This book made me incredibly happy, in the way that only a large cup of hot chocolate, with a bubblebath, a book, good music, and candlelight can. Plus, a girl swordfighter, lesbian & bisexual tension, and devoted, tragic, and yet happily-ended gay lovers. As with Kushner's other works, beautiful snappy writing, interesting characters, and a fine attention to detail.

I bought the fancy hardcover edition, a rare sign of praise. ( )

Can you say 'picaresque'? I bet Ellen Kushner can. Almost as good as I'd hoped it would be. ( )

http://books.moonsoar.com/archives/20... ( )

I stumbled on Ellen Kushner's The Privilege of the Sword last year on a pilgrimage to Powell's along with several other interesting books. It is a followup to Swordspoint, which was given to me by a fencing friend many, many years ago. Both books are quite good with wonderful characterizations, interesting plots, good dialogue and action, excellent prose.

They are fantasy in the sense that they are set in a city of about Renaissance era technology and cultural developments, in an otherwise indeterminate world. But there is no magic, no strange creatures, no supernatural plots to take over the world. I certainly enjoy that style of fantasy, but because of all of the flashy gimmicks (and essentially derivative nature), the quality of the story and writing is often poor. On the other hand, the stories that are fantasy only in the sense of a non-modern setting that concentrate on the human condition, often exploring social and political questions, in my experience are usually quite high quality. They have nothing to fall back on to entertain and impress the reader, just plot and dialogue and description and the prose itself. Ellen Kushner's books fall solidly in this category, as does The Sword of Winter by Marta Randall. I'm drawing a blank on any others at the moment, so perhaps my hypothesis is flawed, or simply my library is too small.

The Privilege of the Sword is essentially an examination of male privilege in society, as well as class privilege. It is the story of a young girl who goes to the big city to make her fortune, and thus repair her family's fortunes, at the behest of her uncle the Mad Duke, who was the source of her family troubles. He offers a bargain: send me my niece to learn swordfighting (think Renaissance fencing a la Romeo and Juliet ere) and my lawyers will stop harassing you. He is considered the Mad Duke because he is openly homosexual (bisexual, really) and a subversive who refuses to follow the manners (read hypocrisy) of polite society and an iconoclast who would rather hang with lowborn scholars than the socially acceptable and recognize the rights of a street tramp to be as equally valid as those of a minister of state. Of course, since he's a duke, he's merely eccentric.

Kushner does an excellent job portraying a teenage girl full of romantic ideals who dreams of beautiful clothes, attending balls, attracting cicisbeos, and ultimately making a good marriage, one who is horrified at the thought of wearing pantaloons instead of skirts and looking men full in the face. This is the rather conventional beginning of this lovely coming of age story, which of course is about her transformation into an independent, thoughtful adult. ( )

I really loved this book, the funny thing is I can't say why specifically , I just like all the characters and the interactions between them, so much I went out and got he book that is supposed to come before this one. From beginning to end I enjoyed it, it could be because I like the 4 musketeers and the history that surround them and this reminded me of that a bit(not to mention who doesn't love a bit of fencing). I would recommend this as a historical mystery or just a great historical romp. I admit I picked it up because of the cover but I am glad I did and I would say go for it you won't be disappointed. ( )