An interesting mystery, the start of the romance we have all been waiting for, more on the mysterious Point of Knives. More of the characters I've come to love and care for. What more could I wish for? ;)

"Ok so I know we're secretly dating but now my boss WANTS us to secretly date, while solving murders." "Perfect."

Set in an alternate pseudo-Renaissance world full of magics, pointsmen, wizards, necromancers and deadly political games, Point of Knives by Melissa Scott is a brand new novella that links the classic original fantasy Astreiant duology -- Point of Hopes and Point of Dreams -- by closing the gaps between the two books.In Point of Knives, Scott's main characters Adjunct Point Nicolas Rathe and ex-soldier Philip Eslingen, now Caiazzo's knife or bodyguard, are thrown together again by unusual circum...

As a devoted fan of the first two books in the Points series, I was absolutely delighted to learn that Melissa Scott would be writing a novella to fill in the blanks between book one (Point of Hopes) and book two (Point of Dreams). This book definitely didn't disappoint.I could go on endlessly about how much I love the setting of this series (the Renaissance Europe-esque world; the incorporation of astronomy, ghosts, and magic as almost mundane aspects of daily life; the female-centric social st...

I think that this is my favourite fantasy series, the world building is so good. Detailed and rich while feeling real, I know that sounds a bit daft but my major gripe with a lot of books is that I struggle to believe that people would behave like they do. But not here.There is romance, integrated into the mystery and world but it's not the primary focus, the writing is as always involving and beautiful.

The story is still engaging but it's lacking the level of detail that previous books had. It reads like a draft and I started disliking the word "russet" by the end.

Don't mind me, I'm just sneaking into the second book in the series without reading the first one because I found this in a library sale for like 50 cents and it was a fantasy/mystery with two guys who are romantically interested in each other. So sue me, I couldn't help myself. This was good, but it didn't blow me away. I'm sure I would've been more invested if I had read the first book (which I am tempted to do even though my socks are still solidly on post-reading), but even so I enjoyed comi...

I keep on giving these books three stars, and I keep on coming back to edit them. /o\A novella set between Hopes and Dreams, where I first expected Ms Scott to talk about how Rathe and Eslingen got together, but which didn't (they were mostly together at this time. Ms Scott describes Knives as 'a courtship interrupted by murder' which I think is very apt). BUT FEAR NOT MY FRIEND. Ms Scott has written such a story, which you can find here.This one has more police procedural than the others (they

Really enjoyable novella sequel that futhers the ~romance~ aspect of the series, showing how Rathe and Eslingen progress in their relationship. Case was interesting, and I enjoyed the further worldbuilding, though I did find myself wishing for a smidge more in the relationship department. I've resigned myself to the fact that this series is much more world/plot-focused than character/relationship-focused, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, and it still makes for a very enjoyable read, even if

Yay more Astreiant! Slightly more emotional content (yay!) than the novels, but still, there are so many holes in the relationship aspect (and a whole lot of fade-to-black) that I desperately want fanfic for it. I suppose this was deliberate on Scott's part. It works, damn her.Scott's writing style has improved a bit, but she still uses way too many epithets. I am really sick of 'the Leaguer', is what I mean. But oh, the world is so nifty, and the details so clever and interesting, and the actua...

The novella we all wanted, as Nico and Philip find a way to establish a relationship in the teeth of their competing professions (policeman vs bodyguard to a notorious criminal). As with all this series, elegantly written, wonderfully built world, lovely understated romance along with a nice intriguing plot.

Oh heavens, this is such an enjoyable series. This one is so rich and intricate it may as well not be a novella, but I guess that's our only label for short novel, so we're stuck with it. It's Melissa Scott writing on her own in this series some years after POINT OF DREAMS--her late partner had co-authored the first two with her. As far as I can discern, the only noticeable difference in voice is a relative lack of French-esque names, and an abundance of Dutch-esque ones, where before when the c...

This is a lovely bridge novella between the two existing novels of Astreiant. It is very much a story of transitions -- Phillip is moving from one employer to another, Rathe is being moved from one posting to another, and they are moving emotionally closer to each other.The mystery in this one is a little less compelling than the other two, but the characterization is lovely and bittersweet. I think it is especially thought-provoking to realize Scott wrote this after the death of her long-time p...

A quick fun read with much better pacing than the first one (but it's also "just" a novella so there wasn't as much space for extensive descriptions of everything). The mystery was again intriguing and the characters charming. I don't think I'll wait quite as long to read the next one as I did after the first.

I really enjoyed this long, lovely novella. It is set in the time between the first (Point of Hopes) and second (Point of Dreams) books and adds a lot of depth to Nico's and Philip's respective characters. The mystery is engaging and we learn more about the fascinating world of Astreiant. The world-building, like in the rest of these books, is magnificent and so thorough. Also like the other books, this story is not a romance, it's an engrossing police procedural where the two main characters fa...

I am so happy that we are finally, finally getting more stories in the Points world, and I really loved this. Set between Hopes and Dreams, this novella explores Rathe and Eslingen's relationship, how exactly Rathe ends up transferred to Point of Dreams, and of course a murder or two to solve, with some magic.My only real complaint is that I wish we had seen Rathe and Eslingen first becoming romantically involved, which this book still doesn't provide; the beginning establishes that they had got...

fun little mystery. I think my favourite part about this book (besides everyone teasing Rathe about Eslingen) is that we get more worldbuilding! It becomes clearer in this book that this society leans matriarchal rather than patriarchal, with women in key positions of power and the concept of 'motherless child' being somewhat equivalent to our 'fatherless child', i.e. instead of the father being unknown or having abandoned the family, and that being a source of shame, it's the other way around.

I don't think I can overstate how much I love the circle made by how the intricate worldbuilding informs the plot informs the worldbuilding. And how much I love everybody in this bar. Now if you'll excuse me I need to get my horoscope read.

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 ne...

Well, this was better than the first book. It was far less ramble-prone, but it's also a third the length of the first book and most other books in this series. Even with the shorter length, there was still a tendency to dilly-dally. For all that this missing gold could potentially launch a political coup, there wasn't really a sense of urgency in finding it. And definitely no one should read these for the romance. After having zero hint of a romantic relationship - or even romantic feelings - b...