{"id":3597,"date":"2006-06-26T10:30:08","date_gmt":"2006-06-26T17:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kith.org\/journals\/jed\/2006\/06\/26\/3597.html"},"modified":"2006-06-26T10:30:08","modified_gmt":"2006-06-26T17:30:08","slug":"swords","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/jed\/2006\/06\/26\/swords\/","title":{"rendered":"Swords"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I still haven't put together my planned detailed discussion of Ellen Kushner's forthcoming book The Privilege of the Sword<\/cite> (aka TPotS<\/cite>, pronounced \"teapots\"), but Mary Anne's comments on the book<\/a> this morning reminded me that I wanted to say one thing now while I'm thinking of it:<\/p>\n

I'm pretty sure that you can read and very much enjoy TPotS<\/cite> without having read the previous books set in this world.<\/p>\n

However, I suspect that you will enjoy it even more if you've read Swordspoint<\/a><\/cite>, the first book Ellen wrote set in this world. And TPotS<\/cite> contains several major spoilers for Swordspoint<\/cite>, as you would expect from a sequel.<\/p>\n

And I've encountered some people recently who haven't read Swordspoint<\/cite>.<\/p>\n

TPotS<\/cite> won't be released for another month. So if you haven't read Swordspoint<\/cite>--or haven't read it in the past, say, fifteen years--then I recommend sitting down and doing so now.<\/p>\n

Especially because the current edition of Swordspoint<\/cite> also contains the three short stories featuring the same characters: \"Red-Cloak\" (published in Whispers<\/cite> in 1982; written well before Swordspoint<\/cite>, and doesn't quite match the tone of the others); \"The Swordsman Whose Name Was Not Death\" (published in F&SF<\/cite> in 1991; reprinted in SH<\/cite> a couple years ago, but we had to take it down when this reprint edition came out; very relevant to TPotS<\/cite>); and \"The Death of the Duke\" (published in Starlight 2<\/cite> in 1998, and probably my favorite thing Ellen has written, and that's saying a lot).<\/p>\n

You could also read, or re-read, The Fall of the Kings<\/cite>, which Ellen co-wrote with Delia Sherman, but as Mary Anne notes, Richard and Alec don't feature prominently in that one (as it's set 60 years after Swordspoint<\/cite> and 25<\/strike> 42 years after TPotS<\/cite>). (Corrected the \"25 years\" figured much later; apologies for the error. See Ellen's world description<\/a> for a full chronology.)<\/p>\n

Okay, let me be more specific. Here's the order I tentatively recommend for reading the main Richard and Alec pieces (with Fall of the Kings<\/cite> and \"Red-Cloak\" to be slipped in pretty much anywhere in the sequence):<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Swordspoint<\/cite><\/li>\n
  2. \"The Swordsman Whose Name Was Not Death\"<\/li>\n
  3. The Privilege of the Sword<\/cite><\/li>\n
  4. \"The Death of the Duke\"<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    (It just so happens that that's also internal chronological order.)<\/p>\n

    Interestingly, in her notes in the back of the current edition of Swordspoint<\/cite>, Ellen says that she started writing the book that's now become TPotS<\/cite> way back in 1992, but put it on hold to focus on her radio show Sound & Spirit<\/cite>.<\/p>\n

    That author's note starts with Ellen talking about having originally planned never to write a sequel to Swordspoint<\/cite>. It ends with this:<\/p>\n

    \n

    So I give up. I love this place, I love these people, and I want to find out what happens next.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

    You'll be able to see what happens next in a few weeks. But if you don't already know what happens first<\/em> to these characters, you should go read Swordspoint<\/cite>.<\/p>\n

    (Thanks to Amazon's \"search inside this book\" feature for letting me read the author's note in the current edition of Swordspoint<\/cite> even though I don't have that edition.)<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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