Swordspoint

A Melodrama of Manners

By: Ellen Kushner

Narrated by: Ellen Kushner, Dion Graham, Katherine Kellgren, Robert Fass, Nick Sullivan, Simon Jones

Length: 10 hrs and 51 mins

Publisher's summary

Audie Award, Audio Drama, 2013

Award-winning author, narrator, and screenwriter Neil Gaiman personally selected this book, and, using the tools of the Audiobook Creation Exchange (ACX), cast the narrator and produced this work for his audiobook label, Neil Gaiman Presents.

A few words from Neil on Swordspoint: "It's as if Jane Austen wrote fantasy... an imaginary world where the characters are real people: a Vanity Fair of aristocrats, rogues, orphans, and heroes; a book where the best swordsman in the land can make far more money dueling at private parties than he can as a knight-errant. Ellen Kushner casts her sharp eye over them all, but with great affection and lavish detaiI.... couldn't think of a better performer for Swordspoint than Ellen, and her reading is polished, intimate, and – since Riverside is of her creation – wholly authentic.

"What really makes this production of Swordspoint unique, though, is the supporting cast in this special "illuminated production". Several key scenes are fully dramatized, and throughout the entire book's soundscapes you will hear the cadences of the marketplace, the music of the drawing rooms, and of course the ring of steel drawn from the scabbard. Ellen actually wrote new dialogue for the crowd scenes, so the actors aren't just mumbling "rhubarb rhubarb" to simulate speech.... You'll be able to hear performances from acclaimed and award-winning actors, including Dion Graham, Katherine Kellgren, Robert Fass, Nick Sullivan, and the remarkable Simon Jones."

In this exciting new "illuminated production", the author herself reads her own work, supported by a full cast. Author Ellen Kushner is also a popular performer and National Public Radio host (Sound & Spirit). For years, fans have been asking her to record her own audiobook of Swordspoint. To mark the 25th anniversary of the book's publication, Ellen teamed up with Sue Zizza of SueMedia Productions, known for her signature touches of soundscapes and sound effects, multi-voiced dramatizations, and all the techniques of "illuminated production". Together they have made Swordspoint a brand-new audio experience, in which the full supporting cast dramatizes and illuminates key scenes from Ellen's compelling narration.

On the streets of Riverside, a man lives and dies by the sword. Even the nobles on the Hill turn to duels to settle their disputes. And in this city, the swordsman Richard St. Vier is the undisputed master, as skilled as he is ruthless – until a death by the sword is met with outrage instead of awe, and the city discovers that the line between hero and villain can be altered in the blink of an eye. Because every man lives at sword's point, if you can only find his weakness. And even the greatest swordsman in Riverside has one thing he cares for deeply.

Hailed by critics as "a bravura performance, a delight from start to finish" (Locus), "intelligent, humorous and dramatic" (Publishers Weekly) and "witty, beguiling and ingenious" (Interzone) , Kushner's "Melodrama of Manners" has become a classic, a favorite not only of Neil Gaiman but a host of distinguished colleagues, including George R. R. Martin ("unforgettable!"), Orson Scott Card ("powerful") and Gene Wolfe ("as if Noel Coward had written a vehicle for Errol Flynn!").

The artwork used for the audiobook edition of Swordspoint is based on the artwork and design by Thomas Canty for the original first US edition of the book.

To hear more from Neil Gaiman on Swordspoint, click here, or listen to the introduction at the beginning of the book itself.

Learn more about Neil Gaiman Presents and Audiobook Creation Exchange (ACX).

©1987 Ellen Kushner (P)2011 SueMedia Productions

Critic reviews

"A glorious thing, the book we might have had if Noel Coward had written a vehicle for Errol Flynn. It’s wicked and visual and witty, and it pulls you in like the doorman of a Bourbon Street bar." (Gene Wolfe)

"Swordspoint begins with a single drop of blood on a field of new-fallen snow, an image that burned itself forever into my mind the first time I encountered it. I can close my eyes and see it still. It’s a terrific opening, an unforgettable opening... and the book just gets better from there." (George R. R. Martin)

“Ellen Kushner delivers her utterly unique blend of modern fantasy and nineteenth-century novel of manners with absolute conviction, affectionate humor, and perfect phrasing. “Neil Gaiman Presents” has provided original music, lively soundscapes, and the voices of some of the audio world’s most distinguished performers. Hearing Katherine Kellgren, Dion Graham, and others sharpen the cutting, insightful dialogue is pure pleasure.” ( Audiofile)

returned it.

weak character bonding ability. Gave up in chapter 3 when i still could not identify main character or know where the story was headed.

A disappointment in every respect.

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

Nothing! Neither story nor characters ever really captured my interest; I didn't care for the author's own narration; the actors who suddenly chimed in at seemingly random times sounded like they'd been recorded separately and dropped into the main narration (and hadn't consulted with the author/narrator on characterization! De Vere sounded like a surfer dude from LA, circa 1990); the sound effects were distracting and often just bad (I couldn't figure out why someone was typing with one finger in the background of one scene... and then realized it must be the "fire" crackling!). It sounded like nobody had done any final mastering on the recording-- strange for something that's touted as a wondrous "production" with all the glories of multiple narrators and sound effects.

What do you think your next listen will be?

I've already given up on SWORDSPOINT, and won't bother downloading the 2nd part. I'm on to an excellent Ngaio Marsh novel.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

I hate to say this, as I'm a huge NPR fan and have many friends who are NPR on-air talent, but the author's public radio on-air style of reading does not serve her story well. I feel it needs a more actorly reading. The dialogue is stylized-- but her reading of her own dialogue is not. She has a beautiful voice-- just not the right delivery for her own fantasy, olden-days world. As for the actors, I think it must have been hard to get the hang of their characters when they had so little to read-- and some of them sounded strangely amateurish. An odd mix of deliveries, many of which sounded like sight-reading..

Any additional comments?

I hope this concept of partly-dramatized readings will be dropped ASAP by the Neil Gaiman series. I *adore* Gaiman, but if this is his idea of a success, HELP!!!!

I really tried

I spent a lot of time trying to bond with this book - but it was just horrible. The narrator puts the emphasis in all the wrong places and it just drove me crazy.

Not a big fan

What disappointed you about Swordspoint?

Pretty much the entire experience of this book was disappointing. I snagged it due to the awesome reviews. The story line was interesting, but tit never really sat well with me. I must admit I was not a huge fan of the whole gay main characters. I was more interested in the fancy sword play intrigue of why they needed swordsman to fight duels and the description of the duels themselves. I understand how the characters played into it, but for me it just caused me to lose interest. There was no avert sexual descriptions or truly erotic nature.

On top of this it was a cross between a narration and a drama. Sometimes characters would have their own voices, and others the author would be narrating. I was never sure when it would appear or why it would appear. I actually think I would have enjoyed it more if the whole book was voice actors with sound effects. Much more. This whole back and forth and it randomly starting up just drew me away from the book. It took me a month to finish such a short book. I would put off listening to it for the radio more times than not and decided to muscle my way through it.

It was definitely interesting to have the author read the book because the dialogue became how she intended it. The enunciation was what she had in her head when she was writing it. I definitely


The intrigue was good. It was quite interesting to see the plays moved by characters for power. This was almost as huge a point as the duels if not even more so. I almost feel like it would be a good arc in its own right.

This is just one man's opinion and as such it is an opinion. I am sure if you talk to others they will appreciate it.

This book was clearly NOT FOR ME

I only made it about a quarter through this book. It was far less about swords and action and far more about rich jerks sitting around worrying about what other rich jerks think of them. It read like Jane Austen meets the Real Housewives. I couldn't stand it. The voice acting was nice, however.

I really wanted to like it but, ugh!

This is just an awful book and an awful audio production. The story is strange and hard to follow as the author switches back and forth between characters’ first and last names. It is creepy in a Game of Thrones Red Wedding way. The description talks about fantasy and Jane Austen, but you will find neither here. Not a single character is likeable, or even knowable. She uses the word “frendily” as in amicably. Friendily is a ridiculous word. As to the audio production, they tried to dress it up with actors chiming in here and there and sound effects and music, but it is louder than the narration, inconsistently used, and jarring when it happens. With three hours to go, I had to stop listening - it was just like an unpleasant visit to a seedy nightclub where the drinks are watered, the tables havent been cleaned in years,and you absolutely, definitely don't want to use the rest room.

Not my kind of book.

I didn't finish. I'm not interested in explicit Homosexual content and a very slow dragging story.

Needs more swash, less buckling

First off: great performance! Sound effects and everything, like an old radio show. However, palace intrigue stories make me yawn. The swordplay didn't happen enough to get though the tedium of who-said-what-to-whoever. Not my cup of tea, but still well done.

A waste of time

This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?

People who like stories without a clear storyline.

Would you ever listen to anything by Ellen Kushner again?

I she ever learns to write coherently

What didn’t you like about the narrators’s performance?

Cheesy narration, cheesy sound effects

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from Swordspoint?

All of the ridiculous fighting scenes with their prolonged sound effects accompanying the narration. Ellen Kushner needs to learn something about swordsmanship and the martial arts in general before she attempts to write coherently about these sequences. Combat sequences, especially if you are describing the actions of an individual with a high level of mastery in a form of combat should be decisive, not romanticized posing. I would recommend that Ellen Kushner would benefit from reading both The Art of War and The Book of Five Rings before attempting to write combat sequences.

Any additional comments?

From the just over half of this atrocious attempt at a fantasy novel that I was able to stomach I could not get a clear sense of where the storyline was going. The book seemed to be more of a vehicle for setting up disjointed romantic scenes between the various characters than providing a cohesive story.

Disappointed

I never before heard of this book. From the blurbs I expected a Napoleonic-era type book like Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange. I'm a great admirer of Jane Austen and Jane Austen-influenced writers like Patrick O' Brian. I was very surprised to find the book so pervasively homosexual. Neil Gaiman's brain is rather unique, which is perhaps how he comes up with such interesting stories, but no story can display the uniqueness of his brain as much as his assertion that this is the type of story Jane Austen would write. It stands to reason that Jane Austen would never write about an ambisexual hypocritical Thackerian community. But the use of language in this book isn't particularly elegant nor does it possess many of the formal conventions of the Napoleonic era. I can't think what prompted the comparison.

To recap. If you enjoyed reading the print version of this book and you want to hear it performed in an innovative way, then this audiobook will be to your liking. If you like period stories written with a modern voice, then you will probably enjoy this book. If you like lust-ridden characters and homosexual trysts, then you will definitely enjoy this book.

Everything led me to believe this was a swashbuckling fantasy adventure story with elevated language. Nothing informed me that this was a gay-bisexual romance written in a modern voice.