed so much, but their development in the intervening decades makes perfect sense - it's like we've tossed a ball high in the air, ran a few feet with eyes closed, and caught the ball again.

These characters are some of the most richly illustrated I've ever read - they sparkle with humanity and ignorance and dark secrets. one can't help but loving all of them, for their vanity and pain and ...more

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Oct 05, 2017 seb smith rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fantasy, lgbt

y'all... i love this book

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Apr 03, 2018 tatterpunk rated it did not like it

I have to begin by emphasizing just how much I wanted to love this book.

I have a whole sordid story of how I was a fan of its predecessor, Swordspoint, so much so that I bought this book the day it was released. How excited I was to see this author write a girl's story, which I infinitely prefer. How I tried and failed to get through it for over a decade. How bewildered I was at the extremes of boredom and emotional over-investment the book sent me into, and how I put it aside each time ...more

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Feb 04, 2019 Joanka rated it really liked it

Shelves: fiction, usa, women, fantasy-scifi-and-co, lgbtq

I remember reading Swordspoint quite a few years ago and the feeling of awe mixed with the sense of lacking, of some insufficiency, of some potential not fully used. The same kind of feeling accompanied me when I finished The Privilege of the Sword. On the one hand there was so much I loved, on the other it was so close to being great and Im really not sure it was.

Lets start with the positive things and there are plenty. First of all I loved the whole idea of the book. The book is set in a I remember reading Swordspoint quite a few years ago and the feeling of awe mixed with the sense of lacking, of some insufficiency, of some potential not fully used. The same kind of feeling accompanied me when I finished The Privilege of the Sword. On the one hand there was so much I loved, on the other – it was so close to being great and I’m really not sure it was.

Let’s start with the positive things and there are plenty. First of all I loved the whole idea of the book. The book is set in a renaissance-like world and it starts with Katherine, our main character, being more or less commanded to move from her family home in the countryside to the city, to live together with her uncle, charmingly nicknamed the Mad Duke. Katherine is surely one of the highlights of the novel. There is enough of heroines that want to climb trees and be like boys who are forced to be ‘proper’ girls in beautiful dressed and who learn how to enjoy their femininity, which looks like the only way they can live in the world, in the end. Katherine is NOT “not like the other girls” – she wants balls, and be a part of the elite of young girls, have beautiful dresses and have fun. She is depressed when her uncle takes her clothes away and forces her to learn how to fight with a sword. She slowly learns how to not only tolerate it, but also enjoy and her notion of gender and its role becomes much more fluid. Really, I don’t remember another teenage heroine who will be so likeable and so rarely irritating in a long run!

I adored sometimes fierce, sometimes subtle criticism of said gender roles, the natural way of treating sexuality (ah, Katherine’s “awakening!”). The whole gallery of characters was fascinating and lovely, some of them I’d really love to learn more about. The plot was gripping and it surprised me into tears twice (not because it was sad but because emotions) and I laughed aloud once or twice. Let me tell you, there were also some hot moments and ah! Lots of things to like.

And there was also Alec Campion who should be so difficult to like, but he breaks my heart just by existing (and no, he is not one of these angsty, brooding heroes) and I can’t help but love him, even when I’m aware he is an asshole. But he is so honestly, the author does not excuse him. He can be an asshole and he can also do things for which people would go into fire for him. And the love of his life… Oh my. The romance is not even a secondary plot but further and still I loved it to pieces. I’m totally not immune to all these “I can be with everyone but for your one word I can set kingdoms on fire, just say it,” although it doesn’t match this relationship quite that good. Ah, Alec! (And well, his name is not without a meaning for me, let be honest, every Alexander or Alec has bonus points already in the beginning.)

So what went wrong? When I think about it as a whole, I would say that the pacing is the biggest trouble. There are moments that drag and the moments that feel rushed (the whole ending! It was almost anti-climactic) while you want to read more about it. We have lots of characters introduced and at first I felt a bit lost in the jungle of them, then I got used to the flood of names. But many of them are there for unclear reason. We wait for something meaningful about them and in the end they are treated almost like a tool in one scene (Flavia!), often it feels there are no real climaxes in these subplots, that the lead to nowhere and it feels almost like cheating. Logically, I know it’s not really true, but emotionally I didn’t feel fully satisfied. And it also says a lot about how emotionally engrossed I became.

I will recommend this book as for its flaws it’s still a very good novel in my opinion, although it could be great and it missed the chance, a bit. Still – Katherine! Alec! Worth reading for those two (and so many more…) ...more

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Jul 26, 2011 Rambles On rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fantasy

Ellen Kushners Swordspoint has the distinction of being among the most intelligent and stylish fantasy novels Ive ever read. As it happens, I have to go back to a very basic definition of fantasy to make that statement, since Kushners universe shares no characteristics with traditional fantasy save that she made it up and it is most definitely not this world.

The Privilege of the Sword falls between the short stories The Swordsman Whose Name Was Not Death (which is the title of a novel and play Ellen Kushner’s Swordspoint has the distinction of being among the most intelligent and stylish fantasy novels I’ve ever read. As it happens, I have to go back to a very basic definition of “fantasy” to make that statement, since Kushner’s universe shares no characteristics with traditional fantasy save that she made it up and it is most definitely not this world.

The Privilege of the Sword falls between the short stories “The Swordsman Whose Name Was Not Death” (which is the title of a novel and play that forms a running thread through this novel) and “Red Cloak,” which come before, and “The Death of the Duke,” which closes the story of Alec and Richard. Many of the characters from Swordspoint appear, and in fact, Alec Campion, the swordsman St Vier’s mad scholar, now Duke Tremontaine, is central, as is Anthony Deverin, Lord Ferris. However, the story revolves around Katherine Talbert, Alec’s niece, who, after a years-long wrangle between the Duke and the Talberts over a small inheritance which has left her mother nearly bankrupt, is part of a settlement: Katherine will come to the city to live with the Mad Duke at House Tremontaine and will have no contact with her other family for six months. In addition, she will wear the wardrobe provided by the Duke, who will also provide lessons. In her innocence, Katherine foresees a new wardrobe of fashionable gowns, a glittering round of parties and balls, and even suitors as she has her Season in town.

What she gets are men’s clothes and lessons in swordsmanship: the Duke is a scandal in Society, no one wants to be seen associating with him except scholars, pickpockets, street urchins and worse, and the idea of a woman dressing in men’s clothes — well, that is for actresses and the like, not the nobility. Nevertheless, gritting her teeth and remembering her duty to her family, Katherine perseveres.

In the world of the intense politics of the nobility, Lord Ferris has, after returning from his exile in Arkenveldt, married money, revived his career, and now serves as Crescent Chancellor of the Council of Lords, the highest office in the land. He is still a bitter enemy of the Mad Duke, whose only involvement in the Council is to make sporadic visits to their deliberations with the sole purpose of throwing them into complete chaos, mostly because he finds their activities to be self-serving and damaging to the country as a whole.

The Privilege of the Sword, although it certainly moves briskly enough to keep a reader’s interest, is as much a novel of character as Swordspoint, or perhaps even more so, particularly graced as it is by the Mad Duke, who is admittedly one of my favorite characters from any realm of literature. Alec’s madness is of the clear-eyed sort that calls into question all of our basic assumptions. In our terms, he is as neurotic as it’s possible to be and still function, but he is also cagey, brilliant, and ruthless, and we’re never quite sure where the one leaves off and the other starts. He is also an idealist and a humanitarian, and his clear-eyed vision on the follies of privilege is the starting point for much of the satire in the novel. As he says himself, “I don’t make the rules. This annoys me, and so I comfort myself by breaking them.” Given the ways in which he breaks them, it is the rules that come into question, not Alec. He is one of the few truly creative characters in the book, and poor Ferris, whose rule-breaking is somewhat hidebound and unimaginative, is outclassed.

The humor in the book, which is more obviously funny than I’ve noticed from Kushner before, is mostly the result of Alec’s observations and reactions, which give us one gasp of shocked recognition after another, leading to those “oh, how true it is” head-shakings through the laughter.

Katherine provides another vehicle for sharply etched satire: a young woman, she begins the story with her head full of the things that occupy young women of her station, mainly finding a good match, which means land and money. It’s here that I’m reminded most of Jane Austen’s novels, with the additional virtue that Kushner’s satire is more contemporary: it becomes not just a study in class, but a dissection of our whole way of thinking, even in a supposedly post-feminist world, about men and women and what their appropriate roles are. Katherine is truly liberated, albeit reluctantly, by Alec’s insistence that she learn swordplay and wear men’s clothes — she is also free, thereby, to get into some of the kinds of trouble that young men get into, and her adventures add another layer of intrigue to the story. It’s worth noting that Katherine is the most nearly normal character I can remember Kushner coming up with — most of her people, at least the important ones, skirt the edges, but they do it in delightful ways.

There is also a touch of romance, not only a budding friendship that could be more between Katherine and Marcus, Alec’s young servant, but also a quietly played scene between Alec and Richard that reveals new dimensions to their characters, as well as their vulnerabilities and their overwhelming need for to each other.

If Swordspoint is a perfect gem, The Privilege of the Sword is the gem in its full setting: elegant, wicked, funny, intelligent, and fluent. There is, as is so often the case with truly good books, much more to this one than I can possibly discuss here. Read them both. And if you can find the short stories, read those, too.

-- Rambles ...more

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Mar 28, 2020 Manda Scott rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Glorious

I cant think why I have taken so long to find Ellen Kushner - someone who can actually write; who creates characters with actual emotional intelligence and who understands how to fight. Its perfect. If you havent read Swordspoint, you have to read it before this. But then dont start late at night or youll get no sleep. There. You have been warned. ...more

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Mar 30, 2020 eyes.2c rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, library

Decided to read this after glancing at an 2008 Tor piece by Jo Walton and was intrigued enough to read it. Quite enjoyed it and now need to read the title prior to this.

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Oct 12, 2015 Heather Jones rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fantasy

The Privilege of the Sword (TPOTS) is set in the same Riverside world as Kushners more popular Swordspoint, which it follows chronologically and which provides a great deal of character and plot background. In fact, Id be willing to venture that much of the politics and social interactions of TPOTS might be rather confusing for those who havent read Swordspoint. This weakens the novel slightly because, although Katherine Talbert is structurally the central character of this novel, she is The Privilege of the Sword (TPOTS) is set in the same “Riverside” world as Kushner’s more popular Swordspoint, which it follows chronologically and which provides a great deal of character and plot background. In fact, I’d be willing to venture that much of the politics and social interactions of TPOTS might be rather confusing for those who haven’t read Swordspoint. This weakens the novel slightly because, although Katherine Talbert is structurally the central character of this novel, she is overshadowed in many ways by the angsty, brittle man-pain of bad-boy Alec Campion, Duke of Tremontaine, the central character of Swordspoint. If you look around at Riverside fandom, it’s inescapable that the tempestuous romance between Alec and the swordsman St. Vier is what most readers come for. And TPOTS sometimes (only sometimes) feels more like an opportunity to squeeze out another serving of Tremontaine angst onto the page than it feels like Katherine’s story. Or maybe it just feels that way to me because I’m reading for Katherine’s story and find Alec and St. Vier far less interesting.

In a sort of vaguely late-18th-century-ish society of glittering nobility in satin and lace, and with cut-throat undertones both in the back alleys of the Riverside district and in the back rooms of upper-class politics, Katherine Talbert is summoned to the city to be taken under the wing of her notorious uncle, the Duke of Tremontaine. For Katherine, the enticement is in part the lure of a glittering season, and in part her uncle’s promise to end his mysterious feud with her parents if she accepts. Tremontaine however has no intent to launch her in society—at least, not in the usual sense. Instead, he dresses her in men’s clothing and sets her to learn swordsmanship. This, along with her uncle’s reputation, becomes something of a bar between her and the rest of society, but she does succeed in striking up an acquaintance with Artemisia Fitz-Levi, a prominent debutante, who soon becomes betrothed to the much older Lord Ferris, who just happens to be an old rival and enemy of Tremontaine. (For which, see Swordspoint.)

The middle portion of the book is the braided story of Katherine’s training (including private tutelage under the self-exiled St. Vier), Artemisia’s careening path toward personal disaster, Tremontaine’s political scheming and social outrages, and the private dramas of a handful of Characters Who Will Be Important Later.

One thread that twines through several of these subplots is the novel (also staged as a play) of “The Swordsman Whose Name was Not Death,” a melodrama of fatally honorable swordsmen, dastardly villains, swooning damsels, and deadly peril. This novel lays the framework for Katherine’s decision to champion the honor of Artemisia at the point of a sword, which sets in motion the cascade of plots and counterplots that drive the story to its somewhat abrupt conclusion.

The writing is delightful and the world-building is detailed and solid. The secondary characters are nicely varied, though some lean a bit toward archetypes, at least in their initial introduction. I confess, though, that I wanted less of Tremontaine’s socio-political scheming and more about what Katherine does after the end of the current book. It would have felt more like it was truly Katherine’s story if the current end were instead the mid-book turning point. None of this is intended to indicate that I disliked the book. Katherine is a truly delightful character (which is why I wanted more of her) and if you like stories about brave and daring girls who fight duels for the honor of their friends and who get butterflies in the stomach at the thought of kissing a famous actress…well, this is definitely a book for you. ...more

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Jan 14, 2018 Kes rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, read-2018

This is a significant improvement on the previous book.

In contrast to the previous book, this is female-centric. It revolves around Katherine, whose uncle asks her to come to the city. In return, her uncle, the Mad Duke Tremontaine (Alec from the previous book) will drop a long-running lawsuit against her family. A parallel storyline involves Artemisia, who has just started her Season (of being introduced to noble society). Artemisia expects to get married, and (view spoiler) This is a significant improvement on the previous book.

In contrast to the previous book, this is female-centric. It revolves around Katherine, whose uncle asks her to come to the city. In return, her uncle, the Mad Duke Tremontaine (Alec from the previous book) will drop a long-running lawsuit against her family. A parallel storyline involves Artemisia, who has just started her Season (of being introduced to noble society). Artemisia expects to get married, and (view spoiler)

I loved the ending. That second last chapter is a powerful ending scene. (The final chapter is a good epilogue.) The pacing was great, as well as the character development. We see Katherine's resistance to being trained as a swordsman, but when (view spoiler). I also loved the relationship between (view spoiler)

There's a lot of sex and sexuality in this book - (view spoiler). I did like the mentions of history - both during Alec and Richard's time, and even further back in history. It grounds this book.

I did enjoy how the book managed to maintain its light, fantasy of manners feel too. 3.5 stars. ...more

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Aug 15, 2007 Darlene rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Recommends it for: YA, fantasy, gender, queer

Shelves: just-finished, fiction

The main character of The Privilege of the Sword (which my husband insisted on calling the Privilege of the Phallus) was a delight. Katherine was fascinating, multilayered, complex. I really liked her. She grew from an independent, loyal and sensitive girl into a fiercely independent, fiercely loyal, and dangerously armed sensitive woman. Yeah!

Some of the other characters were also intriguing -- the Duke in particular (sexy and dark, yum) -- but most of the others fell flat. Additionally, I ...more

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Aug 19, 2017 Juushika rated it really liked it

Shelves: status-borrowed, favorite-and-formative, subgenre-fantasy-of-manners

The mad Duke Tremontaine promises to relieve his family's debt if he may train his niece in swordplay. Perhaps recycling an antagonist from Swordspoint is lazy; certainly there's some trailing subplots here, and it takes time for the headhopping and politicking to coalesce into a narrative. But this won me by the halfway point, and won me entirely. It's a delight to come back to this world, with its affected tone and character cameos (featuring significant growth!), and it benefits from the ...more

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Nov 01, 2019 wishforagiraffe rated it really liked it

Shelves: audiobooks, 2019

Katherine is a far more engaging character than Alec and Richard were in Swordspoint, and I felt like the plot was much smoother in this book as well. Far more enjoyable overall.

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Oct 29, 2015 Susanna Sturgis rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Recommends it for: anyone who likes stylish writing and interesting characters

Shelves: women, fiction, fantasy

Coming surprisingly late to this one, because I love Swordspoint and have read it several times. The women of Swordspoint were vivid but usually peripheral. Here the female characters, and the role of women in this unnamed city, are in the foreground. Alec, now the Duke Tremontaine, summons his young niece, Katherine, to the city: if she will don boy's clothes and train as a swordswoman, he will alleviate her family's financial distress. Among the gentry, gender expectations are clearly ...more

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Jan 09, 2009 Laura rated it it was ok

I really liked Ellen Kushner's other novels in this world, but this one was very hum-drum. Of course, I previously read the other novels about 10+ years ago, and I have changed a lot since then.

Essentially this novel is about a crazy rich man who buys his niece from his sister in order to train her as a swordsman to protect him.

The girl, Katherine, only fights in two duels in the entire novel. The last part of the book she is just a horny teenager who is attracted to her uncle's valet.

I was an ...more

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About Ellen Kushner

Ellen Kushner

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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 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. ...more