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)

Witty, Deadly, Sexy Sword Fights and Manners

If you like non-supernatural fantasies with lots of sword fighting (most with words, some with swords), witty dialogue, vivid descriptions, charismatic characters, explorations of power, politics, and honor, you should give Ellen Kushner's Swordspoint a try. (It even features a perfect parody of a Jacobethan revenge tragedy.)

The setting of Swordspoint is an Elizabethan or Jacobean-like city comprised of the Hill, atop which the power-scheming and pleasure-partying nobles live their lives of privilege, and Riverside, the lower district of derelict mansions where the riffraff (rogues, whores, pickpockets, and swordsmen, professional duelist-assassin-bodyguards who sell their swords to aristocratic contracts) live their sordid lives.

Kushner creates appealing and flawed characters, among them Richard, an illiterate, intelligent, usually self-possessed swordsman, Alec, an aristocratic, sardonic, occasionally suicidal ex-scholar, and Michael, a callow gigolo Lord who wants to be taken seriously. Their intertwining stories are absorbing and unpredictable. All of her characters feel like real people, with pasts and ambitions, loves and hates. And gird your loins for a seductively human and frank (though never sensational or graphic) homosexual romance.

About the "illuminated production" audiobook (with author Kushner reading everything, except for certain intense scenes for which different readers read different characters' voices, and with some sound effects being used for things like doors opening, footsteps sounding, swords clashing, and fires burning, etc.), I liked it, but that may be due to my liking Swordspoint. That is, I wish Kushner had read everything without sound effects OR a cast of readers had read everything with sound effects, but I like the novel and various readers so much that I enjoyed the audiobook. And the music used to introduce or conclude intense scenes or chapters was well done.

Neil Gaiman describes Swordspoint as being what Jane Austen would write if she wrote fantasy, but Kushner's worldview is more violent and morally ambiguous, her interests more political, and her writing more modern than Austen's. But it is interesting to imagine Lord Darcy and Henry Tilney falling in love with each other rather than with Elizabeth Bennet and Catherine Morland!

Ellen Kushner Owes me 30$

What did you like about this audiobook?

Ellen Kushner owes me gas money! I made the mistake of putting this on my ipod to listen to on my commute back from work and I got so wrapped up in the story that not only did I miss my exit, but I drove in large consecutive circles around my city for over an hour. So wrapped up was I that pulling over didn't even cross my mind, in fact the only thing that brought me back to reality was the dinging sound my gas tank makes when it got low. Then I made a bee line for home to go and grab my head phones since I didn't even want to waste time going to the gas station.

Kushner is a rare author who has been blessed with the ability to deftly and engangingly read from her own work, something most authors, as I'm sure audible members can attest to, are not not blessed with. The story is deft, courageous, adventurous, dark and erotic. Really there's nothing more that I can say about it that so many other have already articulated in a much better fashion that I.

All I can say is thank you so much to both Mr Gaiman and, debts not withstanding, to Mrs, Kushner for putting this out there. This is what books should always be like and seldom are. From now on I'll make sure to keep an eye out for whatever these two put out in the future.

What a beautiful book...

This delicately drawn tale takes place between the high and low neighborhoods of a fantasized city vaguely like 16th-17th century Europe. As with all good fairy tales, there's blood, squalor, beauty, mystery, and maybe even a wicked witch of sorts, although no spells or sorcery. The protagonist, Richard St. Vier, is a swordsman, and thus, a professional killer, and he does what no professional killer should ever do--he falls in love. The object of his affection is Alec, a brittle, self-destructive, secretive refugee from university. When Richard and Alec inadvertently become entangled in the complex political maneuvers and personal vendettas of the city's nobility, trouble (and occasional mayhem) ensues.

The great strength of the book is its exquisite prose, perfectly polished, each phrase lovingly considered; the description of the fireworks at a party is enough to take your breath away. And then its primary characters: Richard and Alec are both so damaged that they can barely make up one heart between them, but their flaws and their strengths are realistically portrayed, and you want them to win for each other's sake.

This is not a "world-building" fantasy. Everything in it, all the jockeying for power, even the many vibrant and detailed secondary characters, is set dressing for the drama involving the lovers, although it's gorgeous set dressing. Wondering exactly how the Council of Lords got that way, or why there's a Dragon Chancellor or a Crescent Chancellor? You'll never know. You'll get just enough detail to work out the unfolding situation and no more. You won't even learn how Richard and Alec found each other in the first place, because it doesn't matter to the plot. This leads to what I consider the book's major flaw: because the supporting action is so richly presented, it's a disappointment when parts of it fail to resolve. In particular, we spend a lot of time with a secondary character who then gets shuffled offstage with only an inconclusive parting glance, and we're left to surmise about his fate, despite his prior importance.

All of which won't matter at all if you find the prose and the lovers sufficiently compelling, which I certainly did, and even if all the political plots don't entirely unfold, they're still great fun to watch.

Performance-wise, Kushner is an excellent reader of her own work. This recording is partially dramatized, with actors reading the characters in selected scenes and added sound effects. It's pleasant enough, particularly with the musical interludes, but occasionally an annoyance (oy, whose idea was it to use an old mechanical typewriter to imitate the sound of a crackling fire?), and by and large I don't think I would have missed it; Kushner does well enough on her own.

A beloved story even more vivid in audio form!

A story I've loved for years becomes even more vivid in audio form. The addition of voice actors and music, in addition to Ms Kushner's superb reading, makes the magic of Riverside come even more alive. I've waited years for this title to appear as an audiobook, and this was well worth the wait.

The noises in background I found distracting

Would you try another book from Ellen Kushner and/or the narrators?

I might if all the background noise and sound effects were eliminated. I found it very distracting. It is not a movie, but an audio book.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Swordspoint?

The court room scene at the end.

What does the narrators bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

The narrators were very good and did make the characters enjoyable

Any additional comments?

Eliminate all the noise, in background. It took away from the story, at least for me.

Wiggling with glee

Swordspoint is one of my favorite novels--a perfect swashbuckling confection of a book, with elegant writing and marvelous dialogue. This audiobook captures the tone of the characters and the world perfectly. Having Ellen Kushner reading her own work plays beautifully, and the portions read by actors (all splendidly cast) provide additional richness and texture. I have not been a fan of audiobooks in the past, but this one may be enough to convert me, if there are more like it to be had.

Great world, beautiful writing

...just didn't connect with the characters. Very few female characters, and none of them with any real agency. Good story but just not for me.

AHHHHHH What? Wheres the rest of it?

What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)

There was only character who evolved and so there was only one character I cared about. He didn't get an ending. Why was so much time and promise put in to a character who was just going to be shoved off and forgotten about. The story, and the ending, otherwise was great.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

The fight between the sword instructor (Applewhite I think) and Richard was fantastic. It was the right thing to really push Michael's store forward; to bad it didn't.

Different and Thoroughly Enjoyable

Unlike most of the other reviewers posting early, I had never read (or even heard of) this book. I scooped it up based on (1) Neil Gaiman's recommendation and (2) the presence of Simon Jones, my all-time favorite narrator, in the cast.

The story is offbeat, as one might expect from Gaiman's choice of it, but is fast-moving, enjoyable, and thought-provoking, with drama, action, and an undertone of humor. The production values are great; it combines the soundtrack elements of a radio play with straight narration, and does so with superb dexterity.

Amazing performance!

If you could sum up Swordspoint in three words, what would they be?

Sexy swashbuckling politicoes

Who was your favorite character and why?

Richard and Alec are kind of terrible but I love them in spite of themselves. Although hmm, the Duchess might beat them.

Have you listened to any of the narrators’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

Well, I've heard Ellen read in person before, so sort of? She's a fantastic reader, and loves her characters and her settings so much. This was a great performance, and the sound effects and other actors for the dramatized scenes really added such richness to the recording.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

Oh, those mad, bad boys.

Any additional comments?

I read this book a few years ago, and just loved it then. Having such a fantastic audio version made me wriggly with joy. The last line of dialog is so simple and, out of context, utterly mundane, and the fact that it made me weep into my steering wheel is a testament to Kushner's ability to make a reader care so much about the characters that all of the context can fit into such a short line.

Witty and sophisticated fantasy

I LOVED this book. A fully realized fantasy world without some kind of magic is quite a novelty and this really works. The differences between the rich and poor societies are carefully drawn and totally believable. Most of the characters are quite world-weary and louche - I especially enjoyed the Duchess of Tremontaine who was rather reminiscent of the Marquise de Merteuil in Les Liasons Dangereuse (no idea if I spelt that lot right). It's refreshing, too, that everyone has a fluid sexuality - you love who you love and it doesn't matter what gender they are.

Ellen Kushner narrates her own story very well and I think the partial dramatization and use of sound effects does help to draw you into the world. It's a really interesting approach to audio books and one that I hope to hear more often. I'm currently imagining how awesome this would be for Patrick Rothfuss's books.

I am definitely going to get the next book in the series.

The games the rich play

Interesting narration/dramatisation of a novel I hadn't come across before. I enjoyed the mirrored dance of manners, intrigue, swordplay and personal relationships. Something a little different for jaded palates.

Wonderful!

Although I'm a relative newcomer to Swordspoint, I love the world of Riverside and its characters. I really like the unique way this audiobook was presented - part narration, part dramatised, part sound effects. It brings Riverside and the Hill to life.

The right voice reading an audiobook makes all the difference, and in this case Ellen Kushner reading her own story is perfect. I can't wait for the sequels to be given the same treatment!

A book that made me rearrange my top ten

In this city the rich use swordsmen to settle their disputes, either to first blood or death. Swordsmanship is both art, entertainment and noble way to settle disputes with important political and social decisions often depending on the outcome. On the face of it the noble with the most money should always win, as he or she should be able to hire the best swordsman but the best swordsman is Richard St. Vier. Coldly practical towards life and death and caring very little for anything other than the honor and challenge of his art and the whims of his love, Alec, Richard is not so easy to manipulate. Alec is, brilliant, damaged, contemptuous of the politics of the rich and fascinated by death. So the balance of power swings back and forth between the rich on the Hill and the poor in Riverside.

There are very few `good' people (by today's standards) here, as those people would soon have been destroyed or corrupted by the harsh world they live in. Kushner's characters are so vivid and alive and I grew to love them partly because of their flaws. Ellen Kushner has an extensive grasp of the English language, which enhances her descriptions and makes the conversations between her characters so much more interesting.There aren't copious amounts of sex scenes or vapid declarations of love here, the romance is in their actions and the sacrifices they make for each other.

Even though Swordspoint: A Melodrama of Manners has been published for many years now, I've still never read anything like it. There are hints of Les Liaisons dangereuses, with the social and political intrigue becoming inseparable from each other and the way most characters attempt to manipulate others, even those they may care for. It's also in the regency like setting of the story. This fantasy world has no magic or monsters (that are not in human form) but the dark fairy tale like nature of the story and beautifully described world also reminds me of Anne Bishops' writing.

The narration is both brilliant and problematic. This is because it keeps switching between the author whom I loved and the actors who were also very good but it ended up giving you two very different voices for the main characters.

I wasn't sure about this series at first but I gradually grew to love it so much that I've had to change my top ten audio book series. However, while it's an inelegant description, be warned this is Marmite. From the reviews it is fifty, fifty whether you will love it or hate it. Since Audible has such a good returns policy however, do you really have anything to loose by giving it a try?

If you love this book as much as I do there is another book called The Naked City which includes a 45 minute short story, bridging the gap between Swordspoint and it's sequel The Privilege of the Sword both can be purchased from Audible.

The site below also gives the chronology of the series including links to several of the short stories available on line. Do not read out of order or you will get huge spoilers.

http://www.sff.net/people/kushnersherman/kushner/world.html

Probably not for everyone...

But I loved it!
The characterisation is so intricate and engaging. I’ve heard various people complain that none of the characters are at all likeable, but in my opinion this is not a detriment to the story. The people of Riverside and the Hill seem so real, greatly helped by the amazing voice actors, and there seen to be no clear heroes and antagonists. Everybody has a private agenda and you can root for any of them.
With regards to the twisting political plots and subterfuge; you are given the perfect amount of information in order to understand what is happening without guessing what shocks are soon to be revealed (unless you have a much craftier mind than me).
I’ll admit I was somewhat confused as to why Kushner was reading whole chunks of the books compared to other times, when the actors read their speaking parts. It seemed rather arbitrary, but I soon got used to it and I wouldn’t say it affected the story too much.
Amazing story and excellent narration!

Such a lovely book

I can only describe this book as being a total delight. For someone who isn't a fan of Austen, a fantasy of manners is often hit-and-miss for me. This was all hits. The characters were charming, full of bravado and secrets and gossip. They came fully voiced - both metaphorically in Ellen's writing, and literally in the full-cast audiobook - and incredibly vibrant. How can anyone not love the rakish and studious Alec who slums it in the dodgy town of Riverside, and, more importantly, his companion, the honourable Richard St. Vier, a swordsman who has a great capacity for love, and little patience for politics.

While I was first hesitant of "ambient" audiobook, with sound effects and ambient sounds, once you're past the first, crowded chapter, it becomes much more easy on the ear. I learned to really like it, and while it might not be my first choice in audio recording, I wouldn't hesitate to pick up another book using this technique as it added a nice 3rd dimension to it all.

Unusual, intriguing and mixed

The performance is indeed a performance - although there is one main reader, some of the characters are played by other actors and, sporadically, there are background noises and voices. Overall it works very well. Unfortunately, the main reader is not particularly good, and not really up to it. She is nevertheless good enough to not be annoying.

Similarly, the story is unusual - a fantasy world, without magic based (I presume) on the elaborate elegance, manners and class obsession of the 17th and 18th centuries in Europe. The characters are well-constructed and plausible, although none are particularly likeable; the story is interesting and kept me listening, wanting to know how it would evolve and end up.

Overall, this is more historical romance and intrigue than fantasy and adventure. A good listen, and I think I will be listening to more of the series.

Definitely enhanced!

What did you like most about Swordspoint?

What's not to like about this book?

Have you listened to any of the narrators’s other performances? How does this one compare?

Very often authors reading their own work don't really do it justice. This isn't one of them - Ellen Kushner does a fabulous job, aided and abetted by a few others. I could forgive Gaiman anything for putting this together!

Any additional comments?

Although actually I have a confession - I read Ellen Kushner's Thomas the Rhymer and loved it so much that I rushed out and bought Swordspoint. (the paper version) It just didn't do it for me though: I put it to one side and forgot about it. Then I stumbled across this audio recording, listened to a sample and thought I'd give it another go. So glad I did - it had me absolutely gripped. For some reason, I found it came across better listening to it than reading it ... the recording is absolutely perfect with the sound effects and the brief dramatized sections enhancing rather than detracting from the whole. When it finished I rushed straight off to download the sequel, which I am currently listening to and is every bit as good. Go try!

last 3 chapters held story. hard slog

If this book wasn’t for you, who do you think might enjoy it more?

The contrast with narrators was for me off putting,, it meant I needed to re listen to who was who. The story lacked lustre and a bit uninteresting. Sorry author.

What will your next listen be?

GAme of thrones Dragon series

How could the performance have been better?

Forget the extra voices unless they're the same throughout

You didn’t love this book--but did it have any redeeming qualities?

Not many

Meh

Any additional comments?

A moderately interesting story, but I just couldn't care about any of the characters. In particular, why were Richard and Alec together? There didn't seem to be any warmth or affection between them. They were both cold, damaged and unavailable.