Kushner, Ellen - The Privilege of the Sword

[oyceter]

I haven't actually read all of Swordspoint before; I started it out a long time ago, got bored (I know, heresy), and never finished it. So I have slight inklings as to how this book plays off of Swordspoint, but nothing substantial.

Katherine's uncle, the Mad Duke Tremontaine, has basically blackmailed her family into letting her become his ward, in a way. She's to learn swordfighting. I get the sense that many things have changed since Swordspoint; Alec often mutters about how the privilege of the sword isn't what it used to be.

I very much liked how in the beginning, Katherine isn't particularly interested in learning the sword; she is horrified by the fact that her uncle has taken away all her dresses and provided her with men's clothing, and she misses embroidery. It was a rather refreshing change from the Spunky Heroine who makes her brother teach her fencing and steals his clothes and hates embroidery and girly stuff. Katherine felt much more like a product of her society, especially her horror in having her legs show so clearly in the tights and pants.

That said, I never quite got emotionally involved with the book. I liked Katherine, and I especially liked how the melodrama The Swordsman Whose Name Was Not Death played into the story, but I don't know. Not enough political maneuvering? I mean, there was a lot of maneuvering; it's just that Katherine wasn't privy to it, so I wasn't really as well. I liked Artemisia, despite her initial stupidity, and I was particularly glad that Kushner didn't end up playing Artemisia and Katherine against each other, as the evil traditional female who was all catty and the untraditional female who was all noble.

My favorite parts of the book involved Katherine's not-quite romantic bond with Artemisia, the bond among the women of the story. I loved the questions of the privilege of the sword -- does it only belong to men? What happens if there is a female swordsman? What about a woman's honor, if her male relatives don't defend it? Does it still exist?

It was a particularly nice counterpoint to the bits of Swordspoint that I read; one of the reasons I put it down was because it was so male and the women that I remembered were the catty nobles who acted like sluts and were condemned for it.

Here, there's a nuanced understanding that that's how the society makes them work, because that's the only way they can get ahead if they can't defend themselves, which is why Katherine is so cool.

I think I liked this intellectually much more than I did emotionally, but that may be because I haven't read Swordspoint and haven't picked up on a lot of things. (though there is a scene in the book that totally got to me, despite not having read Swordspoint)


Links:
- yhlee's review
- jinian's review
- sartorias' review
- buymeaclue's review

Comments

[susanw.livejournal.com]

That said, I never quite got emotionally involved with the book.

This sums up why I never finished Swordspoint. I felt distanced from the characters and the story, never fully engaged and hooked into the narrative. So I probably won't try this book, since your experience suggests I'd have the same response again.

[oyceter]

Yeah... I don't think it's quite as bad as Swordspoint on the detachment part; I quite liked Katherine, as opposed to wanting to slap Alec every two pages in the first book.

And the prose isn't as detached as well; many of the chapters are in Katherine's first person POV, so that helped a little as well.

Not to convince you to try it if you don't want to! But I didn't want to misrepresent the book.

[cofax7]

I liked Privilege a great deal more than The Fall of the Kings, the most recent novel set in Riverside (some years after Privilege). FWIW.

[jinian.livejournal.com]

(repost for tagfix)

I'm sorry the book was kind of a letdown; I know you were looking forward to it. Kushner said when she was here that she intends Swordspoint's characters, and Alec in Privilege too, to be morally ambiguous and not particularly sympathetic. I haven't yet accomplished my intended rereading, but as I recall that feeling of not connecting helped to put me into a weirdly sensitized state when I read it the first time. I'll post on how it goes this time around.

Privilege was definitely emotionally compelling for me, though I think that any author who engages my intellect that much has got 80% of the emotional response already. I found The Fall of the Kings much more affecting after Privilege, since an earlier-written, older Katherine is a fairly important character in it. (Artemisia's not there, I assume not thought up yet, but now I want to know what happened to her. I loved their romantic -- I say it was all the way there, though not sexual -- relationship too.) Other echoes, such as a certain math scholarship, were pleasing too.

What scene got to you?

[oyceter]

Nah, it was actually fine, just not as gripping as it could have been. I still enjoyed it, though, particularly the bits on gender and the female friendships/romances.

I have packed Fall for Italy ^_^. It feels like a book that should be read there.

The scene in Highcombe, of course! I wasn't sure if it was spoilery for Swordspoint, so I didn't type it out, but oh, oh! And I don't even like Alec!

[vom-marlowe.livejournal.com]

I loved Swordspoint as a teenager, but as I got older it was less compelling. I thought Alec in particular was a bit of a jerk. I never was able to connect to her other stories, because of the emotional distance of the prose I think. Lovely, but cold somehow.

[oyceter]

I think I will try it again after I get through Fall of Kings, and see if I like it any better. I don't know though... my tolerance for the alpha bastard anti-hero has gotten remarkably low.

[vom-marlowe.livejournal.com]

I briefly tried Fall Of Kings...picked it up, glanced through it, got distracted, never looked back. Maybe I'm just not in the right mindset for Kushner anymore. I'd say I also have a low tolerance for alpha bastard anti-heroes, but I still adore Sebastian from Loretta Chase's Lord Of Scoundrels. Though, come to think of it, maybe he isn't nearly as anti-hero as Alec. Hmmm.

[oyceter]

I know! My tolerance of alpha bastard anti-heroes decreases by the second. I think I adore Sebastian because he isn't an anti-hero, he's just an alpha bastard, and everyone around him realizes it.