Back in 2018, I coined the phrase “City-State Fantasy” in a review at Reactor in discussing Sam Hawke’s City of Lies. It’s a type of fantasy of medium states, set exclusively or almost exclusively in and around a city-state, which itself is a common location in fantasy. However, when the characters and the plot of a secondary world fantasy novel are inextricable from their city setting, and that city is itself a character, then you have city-state fantasy.
Point of Hopes, the first in a series of novels in the 1990’s by Melissa Scott and Lisa A. Barnett, fits well in that tradition. In particular it follows a line that goes from the city of Tremontaine (as written by Ellen Kushner in her Riverside novels and stories, through Point of Hopes, and on to works like Silasta, the aforementioned City of Lies, or the many Maradaine novels of Marshall Ryan Maresca, or the Kithamar novels of Daniel Abraham). I had read Point of Hopes (but not its sequels) in the mid 1990s, and so this first volume was a re-read for me.
Point of Hopes is set in a world where the city of Astreaint is not an individual political entity, it is the capital of a kingdom. However. all of the action takes place within its borders (aside from one culminating excursion). Astreaint’s technology is in our terms in mid to late 16th century in terms of firearms--flintlock firearms are just starting to replace wheellock firearms. Other technology we see seems to be in keeping with the period except for one thing that is definitely ahead of the curve, and that is clocks.
Astreaint, you see, and the entire world from what we can tell, is obsessed with keeping time, and the precise knowing of the hour is important. Why? Well, because in this world, magic most definitely exists, and more importantly, astrology here is both a magic and a science, and the stars most definitely affect one’s proclivities and strengths. It is made clear that the stars and one’s astrology are not *destiny* but they are a strong factor that cannot and should not be discounted in considering things like one’s occupation or career. So, knowing when you were born, as accurately as possible, is something that is rather important to the people in the world of Astreaint.
Oh, and there is one interesting bit, not used as much as it might be in this novel. And that is the world of Astreaint has two suns. There is a regular sun and a “winter sun” and it is clear that the orbital dynamics of the solar system are rather interesting (assuming this is a Copernican model of the universe, not at all certain of that!). I found myself imagining the lighting challenges of photography and graphic arts in capturing images in this world.
There are other forms of magic which are studied and practiced in Astreaint, too, particularly necromancy. The form of necromancy we get in the Point of Hopes universe is speaking with the spirits of the dead, that is to say, ghosts. The necromancer we meet in the story, a secondary character, becomes important less because of his skill in this area, and more in his more general skill as a sorcerer in general.
Our two main characters, our point of view characters who are on a slow burn romance (that will not bear fruit until later books) are an interesting mismatched pair. Nicolas Rathe is our street smart, from the streets pointsman (police man) who knows all the criminals and knows his beat rather well. He walks the mean streets of Astreaint, and, in contrast to many of his counterparts and fellow members on the force, is honest and doesn’t take bribes. On the other hand, he does have a friendship with a Wilson Fisk like character, Caiazzo. Caiazzo definitely is a crime lord but also has a lot of legitimate businesses.
Philip Eslingen is a soldier who has just finished a stint in a mercenary company for a rival nation, looking to bide his time and find some side work in Astreaint until, possibly, campaigning season starts again and he can pick up the trade of war once more. He’s good at fighting and relatively honest, and a pretty solid shot with his guns. He is a foreigner, however, and is used to show the prejudice the residents of Astreaint can have against Leaguers like him (the two nations fought a war recently, and even if there is trade between them).
These two meet as the city propels itself toward its annual fair, a celebration that this year is tainted and under threat, and forces Rathe and Eslingen into an uneasy but slow burning partnership and friendship.
The actual main plot, once we get the city and its nature and the nature of this world under its feet, is a mystery: many children are disappearing, more than be accounted for in the usual set of young people running away from their guild positions, or running to join mercenary companies, or trading caravans, or the like. How and why the children are disappearing does in fact, as you might expect, ties in directly to the astrology of the setting, but who and what and why I will leave for you to discover.
I will point out that the book is a slow burn in far more than just the romance. The plotting of the book is distinctly sedate if not slow. This gives us a lot of time to soak in and get to know Eslingen and Rathe and the characters around them rather well, as well as the world that they inhabit, before we get the plot in full motion. This may be a slight weakness to readers with modern sensibilities who want more crackle and pop and forward momentum from the get go. We get to meet a lot of characters, set up a lot of situations and take time in getting things together. The sheer legwork a pointsman has to do in finding that there IS a problem and that it is worse than anyone suspects does consume a fair amount of the book. It does give us through Rathe an opportunity to meet a variety of characters and see a variety of areas of the city, not just in his district (point), the titular Point of Hopes. It goes to, perhaps to a fault, to my thesis about city state fantasy making the city a character in and of itself. Astreaint definitely is definitely described in detail as the novel progresses. But it may take too long for modern readers.
Aside from that, however, I think the book has aged rather well. I did recall the incident that is depicted on the old cover of the book quite well (and rather disappointed, however, to learn that they were distinctly far more minor characters in the overall scheme of things than I had realized.). The casual accepted queerness of the novel’s setting is something I had not recalled in the earlier reading, but here, it is clear that Astreaint is close to what we would call queernorm, with one of the main characters possibly bisexual. No one makes any hay or deal out of it. Also, the role and positions of women in the world of Astreaint are strong and equal to men. The monarch is a queen, we come across many important members of the community as being women, including members and leaders of the Points themselves.
In fact, Point of Hopes makes it clear you can take an early Renaissance setting, not quite a analog of our own world, and improve on it by making it queer friendly, and balanced in terms of the roles and social power and position of women and men in society. This is a lesson that Point of Hopes got right three decades ago. And gets it right today, now that it is widely available again.
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Highlights:
- Strong sense of place and location
- Queer and diverse world
- A successful relaunch of a fantasy classic
Reference: Barnett, Lisa and Scott, Melissa, Point of Hopes, [Queen of Swords Press re-release, 2024]
POSTED BY: Paul Weimer. Ubiquitous in Shadow, but I’m just this guy, you know? @princejvstin.
