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A review by hrjones
Point of Knives by Melissa Scott
4.0
Having recently picked up the third novel in the Astreiant series (Fair’s Point) I realized that I had somehow missed the Novella Point of Knives that fits between the first two books in the series. This has now been corrected. (When I started reading, I suddenly wondered if I’d simply forgotten that I’d read it, but realized that I’d heard the opening at an author reading, probably at Darkovercon.)
I love Scott’s writing style--especially the way the world of Astreiant is unfolded for us on a need-to-know basis, as if the reader were exploring a dark warehouse with a flashlight. I have an inordinate fondness for world-building that plunges in and simply expects me to keep up. The setting is Renaissancey in feel, both in terms of tech and social politics, with the interesting twist that political and economic power is dominated by women. (This is never explained--that wouldn’t fit with the exposition style--it simply “is”.) But there are plenty of clues that we’ve stepped entirely out of the world we know, in particular the way the astrology (which has great social importance) relies on the movements of an entirely different set of heavenly bodies than ours.
But this is all by-the-by. What we have is, in essence, a bit of a mystery, a bit of police procedural, and a bit of romance. The police-equivalent Nicholas Rathe once again finds himself investigating a crime in which his one-time lover Philip Eslingen is entangled. This time involving murdered sailors and missing smuggled gold. If I had one complaint about the writing, it would be that the reader rather gets hammered over the head with the reasons why Rathe and Eslingen struggle to keep their emotional distance (if not, as the story evolves, their physical distance). Both characters seem to spend an inordinate amount of interior monologue reminding themselves of these reasons.
The crime plot itself proceeds quickly, though not predictably. This is not the sort of whodunnit where the reader can guess ahead to the outcome. Too many of the forces and factors in play are part of the alien setting and hard to evaluate. The most suspicious figure turns out, indeed, to be the culprit, though the specific motivations seem to get lost in the shuffle and several clue-threads are dropped without resolution. The personal relationship between the two men is delightfully real and engaging, and we’re left for the set-up (seen in the earlier-written but later-in-timeline Point of Dreams) where they are free to have a more open partnership.
As an aside that has nothing to do with this specific story: I confess to a wistful desire to have Scott write some Astreiant stories about women. Given the gender politics of the setting, there must be a lot of intriguing possibilities. There are plenty of minor female characters, but the series is clearly all about the men.
I love Scott’s writing style--especially the way the world of Astreiant is unfolded for us on a need-to-know basis, as if the reader were exploring a dark warehouse with a flashlight. I have an inordinate fondness for world-building that plunges in and simply expects me to keep up. The setting is Renaissancey in feel, both in terms of tech and social politics, with the interesting twist that political and economic power is dominated by women. (This is never explained--that wouldn’t fit with the exposition style--it simply “is”.) But there are plenty of clues that we’ve stepped entirely out of the world we know, in particular the way the astrology (which has great social importance) relies on the movements of an entirely different set of heavenly bodies than ours.
But this is all by-the-by. What we have is, in essence, a bit of a mystery, a bit of police procedural, and a bit of romance. The police-equivalent Nicholas Rathe once again finds himself investigating a crime in which his one-time lover Philip Eslingen is entangled. This time involving murdered sailors and missing smuggled gold. If I had one complaint about the writing, it would be that the reader rather gets hammered over the head with the reasons why Rathe and Eslingen struggle to keep their emotional distance (if not, as the story evolves, their physical distance). Both characters seem to spend an inordinate amount of interior monologue reminding themselves of these reasons.
The crime plot itself proceeds quickly, though not predictably. This is not the sort of whodunnit where the reader can guess ahead to the outcome. Too many of the forces and factors in play are part of the alien setting and hard to evaluate. The most suspicious figure turns out, indeed, to be the culprit, though the specific motivations seem to get lost in the shuffle and several clue-threads are dropped without resolution. The personal relationship between the two men is delightfully real and engaging, and we’re left for the set-up (seen in the earlier-written but later-in-timeline Point of Dreams) where they are free to have a more open partnership.
As an aside that has nothing to do with this specific story: I confess to a wistful desire to have Scott write some Astreiant stories about women. Given the gender politics of the setting, there must be a lot of intriguing possibilities. There are plenty of minor female characters, but the series is clearly all about the men.