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A review by hyacinths
Point of Hopes by Lisa A. Barnett, Melissa Scott
4.0
this book has been on my radar for a while, as someone who loves queer fantasy, and with a particular interest in early queer fantasy, but the summaries i'd heard of it always sounded a little lackluster, so it took me a while to pick it up. i couldn't even say why i finally did, but can i tell you, it was an excellent decision. because friends - THIS BOOK IS DELIGHTFUL.
it delighted me in every way! i loved it! i don't know if i could even articulate why i liked it so much - i just fell into it from the beginning, i could tell it was a good match for me from the first few chapters. it was just so much fun, and it felt so cozy and comfortable! i absolutely love the world - the astrology! the necromancy! how utterly and fully realized astreiant felt as a city! - and it's conveyed so well to the reader, through the plot and the mystery instead of via info-dump, that ever-present danger of fantasy.
and i ADORED the characters, they're all charming. rathe was great and insanely likeable, eslingen took a little longer to worm his way into my heart but he certainly got there by the end, and istre! what a great necromancer! monteia! caiazzo! denizard! they were all SO much fun and even the minor characters, of whom there are many, felt fleshed out and real.
it's weird because this book felt really, really fresh to me, everything about it, and yet it still seemed classic at the same time? and how great is it that this world has social equality between men and women, and politically/economically the structure is matriarchal? ultimately people's destinies in this world are ruled by their stars, not their gender or their sex. and the world is queer-positive. and it's all done so effortlessly!!! sometimes, face it, fantasy can feel like a slog, almost like a chore, but there was none of that here at all. it was all exciting, and fun, and immersive, and i really enjoyed it so much.
i will say, and i've seen a few other reviewers mention this as well, i did notice quite a few copy-editing errors - unclosed dialogue tags, missing commas or periods, missing italics, that sort of thing - but i loved this book so much that it didn't detract from my experience at all. i can't wait to read the rest of this series, and i'm so glad i finally decided to pick it up! it's going to be a pleasure spending more time in this charming, interesting world with these wonderful characters.
it delighted me in every way! i loved it! i don't know if i could even articulate why i liked it so much - i just fell into it from the beginning, i could tell it was a good match for me from the first few chapters. it was just so much fun, and it felt so cozy and comfortable! i absolutely love the world - the astrology! the necromancy! how utterly and fully realized astreiant felt as a city! - and it's conveyed so well to the reader, through the plot and the mystery instead of via info-dump, that ever-present danger of fantasy.
and i ADORED the characters, they're all charming. rathe was great and insanely likeable, eslingen took a little longer to worm his way into my heart but he certainly got there by the end, and istre! what a great necromancer! monteia! caiazzo! denizard! they were all SO much fun and even the minor characters, of whom there are many, felt fleshed out and real.
it's weird because this book felt really, really fresh to me, everything about it, and yet it still seemed classic at the same time? and how great is it that this world has social equality between men and women, and politically/economically the structure is matriarchal? ultimately people's destinies in this world are ruled by their stars, not their gender or their sex. and the world is queer-positive. and it's all done so effortlessly!!! sometimes, face it, fantasy can feel like a slog, almost like a chore, but there was none of that here at all. it was all exciting, and fun, and immersive, and i really enjoyed it so much.
i will say, and i've seen a few other reviewers mention this as well, i did notice quite a few copy-editing errors - unclosed dialogue tags, missing commas or periods, missing italics, that sort of thing - but i loved this book so much that it didn't detract from my experience at all. i can't wait to read the rest of this series, and i'm so glad i finally decided to pick it up! it's going to be a pleasure spending more time in this charming, interesting world with these wonderful characters.