The King and the Kingfisher: Top 10 Reads of 2016

Top 10 Reads of 2016

1. The Girls at the Kingfisher Club – Genevieve Valentine

2. Fake Geek Girl – Tansy Rayner Roberts

3. Le Morte d’Arthur – Sir Thomas Malory

4. Check, Please! – Ngozi Ukazu

5. Love and Romanpunk – Tansy Rayner Roberts

6. The Wife Drought – Annabel Crabb

7. Heir of Sea and Fire – Patricia A. McKillip

8. Tam Lin – Pamela Dean

9. Swordspoint – Ellen Kushner

10. The Grass Crown – Colleen McCullough

I almost wrote ‘Top 10 Reads of 2017’, so that tells you how prepared I am to write this post. I haven’t reviewed as much this year – partially because I was reading more non-fiction as research for Ladies of Legend, but partially because some of my favourite stories to come out of this year weren’t in traditional formats. Tansy Rayner Roberts’ Fake Geek Girl was originally published in Review of Australian Volume 14, Issue 4 and is also available as an ebook, but I heard it on the podcast Sheep Might Fly and just adored everything about it. Magical university, alternate universe geek culture, a quirky band, sneaky mythology references, what is not to love? You can listen to it here. If you sign up to Tansy’s newsletter you can also get a free copy of the ebook, which I DID, and I love.

Check, Please!, meanwhile, is a web comic about sport. Usually I am drawn to neither of those things, but wow is this story a delight. It’s about hockey-playing, pie-baking college vlogger Eric Bittle, and it’s warm, fluffy and immensely lovable.

Most surprising of my favourites from 2016, though, is Le Morte d’Arthur, which I read as research and thus didn’t review. I started out immensely exasperated with it and finished as an emotional wreck. Also, with passionate feelings about a great many characters I had no firm opinion on either way before, particularly Guinevere. Insult Guinevere at your peril.

It’s been a…very strange year. The world stage has become a very ugly place indeed, yet so many wonderful things have happened in the small bubble of my day-to-day life that I cannot help but feel optimistic. My niece was born this year. I saw what I think might possibly be the most beautiful place in the world. The longest fiction I’ve ever had accepted for publication is going to be a book in February next year and I started writing a novel that I’m kind of in love with right now. And while it’s true I do not feel at all ready for 2017, it’s going to be here in about four hours. So the only thing to do is jump in anyway.

Happy New Year! Let’s do amazing things with it.

Review – Swordspoint

Swordspoint (Riverside No.1) – Ellen Kushner

Bantam Spectra, 2003

Originally published in 1987

In the city, the business of politics is carried out over chocolate, under fireworks, at dinner parties – but underneath the civilised banter lies a cut-throat reality. The nobility crush their rivals and take revenge through their proxies, the swordsmen, and no swordsman is more sought after than the famous Richard St. Vier. He lives in the squalid district of Riverside with his lover Alec, a fiercely argumentative young scholar, and keeps his distance from the quarrels on the Hill, even as he risks his life for them. Some acts of vengeance, however, go deeper than any sword.

It isn’t easy to write a blurb for this book. Having read the second one in the series first, The Privilege of the Sword, I had a vague idea of how this story would go, but the blurb on the back was so terrible it gave away pretty much the entire plot, so I advise avoiding any summaries for Swordspoint altogether. Richard and Alec are both abrasive, morally dubious characters whose relationship is very confusing even to themselves; in other hands this would have been quite a grim story, but Ellen Kushner has a delightfully dry, witty style and a gorgeous way with words. I found that Swordspoint is particularly suited to reading aloud. This copy also includes three short stories about Richard and Alec, which continue to flesh out the rich setting of the city. I will definitely be reading the third book in this series, The Fall of the Kings.

The Queen and the Goddess: Top 10 Reads of 2015

The Queen and the Goddess: Top 10 Reads of 2015

1. The Privilege of the Sword – Ellen Kushner

2. The White Queen – Philippa Gregory

3. Musketeer Space – Tansy Rayner Roberts

4. The First Man in Rome – Colleen McCullough

5. Eleanor & Park – Rainbow Rowell

6. Black Dove, White Raven – Elizabeth Wein

7. Goddess – Kelly Gardiner

8. Sourdough and Other Stories – Angela Slatter
   

9. Revelation Space – Alastair Reynolds

10. The Lady of the Rivers – Philippa Gregory

I did not review Tansy Rayner Roberts’ Musketeer Space because I didn’t read it in quite the conventional way, it being a serial story, but it is marvellous and available to read for free on her blog. If you are already familiar with Ellen Kushner’s Riverside series, a) congratulations on a good life choice, and b) there is an online prequel underway called Tremontaine that is being illustrated by Kathleen Jennings, and is available through subscription to Serial Box.

Happy New Year all! I hope you read fantastic things in 2016.

Review – The Privilege of the Sword

The Privilege of the Sword (Riverside No.2) – Ellen Kushner

Bantam Books, 2006

For as long as she can remember, Katherine’s uncle Alec Campion – better known in the city as the dissolute and debauched Mad Duke Tremontaine – has been waging a legal battle against her family, reducing them into tighter and tighter financial straits. Then abruptly he changes his mind. The family fortune’s will be restored…if Katherine agrees to sever all contact with them for six months, dress as a boy and be taught how to fight with a sword. Swept into a glamorous, untrustworthy world, Katherine will have to learn quickly to keep her feet. It’s not just a matter of whether she’ll make it through the next six months unscathed. The question is, who will she end up becoming?

I hate starting mid-series and always avoid it if I can, but my library did not have Swordspoint so I had to start with book two. It became very clear early on that The Privilege of the Sword will mean much more if you understand the older characters’ backstories. That said – this is a brilliant book. On the surface it’s an irreverent, richly written romp but there are darker notes woven through that give it a memorable depth. Katherine is a delightful protagonist, but the people around her are all fascinating, their characters and circumstances beautifully nuanced. It’s also fantastic to see so many LGBT characters, and so accepted in their world. I intend to read Swordspoint as soon as I can, as well as book three in the Riverside series, The Fall of the Kings.