Swordspoint
core novel 1987 Riverside
Record
| First published | 1987 |
|---|---|
| Original language |  EN |
| Work type | novel |
| Canon status | core |
| Reader rating | 3.80 (11,133 ratings, collected 2026-08-27) |
| Page count | 329 |
| First-edition ISBN | 9780877959236 |
Where it sits
- Universe: Riverside
- Series: Riverside core; position 1 of 3 in the series' recorded order
- Author: Ellen Kushner
Notes
- Riverside #1. A secondary-world city of duelists, nobles, and the titled "Hill" district's councils and chancellors, with no magic in evidence; the New York Times praised it specifically for its lack of magic, and it is widely cited as a founding text of the "fantasy of manners" subgenre.
- From the series record (Riverside): Publication order (1987, 2002, 2006) differs from internal chronology (Swordspoint, then Privilege of the Sword ~18 years later, then Fall of the Kings ~40 years later); both orders are well documented and not in dispute, so no unresolved-chronology case applies here.
Neighbouring works
Publication order and internal chronology are tracked as two separate orderings and are never conflated: a book's place in one says nothing about its place in the other.
- Publication order, within the series Riverside: position 1 of 3: next The Fall of the Kings (2002)
Sources
← Riverside dossier · All universes
One of 3732 works in the Library. Fields without an identified source are omitted, never guessed.