Wrong Train, Right Time (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
wrongtrainrighttime) wrote2017-11-28 07:03 pm
wrongtrainrighttime) wrote2017-11-28 07:03 pm
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Assorted Riverside shorts by Ellen Kushner
Here you will find brief reviews of: "The Swordsman Whose Name Was Not Death", "Red-Cloak", "The Man With the Knives", and "The Death of the Duke." Links included where possible. (Oh, how I wish for an collection of all the Riverside short fiction!)
"Red-Cloak"
Not available online; I read it in my eBook version which is the 2003 edition from Bantam.
According to the back matter of my Bantam 2003 eBook version of Swordspoint, this is the first piece about Richard and Alec that Kushner ever wrote, and it shows. The characters and dialogue aren't quite what they will be in the novel. Still, it's an interesting novelty due to the red-cloaked stranger, whose look and dialogue seem to be from another genre of novel entirely: you can sort of feel Kushner firmly rejecting classic fantasy tropes in how the encounter plays out.
"The Swordsman Whose Name Was Not Death."
http://www.fantasy-magazine.com/new/new-fiction/the-swordsman-whose-name-was-not-death/
In the back matter of Swordspoint and elsewhere, Kushner notes that this story was meant to illuminate the ways that Alec and Richard don't engage with the difficult and unpleasant lot of women in their society. (Here's an interview about exactly that which accompanied the reprint linked above.)
There's definite joy in seeing Richard and Alec again, but the fate of the girl in this story is sobering. I worry for her. (Though I also have my optimistic speculation!) So, probably just what Ellen Kushner meant for it to feel like.
"The Man With the Knives"
https://www.tor.com/2010/12/01/the-man-with-the-knives/
A missing link between Swordspoint and the later novels (which I'll review later, probably). Kushner's language is so heartbreaking in this story, with its twinned tales of Richard's death and the the development of Alec's new love. His grief is brutal to read, as if it's so great that the story of what happened must come out in repeats and fragments; it is too strong to be a linear tale. But his slowly developing love with Sophia provides a steady, strong counterpoint. Katabasis, a descent and return. It's a beautiful tale.
"The Death of the Duke"
http://strangehorizons.com/fiction/the-death-of-the-duke/
Another missing link,. It has a slow and elegaic feel; fitting, I suppose, as it's largely concerned with one man's illness and death. It's interesting to see how this old man both is and isn't like the man he was in Swordspoint. Somehow Kushner manages to make a story that's a meditation on a crazy life and an inevitable death compelling stuff. (And there's a final capstone for Richard and Alec, which is very fitting.)
The stakes of this and the previous story are very small, yet Kushner makes both seem larger than life. It's a neat trick, and amazing one, and a testament to her skill as a writer.
"Red-Cloak"
Not available online; I read it in my eBook version which is the 2003 edition from Bantam.
According to the back matter of my Bantam 2003 eBook version of Swordspoint, this is the first piece about Richard and Alec that Kushner ever wrote, and it shows. The characters and dialogue aren't quite what they will be in the novel. Still, it's an interesting novelty due to the red-cloaked stranger, whose look and dialogue seem to be from another genre of novel entirely: you can sort of feel Kushner firmly rejecting classic fantasy tropes in how the encounter plays out.
"The Swordsman Whose Name Was Not Death."
http://www.fantasy-magazine.com/new/new-fiction/the-swordsman-whose-name-was-not-death/
In the back matter of Swordspoint and elsewhere, Kushner notes that this story was meant to illuminate the ways that Alec and Richard don't engage with the difficult and unpleasant lot of women in their society. (Here's an interview about exactly that which accompanied the reprint linked above.)
There's definite joy in seeing Richard and Alec again, but the fate of the girl in this story is sobering. I worry for her. (Though I also have my optimistic speculation!) So, probably just what Ellen Kushner meant for it to feel like.
"The Man With the Knives"
https://www.tor.com/2010/12/01/the-man-with-the-knives/
A missing link between Swordspoint and the later novels (which I'll review later, probably). Kushner's language is so heartbreaking in this story, with its twinned tales of Richard's death and the the development of Alec's new love. His grief is brutal to read, as if it's so great that the story of what happened must come out in repeats and fragments; it is too strong to be a linear tale. But his slowly developing love with Sophia provides a steady, strong counterpoint. Katabasis, a descent and return. It's a beautiful tale.
"The Death of the Duke"
http://strangehorizons.com/fiction/the-death-of-the-duke/
Another missing link,. It has a slow and elegaic feel; fitting, I suppose, as it's largely concerned with one man's illness and death. It's interesting to see how this old man both is and isn't like the man he was in Swordspoint. Somehow Kushner manages to make a story that's a meditation on a crazy life and an inevitable death compelling stuff. (And there's a final capstone for Richard and Alec, which is very fitting.)
The stakes of this and the previous story are very small, yet Kushner makes both seem larger than life. It's a neat trick, and amazing one, and a testament to her skill as a writer.