I had heard such good things about this book, but I just couldn't see what was so great about it.
The main characters, Richard and Alec, were very disappointing. Especially Richard. That man has the personality of a rock. He robotically kills upon request and doesn't care what happens to him. His lover leaves him - No big deal. He's thrown in jail and sentenced to death - Oh well. For the life of me I couldn't understand what Alec saw in him. To me he was just some boring fool who happened to be a talented swordsman.

Alec was a bit better. I enjoyed his snarkiness and complexity, though I wished there was more of it. The minor characters and their mundane political issues dragged on and on and I had to try hard not to fall asleep while trying to understand it.

I really feel I would have liked this book if there was more character development. I would have loved to get to know them more deeply, except the author held them at a distance. There were times, such as the fireworks scene, where I felt like it ALMOST clicked, but then the next scene the feeling would be gone. Very frustrating. The writing was very beautiful and the descriptions were elegant, that was fine. The book just didn't do anything for me. ( )

I picked this up for a couple of euro in one of my favourite second-hand bookshops because I'd heard it recommended numerous times on my flist. Cheesy fantasy novel cover aside (as a side note, exactly why must the covers of 99% of fantasy books be so fantastically appalling?), the descriptions I'd heard of it made it seem as if the book was tailor-made to appeal to me. A well-written, slashy, historical fantasy-of-manners - what's not to like?

Well, quite a lot, as it turns out. If t...more I picked this up for a couple of euro in one of my favourite second-hand bookshops because I'd heard it recommended numerous times on my flist. Cheesy fantasy novel cover aside (as a side note, exactly why must the covers of 99% of fantasy books be so fantastically appalling?), the descriptions I'd heard of it made it seem as if the book was tailor-made to appeal to me. A well-written, slashy, historical fantasy-of-manners - what's not to like?

Well, quite a lot, as it turns out. If the blurb by Neil Gaiman on the back cover is true - that this was the best fantasy novel of 1988 - then the fantasy novels published in 1988 weren't all that much to write home about, I think.

This is not to say that Swordspoint is badly written. It's not. It's quite competently written, in fact; but that's all. There were a couple of nicely written passages, but I never really got the impression that Kushner rose above the average throughout the book. It's also probably an indication more of how much fanfic I read than how prevalent it actually was, but I was also really irked by how often (it seemed) she talked about characters' eye colours, and how much she used epithets. I am perfectly aware that they can come in useful when dealing with two characters who are the same sex; but constantly referring to Richard as 'the swordsman' does tend to wear after a while.

However, my main issue with the book was the fact that it came across as Les Liaisons Dangereuses-by-numbers. There are attempts at witty, subtle, layered dialogue; treacherous, unscrupulous, amoral characters; hot sex. In fact, Kushner tries to include almost everything that makes Les Liaisons Dangereuses such a delicious pleasure to read. She lacks the finesse in combining everything which made Choderlos de Laclos' book work, though.

Richard and Alec are, for the most part, boringly flat. For a potentially lethal swordsman who has no qualms about killing, Richard is remarkably unmenacing, while for an unstable aristocrat, Alec is remarkably boring. The plot is very see through, and Kushner seems to have a thing for twisting the characters to fit the plot, rather than letting the character's development affect the story. For instance, I am really, really unable to see any reason why Alec and Richard are together and stay together other than for the necessities of the plot. The rapier-sharp dialogue which I'm sure Kushner was aiming for was also a much blunter sword than the author would wish, I think. A lot of the time, it had the laborious feel of someone who sat around a lot coming up with witty epigrams to come up with at a moment's notice - much more Mr Collins than Elizabeth Bennet, I'm afraid.

I'm also pretty certain that, were the Marquise de Merteuil and the Duchess Tremontaine ever to meet, the Marquise would be able to rip the Duchess to shreds without exerting herself one little bit.

I'm not not recommending this book - a lot of people whose reading tastes normally gel with mine really seem to love it - but it left me cold. ( )

I have been reading this in bits and snatches, and it was clear from the first page that this book is too complex and detailed to be read that way. I finally had some uninterrupted time yesterday, and I read most of it in one sitting, and it was wonderful.

This is the kind of book where things aren't spelled out. They happen off the stage, and readers are expected to figure them out, and remember comments here and there, and put it all together.

The writing was wonderful. The world was vivid and different, and not over-described. The characters made sense and were not all alike, or all stand-ins for the author. And the ending was right, but not really happy.

All of the characters had issues. None were perfect, but they all made sense. They did what they wanted to do, and the ramifications banged into other characters, and what they were trying to do.

I suppose I should say - Richard St. Vier is a swordsman, who wants to do what he does as well as possible, and live without obligations, and adores his crazy, self-destructive lover and expects to die in a duel by the time he's thirty. Michael Godwin wants to have an affair with an unattainable woman, and otherwise live a life of luxury and entertainment. Diane Tremontaine wants to be taken seriously, and to control everyone around her. Lord horn wants to have an affair with Michael Godwin. Alec wants to kill himself, or, failing that, to have lots of other people die bloody deaths. Kathy wants to live safe as a servant in a wealthy household, and never go back to the ghetto she came from. Lord Ferris wants to take over political power, without anyone realizing that he's lied, murdered and backstabbed his way to the top. There are more characters, but this paragraph is getting long.

This all happens in a society divided between Hill and Riverside, noble and impoverished, with clear ideas of honor and place, and who should do what. There is a fair amount of same-gender sexuality, as well as cross-gender, but nothing that could be described as explicit.

The real strength of the book is the way the writing takes you somewhere else from the first sentence. I really enjoyed it. ( )

Although this story is set in a fantasy world, it has no outrageous creatures or wizards. This story centers more on the politics of murder and deceit among the well-to-do, and more particularly centers on one swordsman's involvement in it all. St. Vier is an expert swordsman, the most sought after by lords who wish to challenge each other. Those who wish to pay his price and abide by his standards can arrange for anyone's death with little fanfare and every expectation of satisfaction.

I'm not hugely into political plots in fantasy and usually can only tolerate them if I have an investment in the characters of the story. Unfortunately in this case I didn't have that. I did give it a fair shake though, reading almost to halfway in and then skipping towards the end to see if anything caught my interest. One scene did, so I did go back a bit after that. Basically I skipped much of the middle section of the book but it really didn't make a difference as I was able to pick right back up with the convoluted sub-plots. I think my main problem was with St. Vier. I have a hard time enjoying characters that have no regard for life. St. Vier is put across as a character that not only deals death for a living, but enjoys what he does. Ironically the only person whose life he has any regard for at all is suicidal (not to mention nasty and a bit off his rocker). The assorted lords and ladies who make up the balance of the machinations and plot of the story made little impression on me. Overall the story dragged for me up until the end where it did pick up nicely and I enjoyed the character twists, if not the characters themselves. There was also one line by Alec that cracked me up and made me happy that I decided to continue on reading..."You're a hero. Small children will press bunches of flowers into your hands as you pass by. Old women will fling themselves weeping into your arms. Don't stand too still; pigeons will think you're a commemorative statute and crap on you." ( )

I read this in bits and pieces on subway stations when I was visiting New York some year ago. I loved it, even if I found it slighty confusing with all the politics sometimes. I'm a huge sucker for big cities in books, so I really wanted to know more about the surroundings. ( )