A review by crimsoncor
The Privilege of the Sword by Ellen Kushner

4.0

Had previously rated this a 5, but that was 15 years after I had actually read it. It isn't that I don't love this book. I really did love it. Having re-read Swordspoint right before it opened up whole new avenues in this book, as the stuff with St. Viers came which so much more emotional baggage. So why only 4 vs 5. To me it really has to do with the ending.

Spoiler

I 100% get what Kushner was doing with this ending. There is some real literary finesse going on here. She sets up Death of a Swordsman was the popular view of how sword stories end and then goes about ruthlessly subverting it. It is brilliantly done from a story-telling perspective. But, as a reader who really wanted to see Kat hit more people with her sword, the lack of even a single transcendent moment for her really left me sad. The blunt brutality of the Ferris murder followed by the Alec just exiting stage right

(and I really recommend reading The Death of the Duke short story before this book because it helps pull all the pieces together)

Spoiler

felt real. And i know, I always agitate for worlds that feel real in fantasy. But I think that giving Kat her one shining moment of glory would have felt so much more satisfying, even if the book ended the exact same way.

. Super excited to move on to The Fall of Kings, which I somehow never read and then the two seasons of the Tremontaine serial.