Point of... Duology, Melissa Scott and Lisa A. Barnett
A bit of business first. My dear friend is talking about books over on her blog, as well as a whole lot of other things. I know y'all like to talk, so go talk back at her: http://s-e-xtalk.blogspot.com/ She keeps this blog for a class, so please, please do comment.
We're back to my old favorites now. I reread these two books recently and now I feel the need to tell you all about them, and why you should read them. I'm only going to discuss the plot of Point of Hopes, since the plot of Point of Dreams naturally has enormous spoilers for Point of Hopes, and I will attempt not to spoil anything because these are the kind of books that you do not want spoiled. On to the review.
HE is an incorruptible, middle-aged pointsman with a tendency to garden, trying to figure out who is kidnapping children! HE is a vain ex-soldier who doesn't yet know he's ex with a fondness for dressing well and for astrological foretelling, trying to find a job! Together, THEY FIGHT CRIME!
No, seriously.
Our pointsman (a sort of proto-policeman) is named Nicolas Rathe, and the ex-soldier is Philip Eslingen. The books are set in a richly detailed fantasy city, called Astreiant, with some detour into the surrounding countryside. The only fictional city I feel is similarly detailed is Ankh-Morpork (the two series have very different tones, but similar levels of worldbuilding at least as regards Astreiant). And yes, someone is stealing children. No one is very happy about this, for obvious reasons and some specialized ones; Rathe because it's giving him a headache trying to solve it without getting anyone killed, and Eslingen because he's not a native Astreianter and is therefore getting blamed, and also because it contributes to his inability to hold down a job.
Rathe and Eslingen meet up early in the book, and spend the rest of the book getting more and more tangled together in their efforts to find whoever is taking the children. That's about all I can say without spoiling the plot, which tells you how intricately plotted these books are. Barnett and Scott have a talent for winding many, many disparete plot threads together into a story that is both compelling and clear. When everything comes together, it's an "OH DUDE THAT'S SO COOL" moment as opposed to a "wait, what?" moment; more to the point, the plot holds together on rereading. Even knowing exactly what is happening, you can understand why no one picks up on it.
The setting is in many ways one of the most complicated and interesting I've ever read in a fantasy novel. It's very realistic, for one; Scott and Barnett have clearly done their homework. For another, it subtly reverses the power structures, placing women slightly higher than men on the social hierarchy and justifying it accordingly. Astreiant's occupants place a high value on what the stars say about your life, essentially your horoscope, and it seems to actually be true. Eslingen's horoscopes, cast at the beginning of each book, certainly come true. It's a subtle but effective style of magic. More relevantly, the stars tend to predispose women towards settled careers and men towards wandering ones, which puts women at the head of the (settled) government: Astreiant's country has a queen, the rulers of the city are all female, the more powerful nobles are women, and women tend to run shops and points stations and temples.
The books can sometimes get too detailed. It took me two or three tries to get into Point of Hopes because of all the description. However, once I got into the book, the story caught me up and dragged me along fast. If you can skim the description, not all of which is relevant, I think you will have a better reading experience.
There's also a type of sexual morality that I don't think I've seen in any other book. Marriages, between men and women, seem to be contracted based on what each party can contribute to the deal, in a contract-type situation. Though there are heterosexual love matches shown (the guildmaster and his wife, Rathe's parents by implication), the vast majority of the love matches are homosexual, something called lemanry. One's leman has few rights under the law, but is widely acknowledged to be one's sexual partner and lover in a way that the heterosexual matches simply don't cover. Scott and Barnett were* civil partners, which probably affects this portrayal. The romantic and sexual matches ring very true, though.
I feel I should make one thing clear: these books are very much mysteries, first and foremost. The fantastical setting contributes to the mystery but is not necessarily the focus of the book, and the romance is almost a sideline to the real plot, which is respectively finding the missing children and figuring out how and why some people died. I almost love them more for that. The bits of romance are adorable, the fantastical setting richly detailed, and the mysteries themselves wonderfully written and intricately plotting, keeping you guessing every step of the way.
Talk to me: I do love these books, and love them dearly. What about you? Do you think you would like them? Have similarly-detailed fantasy settings for me to look at? Seen this kind of sexual morality before in fiction? Let me know!
*I say were, because Lisa Barnett apparently died in May 2006 of cancer. RIP, ma'am, you will be sorely missed.
We're back to my old favorites now. I reread these two books recently and now I feel the need to tell you all about them, and why you should read them. I'm only going to discuss the plot of Point of Hopes, since the plot of Point of Dreams naturally has enormous spoilers for Point of Hopes, and I will attempt not to spoil anything because these are the kind of books that you do not want spoiled. On to the review.
HE is an incorruptible, middle-aged pointsman with a tendency to garden, trying to figure out who is kidnapping children! HE is a vain ex-soldier who doesn't yet know he's ex with a fondness for dressing well and for astrological foretelling, trying to find a job! Together, THEY FIGHT CRIME!
No, seriously.
Our pointsman (a sort of proto-policeman) is named Nicolas Rathe, and the ex-soldier is Philip Eslingen. The books are set in a richly detailed fantasy city, called Astreiant, with some detour into the surrounding countryside. The only fictional city I feel is similarly detailed is Ankh-Morpork (the two series have very different tones, but similar levels of worldbuilding at least as regards Astreiant). And yes, someone is stealing children. No one is very happy about this, for obvious reasons and some specialized ones; Rathe because it's giving him a headache trying to solve it without getting anyone killed, and Eslingen because he's not a native Astreianter and is therefore getting blamed, and also because it contributes to his inability to hold down a job.
Rathe and Eslingen meet up early in the book, and spend the rest of the book getting more and more tangled together in their efforts to find whoever is taking the children. That's about all I can say without spoiling the plot, which tells you how intricately plotted these books are. Barnett and Scott have a talent for winding many, many disparete plot threads together into a story that is both compelling and clear. When everything comes together, it's an "OH DUDE THAT'S SO COOL" moment as opposed to a "wait, what?" moment; more to the point, the plot holds together on rereading. Even knowing exactly what is happening, you can understand why no one picks up on it.
The setting is in many ways one of the most complicated and interesting I've ever read in a fantasy novel. It's very realistic, for one; Scott and Barnett have clearly done their homework. For another, it subtly reverses the power structures, placing women slightly higher than men on the social hierarchy and justifying it accordingly. Astreiant's occupants place a high value on what the stars say about your life, essentially your horoscope, and it seems to actually be true. Eslingen's horoscopes, cast at the beginning of each book, certainly come true. It's a subtle but effective style of magic. More relevantly, the stars tend to predispose women towards settled careers and men towards wandering ones, which puts women at the head of the (settled) government: Astreiant's country has a queen, the rulers of the city are all female, the more powerful nobles are women, and women tend to run shops and points stations and temples.
The books can sometimes get too detailed. It took me two or three tries to get into Point of Hopes because of all the description. However, once I got into the book, the story caught me up and dragged me along fast. If you can skim the description, not all of which is relevant, I think you will have a better reading experience.
There's also a type of sexual morality that I don't think I've seen in any other book. Marriages, between men and women, seem to be contracted based on what each party can contribute to the deal, in a contract-type situation. Though there are heterosexual love matches shown (the guildmaster and his wife, Rathe's parents by implication), the vast majority of the love matches are homosexual, something called lemanry. One's leman has few rights under the law, but is widely acknowledged to be one's sexual partner and lover in a way that the heterosexual matches simply don't cover. Scott and Barnett were* civil partners, which probably affects this portrayal. The romantic and sexual matches ring very true, though.
I feel I should make one thing clear: these books are very much mysteries, first and foremost. The fantastical setting contributes to the mystery but is not necessarily the focus of the book, and the romance is almost a sideline to the real plot, which is respectively finding the missing children and figuring out how and why some people died. I almost love them more for that. The bits of romance are adorable, the fantastical setting richly detailed, and the mysteries themselves wonderfully written and intricately plotting, keeping you guessing every step of the way.
Talk to me: I do love these books, and love them dearly. What about you? Do you think you would like them? Have similarly-detailed fantasy settings for me to look at? Seen this kind of sexual morality before in fiction? Let me know!
*I say were, because Lisa Barnett apparently died in May 2006 of cancer. RIP, ma'am, you will be sorely missed.