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crimsoncor's review
4.0
Not quite as good as the first season. The writing quality isn't at the same level: in particular some of the authors seemed to struggle with the right voice for Micah (autistic isn't the same as stupid and I think the character--despite being amazing overall-was short-changed in a few chapters) and Kaab (her relationship with Tess seemed to really stain the ability of some of the writers to render in an authentic fashion). And the overall main A-plot with Diane felt like it wrapped up with too much fortuitous slight-of-hand vs the deep intrigue we've come to expect from Riverside (maybe forgivable since this is still her proto-stage vs the fully formed version in Swordspoint but it still didn't feel of a piece). But those are minor quibbles when set against how enjoyable it is to spend more time in this city.
gargant's review
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
eachuisce72's review
5.0
Amazing, fun, and full of so many great characters it's hard to pick a favorite!
yaj's review
3.0
A return to the world of Riverside. Lots of melodrama, intrigue, chocolate, and a little fencing. Slow in the middle but with a solid tragic ending. Some of the suspense is lost due to this being a prequel, so you know where certain characters have to end up, in order to appear in Swordspoint.
coolcurrybooks's review
4.0
Tremontaine is a prequel to Ellen Kushner’s Riverside books (a series made up of three stand alone novels). However, you don’t have had to have read any of Kushner’s books to enjoy Tremontaine. I do suggest that you start at the beginning of Tremontaine, with season one. If queer fantasy of manners sounds like your thing, you’ll probably enjoy this series.
If your not familiar with Serial Box, they’re a publishing company that releases serialized stories, of which Tremontaine is one. Think of it as written fiction in a format akin to television. Each episode has its own arc, but they flow together to make up a greater, season arc. Hence the large number of authors working on this project. With season one, I sometimes found the changes in styles from one episode to the next jarring, but season two was a lot smoother. I never felt any episodes were clunky, and the writer’s styles felt a lot more consistent. Tremontaine‘s gotten into groove.
Tremontaine follows a cast of characters in an unnamed city, from the scheming noble houses (most notably Tremontaine itself) to merchant families to the slums of Riverside. Diane Duchess of Tremontaine has maneuvered her husband Will out of the way, and his lover Rafe desperately looks to find him. However, Diane isn’t concerned with Rafe. She’s got a whole new plot in mind: getting herself made Duchess of Tremontaine in her own right, without appearing to do so out of an ambition unsuitable for a woman. Meanwhile, Kaab is investigating whose been stealing from her family’s warehouse and feeling increasingly torn between her family and homeland and the desires of her Riverside lover, Tess.
The conflict between Kaab and Tess is trying at times, but at least it feels believable and real, not one of the flimsy miscommunications so often used to cause conflict in fictional romantic relationships. Tess feels like Kaab is putting her second to her family and is unappreciative of all Tess does for her. But Kaab can’t understand why Tess expects her to disregard her own family and responsibility, which are immensely important to her. And Kaab also misses her homeland and culture, especially the food. Tess is never going to leave Riverside for Kaab’s home, and Kaab can never leave her culture behind for Tess. The two struggle to meet in the middle.
To be honest, I’m not super invested in Kaab or Tess. My favorites remain Diane, with all her intricate schemes, and Micah, who has no schemes at all. This season, I actually got to see the two of them interact, and I can’t have enjoyed it more. I also grew fond of a new character, a foreign swordswoman working as a courtesan. I hope to see more of her in season three.
I’m also glad that Tremontaine continues to expand the diversity of the cast and world. The original novel, Swordspoint, was published in the 80’s. While it was groundbreaking for the time, the genre’s come a long way since then, and the book’s notably lacking in racial or gender diversity. In it’s first season, Tremontaine introduced Kaab and her family, merchants from a Meso-American inspired culture who supply the fine chocolates the nobles drink (warning: this series will make you crave chocolate). In season two, Tremontaine continues to add characters of color, and it also introduces a nonbinary supporting character. While the character has a small role, I’m very happy that Tremontaine is expanding the queer representation this world offers. It’s always been focused on lesbian, gay, and bisexual characters without any hint that trans characters existed, so I’m glad that I can finally call this series “LGBT” without any reservations.
Pretty soon the future, I’ll be reviewing season three on a per episode basis. And I can’t wait to get started! Season two was such fun, and I can’t wait to see what the next season has in store.
Originally posted on The Illustrated Page.
I received an ARC in exchange for a free and honest review.
If your not familiar with Serial Box, they’re a publishing company that releases serialized stories, of which Tremontaine is one. Think of it as written fiction in a format akin to television. Each episode has its own arc, but they flow together to make up a greater, season arc. Hence the large number of authors working on this project. With season one, I sometimes found the changes in styles from one episode to the next jarring, but season two was a lot smoother. I never felt any episodes were clunky, and the writer’s styles felt a lot more consistent. Tremontaine‘s gotten into groove.
Tremontaine follows a cast of characters in an unnamed city, from the scheming noble houses (most notably Tremontaine itself) to merchant families to the slums of Riverside. Diane Duchess of Tremontaine has maneuvered her husband Will out of the way, and his lover Rafe desperately looks to find him. However, Diane isn’t concerned with Rafe. She’s got a whole new plot in mind: getting herself made Duchess of Tremontaine in her own right, without appearing to do so out of an ambition unsuitable for a woman. Meanwhile, Kaab is investigating whose been stealing from her family’s warehouse and feeling increasingly torn between her family and homeland and the desires of her Riverside lover, Tess.
The conflict between Kaab and Tess is trying at times, but at least it feels believable and real, not one of the flimsy miscommunications so often used to cause conflict in fictional romantic relationships. Tess feels like Kaab is putting her second to her family and is unappreciative of all Tess does for her. But Kaab can’t understand why Tess expects her to disregard her own family and responsibility, which are immensely important to her. And Kaab also misses her homeland and culture, especially the food. Tess is never going to leave Riverside for Kaab’s home, and Kaab can never leave her culture behind for Tess. The two struggle to meet in the middle.
To be honest, I’m not super invested in Kaab or Tess. My favorites remain Diane, with all her intricate schemes, and Micah, who has no schemes at all. This season, I actually got to see the two of them interact, and I can’t have enjoyed it more. I also grew fond of a new character, a foreign swordswoman working as a courtesan. I hope to see more of her in season three.
I’m also glad that Tremontaine continues to expand the diversity of the cast and world. The original novel, Swordspoint, was published in the 80’s. While it was groundbreaking for the time, the genre’s come a long way since then, and the book’s notably lacking in racial or gender diversity. In it’s first season, Tremontaine introduced Kaab and her family, merchants from a Meso-American inspired culture who supply the fine chocolates the nobles drink (warning: this series will make you crave chocolate). In season two, Tremontaine continues to add characters of color, and it also introduces a nonbinary supporting character. While the character has a small role, I’m very happy that Tremontaine is expanding the queer representation this world offers. It’s always been focused on lesbian, gay, and bisexual characters without any hint that trans characters existed, so I’m glad that I can finally call this series “LGBT” without any reservations.
Pretty soon the future, I’ll be reviewing season three on a per episode basis. And I can’t wait to get started! Season two was such fun, and I can’t wait to see what the next season has in store.
Originally posted on The Illustrated Page.
I received an ARC in exchange for a free and honest review.
naye's review
4.0
Simultaneously tremendously fun and beginning to frustrate me with the (very TV series-like) lack of resolutions. While I enjoy the characters I feel very of them have clear aims anymore - there's no grand plan or endgame (the Dutchess of Tremontaine's plotting notwithstanding) that anyone is really striving for. It's interesting to see how engaging the series is despite that quibble, and I'm looking forward to the new season this fall.
pm6's review
3.0
Another fun and refreshingly gay genre read, though not as compellingly dramatic or romantic as the first Tremontaine book. Foreign trader and budding swordswoman Kaab struggles to reconcile her diplomatic and filial duties with her passion for Riverside forger, Tess, who wants more of Kaab than she can give, and whose boobs are described just a little too often in just a few too many tonally incongruous scenes for this reader. After thoroughly incapacitating her husband with regular dosings of fantasy ayahuasca, razor sharp Diane Tremontaine has him shipped off to the countryside and sets about insinuating her way into the hearts and minds of all the noblemen she can manage, angling to become Duchess Tremontaine in her own right. Lovelorn Rafe Fenton abandons his scholarly pursuits to join his family’s business, hoping through money and status to rescue his beloved Duke Tremontaine from his wife’s machinations. And relieved of Rafe’s grand academic ambitions, guileless autistic Micah makes a name for herself at the university.
It’s the sweet, selfless friendship between Rafe and Micah that forms for me the compelling heart of this sprawling, twisting story, which broadens the tight ensemble of the first Tremontaine season and seems chiefly interested in its portrait of the lawless Riverside ghetto. Unfortunately, I found most of that portrait pretty juvenile and trite. Maybe the comparably shallow, aestheticised treatment of the upper-class Hill in the first book didn’t irritate me as much because I’ve never been rich and don’t care for rich people, I don’t know. Either way, the mix of romantic period poverty and vague, unresolved collectivist sentimentality didn’t do much for me, and by the end had me wincing with embarrassment. I also found it difficult to be very interested in most of the newly introduced or newly centred characters, particularly master swordsman Vincent Applethorpe, whose romantic subplot seemed poorly integrated with the rest of the narrative and whose philosophical devotion to the sword was maybe the most egregiously, exhaustingly trite part of this often very trite book. The cartoonishly horny and evil Florian and Shade, also, were so poorly drawn and on the nose as villains that it was sometimes difficult to listen to their segments of the story.
HOWEVER. I know I’m not exactly the target demographic for this series, since I generally have little patience with either urban fantasy or Victorian swashbucklers. And having taken this into account, I still really enjoyed it. Diane’s ruthless politicking is always delightful, and seeing her interact, finally, with other women who understand and respect her, is extremely satisfying; Rafe’s helpless devotion to her sacrificed husband is sweet and romantic, though I do wish he’d had a little more to do through the first half of this book. And whatever complaints I have about it, the fact remains that I listened to this entire 20-hour-long book in a day. So, you know. On we go!
It’s the sweet, selfless friendship between Rafe and Micah that forms for me the compelling heart of this sprawling, twisting story, which broadens the tight ensemble of the first Tremontaine season and seems chiefly interested in its portrait of the lawless Riverside ghetto. Unfortunately, I found most of that portrait pretty juvenile and trite. Maybe the comparably shallow, aestheticised treatment of the upper-class Hill in the first book didn’t irritate me as much because I’ve never been rich and don’t care for rich people, I don’t know. Either way, the mix of romantic period poverty and vague, unresolved collectivist sentimentality didn’t do much for me, and by the end had me wincing with embarrassment. I also found it difficult to be very interested in most of the newly introduced or newly centred characters, particularly master swordsman Vincent Applethorpe, whose romantic subplot seemed poorly integrated with the rest of the narrative and whose philosophical devotion to the sword was maybe the most egregiously, exhaustingly trite part of this often very trite book. The cartoonishly horny and evil Florian and Shade, also, were so poorly drawn and on the nose as villains that it was sometimes difficult to listen to their segments of the story.
HOWEVER. I know I’m not exactly the target demographic for this series, since I generally have little patience with either urban fantasy or Victorian swashbucklers. And having taken this into account, I still really enjoyed it. Diane’s ruthless politicking is always delightful, and seeing her interact, finally, with other women who understand and respect her, is extremely satisfying; Rafe’s helpless devotion to her sacrificed husband is sweet and romantic, though I do wish he’d had a little more to do through the first half of this book. And whatever complaints I have about it, the fact remains that I listened to this entire 20-hour-long book in a day. So, you know. On we go!
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