A review by crimsoncor
The Fall of the Kings by Delia Sherman, Ellen Kushner

3.0

I was so excited by the first half of this book. Academic in-fighting AND political machinations. What more could a reader want. But there are two things that really pulled this book down, for me. The first is that the core emotional plot really ended up being a less effective retread of the Swordspoint plot. Theron is (literally and narratively) a bargain bin version of Alec and his relationship with St Cloud doesn't tread any new ground. But my bigger complaint--and I guess I'll stick it behind a spoiler tag even though this is twenty years old now--is

Spoiler

the magic! I mean come on. The entire thing I loved about the Riverside world is that magic isn't a thing. Sure, people might hint at magic some mystical shit, but it is always bullshit because this is a real world. The big reveal that "magic has always been real but the land lost it moved the needle for me, but in the wrong direction. The erasure of the big debate on the scientific method (and yes, I'm weird, but I was looking forward to that) because St Cloud used magic to make his opponent bark like a dog was just massively disappointing.

. If you took all that out, then even with the least original plot of the three Riverside books, this still would have been excellent. As it stands, it was fine, but definitely not what is it should have been.