The Fall of the Kings

The Fall of the Kings is set in a universe established in Kushner's novel Swordspoint (more on that later), and is about a young man with a streak of madness in him who just might the descendent of royalty, deposed centuries earlier and now anathema to even speak about, and his lover, a historian who might also be a wizard. The romance plot and the magical/political one are interwoven neatly, and frankly, once I started this book I couldn't put it down; the prose was that engaging. Too bad the mood was a little ruined by a totally inconclusive ending. I still loved it, though, well enough to buy the other two novels in the series.

University intrigue, city politics, treason and old magic. Of the three Riverside books this would probably be my least favourite. A reason for that may be that I didn’t find a character to care about the way I cared about St Vier in Swordspoint and Katherine in The Privilege of the Sword.