Point of Hopes

One of my favorite m/m sf books. The world-building is great, the writing is great, the pairing is great. I love the characters. I *love* this book (and its sequel) -- it's a terrible, terrible loss that Lisa Barnett passed away of cancer and will not be able to keep writing with her partner, Melissa Scott.

Original thoughts: A cross between fantasy and mystery, set in an 'everyone is bi' universe. Oh, I *loved* this book. It follows the efforts of Nicholas Rathe, a pointsman (= police officer) who refuses to take bribes in a world where the bribes are so expected as to be called "fees" and are how the majority of the points make their living, as he teams up with Philip Eslingen, former soldier now turned bodyguard, to solve the mystery show more of what has happened to the large number of children who've been disappearing from the city of Astreiant. Fantastic world building (astrology -- though not our astrology, as the planet has two suns, for starters -- is the cornerstone of people's lives/religion, necromancy is real), great characters, a good mystery (that was mostly fair; although the solution relied a little bit on knowledge of their world the reader didn't really have for the "why" of the abductions, the "who" was perfectly fair given the way the novel was written), and a very sweet m/m romance. Loved! Loved! show less

This has a measured pace and it pauses to describe things, something that could be really annoying, but it somehow matches the main character. Nico Rathe is a pointsman (policeman) who is observant and thinks before he acts. The other characters are nicely drawn, too. The mystery is intriguing and actually mysterious. And ... they get to call in the cavalry at the end.

I'm reading the next one immediately.

Phew, that was a monster read. It seemed to take forever but I enjoyed every minute of it. I particularly liked the last 20% when our MCs were finally in the all the same scenes. Up to this point they spent more time apart than together. That said, although there appears to be the start of an attraction, there is no hint of a romance in this book. I'm hoping in book two they have more on page time together and this blossoms into a relationship of sorts.

That said as a work of fantasy this was amazing. The world building was quite excellent, the story superb and it work its way to a climax that went off with a bang.

Loved it.

NB My only real issue was the editing. There were occasions of no full stops, double commas, missing speech marks, show more two different characters speaking in the same paragraph, and 1st person internal thoughts stuck into the middle of paragraphs with no italics or other indicators. show less

Here's a book that started out promising but didn't have the depth to pull it all off in the end. It's a mystery story in which the culprit is revealed in the prologue without any attempt at distractions, red herrings, or the casting of doubt. It advertises itself as a gay romance, but by the end of the book there has been barely a hint that the main characters are even interested in each other. Its worldbuilding, which is the strongest element in the book by far, is interesting, but nonsensical at times. All in all, Point of Hopes was a disappointment, mainly because during the first third it promised some great reading and was unable to keep that promise as the plot went on.

The basic premise is this: A pointsman (policeman) and sword show more for hire end up teaming up to deal with a case of missing children in the city. The setup takes a good chunk out of the beginning of the book, and then the rest is a rather dull procedural, in which the reader, who already has a good idea of who's responsible, must follow the protagonists around as they go about their day, ask questions, get answers, and generally figure very little out until near the end. There are some side plots involving scapegoating and shady businessmen, but the authors were never able to convince me that things were not going to go just as I expected them to, and I was right in that assumption. It's hard to make a mystery compelling when the reader is confident that no one is at any risk of getting hurt.

While the story is not compelling, the world that this story takes place in is. There are some details that did not make much sense to me, but overall Point of Hopes paints the picture of a world both alien and familiar, and does a good job of showing how things like two suns, and culture heavily dependent on the interpretation of horoscopes might affect day to day life. The writing isn't quite strong enough to push the exposition though smoothly, but since the world that was being described was interesting I didn't mind.

Fantasy is not known for its mastery of prose, and this book is no exception. I'd say the writing was slightly below average, mainly due to a number of typos and grammatical errors that kicked me out of the story on a semi-regular basis. The writing isn't consistently bad so much as it is decent and sprinkled with what appear to be bad habits on the part of the writers. There's lots of abuse of "raised brows but said nothing," "added silently," "made a face," and so on and so forth. But the book is not unreadable. The action is clear and the writing doesn't go purple.

If you're looking for something amazing, this is not it. But if you want a world with good flavor, a passable story, and are willing to read the sequel for the promised romance, it might be worth it. I probably won't be bothering with the next book, myself. show less

Well written with a complex and engaging story line. I couldn't put the book down! My only problem was that the world was a bit TOO complicated at times. Hahaha. It made my head spin though I understood what was happening . . . essentially. It was still an amazing read. You should pick it up. You won't be sorry.

This book was actually more like a detective novel than a fantasy novel, and takes place in an alternate history medieval setting where most of the characters are middle-class citizens. Magic is a part of everyday life, mainly in the form of astrology, where the stars determine the lives of the people. There were no coming-of-age rites or epic quests to go on as per the usual fantasy fare; instead the plot revolves around Nicolas Rathe, who works a job equivalent to that of a policeman and investigates a mystery involving disappearing children. The story is utterly simple as all the scenes are basically just Rathe running around the city questioning people-- basically the unglamourous and often uninteresting work that make up what show more real-life detectives actually do, without any sort of real excitement or action. I wasn't interested in the mystery at all, which there were no real clues about all through the book and then was solved through a series of last-minute revelations. What ultimately kept me interested in the book was its superb world-building, which was detailed, intricate, and felt very real-- probably some of the best world-building I've ever encountered in any story-- and completely outshined everything else in the book. show less

Set in a fictional fantasy world similar to seventeenth century England. The main difference is that astrology is real--and not only can it be used to accurately predict the future, it can be used to change it as well. The premise and plot are pretty good, but it gets bogged down in minutia. I know what the two main characters had for literally every meal of the week the story covers. I know how they hang their jackets, I know where they buy their ale--every single conversation, meal, and clothing-buying expedition is documented in detail. Very boring. The most disappointing aspect was, however, the relationship between the main characters. One a mercenary, the other a police officer (or "pointsman"), they're supposedly highly attracted show more to each other. They even move in together and declare lemanry (a fictional version of a civil union). And yet, not a single kiss between them. No moments of passion, no thoughts on how sexy the other looks--nothing. show less