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Fantasy. Fiction. Literature. During Dog Moon, the chief entertainment in the great city of Astreiant, for nobles and commons alike, is the basket-terrier races at New Fair. This year, with spectacularly bad timing, the massive and suspicious bankruptcy of a young nobleman has convulsed the city, leading to suicides, widespread loss of employment, and inconvenient new laws around the universal practice of betting on the races. As well, a rash of mysterious burglaries seems to suggest a show more magistical conspiracy.Pointsman Nicolas Rathe is naturally in the midst of all these disturbances—as is his lover, foreign former mercenary Philip Eslingen. When Eslingen receives a basket-terrier puppy in the redistribution of the bankrupt's household goods, he makes the best of it by having the pup trained for the races, an action that draws him and Rathe deeper into the coils of a mystery somehow involving New Fair's dog races, bookies and bettors, the bankruptcy and its causes and fallout, burglaries, and a new uncanny form of murder.Fourth in the Astreiant series, Fairs' Point once again demonstrates Melissa Scott's mastery of fantasy world building, detective-story plotting, and the provision of sheer delight. show lessTags
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Many Astreiant's citizens have extended credit to the failed claimant to an estate and when his possessions are redistributed Phillip Ellsingen gets one of his dogs just in time to have it entered in the yearly dog races. Meanwhile there are disappearances and thefts plaguing the merchants and bookies at the races, and though it's outside his Points jurisdiction Rathe gets deeply involved. Steady action and good characters and interactions.
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Author Information
66+ Works 7,499 Members
Melissa Scott is a science fiction writer. She was born in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1961. Scott studied history at Harvard University before earning her Ph. D. in comparative history from Brandeis University. Scott's first science fiction book, The Game Beyond, was published in 1984. In 1986, she won the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer. show more Scott received the Lambda Literary Award for Gay/Lesbian Science Fiction in both 1995 and 1996 for the books Trouble and Her Friends and Shadow Man. She is a co-founder of WaveLengths, a journal of gay/lesbian/bisexual-interest science fiction and fantasy. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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Awards
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Common Knowledge
- First words
- The circular arrived before the station’s runners returned with breakfast for the daywatch.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)"It'll be best for both of us," Rathe said, and hoped it would be so.
- Original language
- English
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Statistics
- Members
- 82
- Popularity
- 388,232
- Reviews
- 1
- Rating
- (4.24)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 4
- ASINs
- 2
