A review by alisonalisonalison
Point of Hopes by Lisa A. Barnett, Melissa Scott

4.0

Wonderful. This is the first book in a cool fantasy mystery series and I really liked it. The main characters are neat, the mystery is engaging, and the story's really interesting. The world-building in this series is amazing. It's thorough and detailed and lush and I love it. Astreiant seems vaguely based on Renaissance-era Holland and it's quite a refreshing and neat place to visit. It's an astrologically-based matriarchal society where women run the government, run business and trade, and own the land, but without de-valuing men, so gender parity among the common people is pretty much a reality. No one is limited by their gender and anyone can do any job and love any person and it's all just everyday life. It's class that separates society more than anything else, and women do very much take precedence among the aristocracy. But this is not a story about the aristocracy. The two main characters are just regular working guys (an elegant ex-soldier and a hard-working policeman), who are both quite matter-of-fact and sensible and a bit poor. Nico and Philip are both very engaging, likeable people and their growing friendship is delightful to read. There's a large cast of interesting secondary characters as well. This book is not a romance, though there are some subtle hints of a romance to come. The story is definitely focussed on the the mystery, which is fascinating. The writing is solid and wonderfully full of subtext. There are some slow bits and sometimes the writing is a bit clunky with long sentences. This isn't a fast-paced, tense, thrilling mystery romance story, so don't be expecting that. This is a longish story that takes its time and is full of depth and intrigue and interesting people. I really enjoyed it. The second novel, [b:Point of Dreams|836593|Point of Dreams (Astreiant, #2)|Melissa Scott|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1312016782s/836593.jpg|1686546], is even better, but do read this one first.