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This novelette originally appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, April-May 2009. It can also be found in the anthologies The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Volume Four (2010), edited by Jonathan Strahan, and Beyond Binary: Genderqueer and Sexually Fluid Speculative Fiction (2012), edited by Brit Mandelo.

WFA nominated short story. It originally appeared in the anthology Starlight 2 (1998), edited by Patrick Nielsen Hayden and was reprinted at Strange Horizons, 30 July 2012. It can also be found in the anthology The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror: Twelfth Annual Collection (1999), edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling. It is included in the collection Swordspoint (2003).

Read the full story for free at Strange Horizons.

This short story originally appeared in the anthology Naked City: Tales of Urban Fantasy (2011), edited by Ellen Datlow, and was reprinted in Uncanny Magazine, Issue 26, January - February 2019. It can also be found in the anthology Wilde Stories 2012: The Year's Best Gay Speculative Fiction (2012), edited by Steve Berman.

Read the full story for free at Uncanny.

WFA nominated novelette. It originally appeared in the anthology Bending the Landscape: Fantasy (1997), edited by Nicola Griffith and Stephen Pagel. The story can also be found in the anthology The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror: Eleventh Annual Collection (1998), edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling.

This story set in Kushner's World of Riverside originally appeared as a chapbook published by Temporary Culture. It can also be found in the Jonathan Strahan anthology The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year Volume Five (2011).

Read the full story for free at Tor.com.

Hailed by critics as "a bravura performance" (Locus) and "witty, sharp-eyed, [and] full of interesting people" (Newsday), this classic melodrama of manners, filled with remarkable plot twists and unexpected humor, takes fantasy to an unprecedented level of elegant writing and scintillating wit. Award-winning author Ellen Kushner has created a world of unforgettable characters whose political ambitions, passionate love affairs, and age-old rivalries collide with deadly results.

On the treacherous streets of Riverside, a man lives and dies by the sword. Even the nobles on the Hill turn to duels to settle their disputes. Within this elite, dangerous world, Richard St. Vier is the undisputed master, as skilled as he is ruthless--until a death by the sword is met with outrage instead of awe, and the city discovers that the line between hero and villain can be altered in the blink of an eye.

This stunning follow-up to Ellen Kushner's cult-classic novel, Swordspoint, is set in the same world of labyrinthine intrigue, where sharp swords and even sharper wits rule. Against a rich tapestry of artists and aristocrats, students, strumpets, and spies, a gentleman and a scholar will find themselves playing out an ancient drama destined to explode their society's smug view of itself–and reveal that sometimes the best price of uncovering history is being forced to repeat it.

Generations ago the last king fell, taking with him the final truths about a race of wizards who ruled at his side. But the blood of the kings runs deep in the land and its people, waiting for the coming together of two unusual men, Theron Campion, a young nobleman of royal lineage, is heir to an ancient house and a modern scandal. Tormented by his twin duties to his family and his own bright spirit, he seeks solace in the University. There he meets Basil St. Cloud, a brilliant and charismatic teacher ruled by a passion for knowledge–and a passion for the ancient kings. Of course, everyone now knows that the wizards were charlatans and the kings their dupes and puppets. Only Basil ins not convinced–nor is he convinced that the city has seen its last king…

Welcome to Riverside, where the aristocratic and the ambitious battle for power in the city's ballroom, brothels and boudoirs. Into this alluring world walks Katherine, a well-bred country girl versed in the rules of conventional society. Her mistake is thinking that they apply. For Katherine's host and uncle, Alec Campion, aka the Mad Duke Tremontaine, is in charge here--and to him, rules are made to be broken.

When Alec decides it would be more amusing for his niece to learn swordplay than to follow the usual path to marriage, her world changes forever. Blade in hand, it's up to Katherine to navigate a maze of secrets and scoundrels--and to gain the self-discovery that comes to those who master....