The Privilege of the Sword
core novel 2006 Riverside
Record
| First published | 2006 |
|---|---|
| Original language |  EN |
| Work type | novel |
| Canon status | core |
| Reader rating | 3.93 (5,488 ratings, collected 2026-09-15) |
| Page count | 378 |
| First-edition ISBN | 9780553382686 |
Synopsis
The Privilege of the Sword follows Katherine Talbert, a young noblewoman summoned from her family's modest country estate by her estranged and famously eccentric uncle, the Duke of Riverside's capital estate. Rather than arranging the conventional debut and marriage her family expects, the Duke insists Katherine train as a swordswoman, dressing her in men's clothing and installing her among duelists and swordmasters in a household notorious for scandal. Katherine must adapt quickly to this unfamiliar life, learning swordplay and navigating the Hill's aristocratic society from an unusual position between genders and social expectations, all while trying to determine whether her uncle's unconventional plans for her are meant to protect her, use her, or simply indulge his own reputation for provocation, and what price she may pay for his patronage.
Where it sits
- Universe: Riverside
- Series: Riverside core; position 3 of 3 in the series' recorded order
- Author: Ellen Kushner
Awards (verified)
- Locus Award (Best Fantasy Novel), 2007: won; 1st place per sfadb, this project's accepted primary source for Locus lineage; registered as won per the no-cutoff Locus-poll convention's own 1st-place exception.
- Nebula Award (Best Novel), 2006: nominated; Confirmed directly via nebulas.sfwa.org's own nominated-work page.
- World Fantasy Award (Best Novel), 2007: nominated; Confirmed directly via worldfantasy.org's own 2007 convention award page.
Notes
- Riverside #2 by internal chronology (set ~18 years after Swordspoint).
- 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 3 of 3: previous The Fall of the Kings (2002)
Sources
- Wikipedia: Swordspoint
- The Nebula Awards: The Privilege of the Sword (nominated work page)
- World Fantasy Convention: 2007 World Fantasy Convention (award nominees/winners)
- sfadb: Ellen Kushner
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Privilege_of_the_Sword
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