some lovely odds-n-ends, but it was basically a feature length episode of Law & Order: Medieval Victims Unit, with next to no exciting progress in any direction until the last third. most of it was interviews all over town, and a series of introductions to any one of a hundred characters who have nothing to do with anything—though each of them struck me as nicely done in themselves.if you like your gumshoe detective stories romance-free, long as hell, and with a minumum of explosions, murder, or...

This is a very solid fantasy mystery with a well fleshed-out cast of characters. It's set in a world that somewhat resembles 17th century France but quite clearly isn't. The world-building is probably one of the best things about the book. Few authors make the effort to really establish a society that has its basis in concepts we know (like guilds and astrology) but put them together in such a unique way that something really new and original is the result. After reading one too many shoddily pu...

Melissa Scott's mystery/investigation books are becoming definite comfort reads for me. Death by Silver and its sequel were already on that list, and now I'm adding the Astreiant books as well. This one doesn't actually have any romance in it, but the development of Philip and Nico's working relationship is just lovely, and it was established to my satisfaction that both of them are queer. It's slow-paced, but that worked for me here, as that time goes into creating a host of interesting charact...

So boring. So so so so so boring. I read this almost 20 years ago, when I was desperately eager to find queer representation in spec fic. This was one of the first things I found, and you have no idea (or maybe you do) how very much I wanted to love it. It would have been so very easy to please me. But this -- it was such a painful slog, and I reached the end without seeing even a glimmer of attraction between the MCs. After reading 3* books by this author, I know it's a clear-cut case of "not t...

This novel is incredibly satisfying, despite being fairly uneven technically. The characters are charismatic; the mystery, though fairly simple, maintains an excellent sense of tension due to the stakes; and the world is fascinating, lovingly detailed, and fairly unique among fantasy worlds. I stayed up all night to finish this, and immediately wanted to read the next in the series. (Sadly, neither of the two other Astreiant books are available in any of the library systems I have access to.)It'...

Set in a fictional fantasy world similar to seventeenth century England. The main difference is that astrology is real--and not only can it be used to accurately predict the future, it can be used to change it as well. The premise and plot are pretty good, but it gets bogged down in minutia. I know what the two main characters had for literally every meal of the week the story covers. I know how they hang their jackets, I know where they buy their ale--every single conversation, meal, and clothi...

VERY mixed reviews, so who knows. I used to read all of Melissa Scott's SF. Less of her fantasy. Well, let's see if the library has a copy....They do, but just an ebook. So, later, maybe? Here's JD Nicoll's brief @tor.comhttps://www.tor.com/2021/09/27/when-a..."What begins for Pointsman Rathe as a simple case of a missing apprentice soon takes on far more ominous significance. Eighty of the city of Astreiant’s children have vanished. A handful of runaways might be expected, but eighty suggests k...

I am a sucker for intricately wrought world building that is intrinsic to the plot of a fantasy murder mystery, let me TELL YOU.

This was very much a mystery in a fantasy world which, for me, was one of the features that drew me in. The promise of an M/M romance in a feminist world brimming with astrological magic further sealed the book as a must-read for me.Having read it, the worldbuilding did not disappoint, and in fact I came to appreciate just how fleshed out everything was. The authors have taken gender-roles (mostly) out of things, other than the fact that women rule the country and there are female heirs. Otherwi...

This was just glorious fun. Beautifully and apparently effortlessly developed fantasy world, without the leaden heaps of description and exposition that make so much worldbuilding unreadable. You get a political plot, a cultural background, a whole social structure and a magic system, all conveyed as integral parts of a fast paced investigation plot, with plenty of room for character development. *And* there's three novels and a novella, so I won't be reading anything else for some time. I can't...

On the one hand I love fantasies, especially if they have gay characters, but I usually find even the best detective-stories dull.This is a classical detective-story set in an alternative XVI century French-like kingdom.The two authors outline a believable society and they enrich their descriptions with many interesting and witty details: the result, admirable though it is, is overwhelming and yet it would have born more development.Writing is professional and subtle but the story develops slowl...

This really could’ve used some action. I would’ve even settled for a sense of urgency. But holy cow was there a lot of description of stuff and talking. Then some more description of stuff and more talking. And more often than I liked it involved repeating something they’d already told one person to a second person so the reader goes through it twice. The whole book is basically Nico crisscrossing the city multiple times to question people. Argh. Major pacing problems, she added silently*. Plus

2.5 starsThis is a barely-fantasy, kinda-mystery, lackadaisical "adventure" story loosely based on 17th- or 18th-century France in a city vaguely reminiscent of Paris. Children are going missing. 85 of them! Which no one figures out until the 85th gets nabbed. And then we follow along for three weeks as Rathe talks and talks and talks to various characters we never see again, while no further children go missing, and the very obvious cause of the disappearances that Rathe even suspects very earl...

Goodness, this was a delight! High fantasy in a matriarchal society and with queer themes--definitely not a romance, at least not yet, but it's clear there's ~something~ between the two male leads that apparently develops in the future books. Procedural/case!fic type read, and a bit slow to start, but by the end I was hooked. World-building was a little confusing at times, but not to the point where I ever felt truly lost, and I'm excited to keep reading the series!

One of those patently 'me' books that I know will be very difficult to recommend to anyone else - a low-stakes, low-action fantasy that seemingly does little more than to follow the protagonists through their day to day lives, but that manages to create a lush and complex world in between those mundane details. It also features the rarest of character types - reasonable, decent people who are particularly skilled at not letting anger lead their action and are able to diffuse difficult situations...

I bought this book ages ago, in paperback no less, mainly because I'd seen such glowing reviews of it. And it sat in a bookcase. Every time I went to read it there was a reason why not, and then someone I dislike reviewed it and I just couldn't bring myself to read it for almost a year. But last week the time seemed right !It took me a while to get into this, there is a lot going on and some of it doesn't seem very relevant to what I thought was the focus , and there is a lot of world building t...

One of my favorite SF worlds, and basically just a really good book. It's an everyone-is-queer, nonobvious-matriarchy secondary-world police procedural mystery fantasy in a world that looks kind of sort of like Renaissance Holland if you squint. (Melissa Scott has a PhD in comparative history. Her worldbuilding is awesome. I first heard of her via Trouble and Her Friends, which I picked up because it was cyberpunk and was pleasantly surprised to find that it was very, very queer.) And if that's

Wonderful. This is the first book in a cool fantasy mystery series and I really liked it. The main characters are neat, the mystery is engaging, and the story's really interesting. The world-building in this series is amazing. It's thorough and detailed and lush and I love it. Astreiant seems vaguely based on Renaissance-era Holland and it's quite a refreshing and neat place to visit. It's an astrologically-based matriarchal society where women run the government, run business and trade, and own...

Points of Hopes is a fantasy mystery with a historical feel, although it’s set in a different world. In the city of Astreiant, children are disappearing. Rafe is one of the watchmen investigating the case, but there are few clues as to who is taking the children. And in the mean time, the city simmers on the edge of its boiling point.This book was not suited to me, especially during final exam season. The prose is dense, and my mind kept drifting off as I tried to read. It was also really slow g...

I've read this ages ago but never actually got around to writing a review.Anyway, Point of Hopes is the first book in the Astreiant series (Shelfari lists Armor of Light as part of the same series, but it's actually not), and I have to admit that Astreiant is not an easy place to understand. It probably has to do with the fact that I read book 2 before this one, but anyway:The place feels medieval Europe, with a childless Queen (I'm guessing patterned after Queen Elizabeth I), and astrology actu...