So many interesting experiments going on in publishing today. One of the most successful to my eyes is the adaptation of Ellen Kushner’s Riverside stories and novels to serial publication via Serial Box—and a group authorial experience.I thought Season One a coupe de foudre on a number of levels. I wondered how a group effort would work, especially in attempting to emulate Ellen Kushner’s supple, witty style. And I wondered if the season would repeat storylines I already knew.I should not have w...

This time around, we're going back for a prequel set about a generation prior to the events of Swordspoint (I believe Alec has just been born, although it's only mentioned in passing and doesn't really come into play in the current events).We have a large cast this time around, including (but not limited to) Diane, wife of the Duke of Tremontaine (by the time of Swordspoint she'll be Duchess in her own right); Will, the aforementioned Duke; Rafe Fenton, a student at the University with some radi...

I enjoyed this; it was a fun revisiting of one of my favourite settings, that contains so many things that I enjoy. Plus some tasty bonuses, like foreign traders with their own views of the world, and a glance at the political complexities of intellectual development.Once again, the episodic nature of the initial medium led to some oddities of pacing, both within episodes and across the whole arc, but it worked better for me in this long-term unfolding-of-story style of "show" (rather than the m...

This sucked. Which is really, REALLY disappointing because Swordspoint is an old favorite that I've been rereading ever since my college days. The premise is good, and I like the idea of the characters, but the overall execution is AWFUL. I don't know if it was the serialized format, or the shared world aspect, or maybe Ellen Kushner is a bad editor, but something went seriously wrong. The contributors are all seasoned authors, but you sure wouldn't know it by the way they write!! The romance be...

I fell into this story and this world so easily, and immediately started loving all the characters, especially Micah, the daughter of turnip farmers who loves math and dresses as a boy when she comes to the city with her cousin to sell their wares at the market, because nobody bothers her when she dresses as a boy. And what a unique proposition: a novel with a common universe of characters, each chapter written by a different author. There were slight differences in voice, and except for one sce...

It was a fairy tale, they said—a Riverside fairy tale. The fair maiden Tess needed a protector, and so the foreign princess had fought every pretender until she found the one Riverside swordsman who was honest and true. [loc 3991]Serialised fiction, like the renaissance of the novella, is one of those publishing trends that's increased in popularity with the rise of the e-reader. Personally I prefer my fiction in complete chunks, so -- after sampling the first 'episode' of this SerialBox series

I'm kinda disappointed because The Privilege of the Sword is one of my favourite novels ever, because it hit so many fantastic emotional and narrative notes for me, and then Swordspoint won me over with a strange charm. This had neither? It was slow and kind of blander (which is a shame because I know how immersive the setting can be in TPOTS) and didn't have nearly as great an emotional, melodramatic crescendo of a climax. The writing by every author involved was fine, but the plot let me down....

A faux-historical romp through the queered world of Tremontaine. Although a little pantomime-ish in places, it's generally an easy holiday read. At times the shift from author to author was slightly disruptive.

Swordspoint is and always will be one of my favourite books of all time, right along with its sequels. Any return to the world of Riverside was therefore bound to make its way onto my TBR. When this novella series first came out, I picked up the first few parts immediately upon release, but eventually decided I'd rather wait for the omnibus edition and read them all at once - never mind that it's taken me a few years longer than expected to finally get around to it. Introducing a bunch of fascin...

Riverside is back! Yay!!!1. I honestly didn't realize this "serial novel" was a Riverside book when I picked it up, so was quite delighted to find that it is. I still have my doubts about the story being 'shared' by a number of different writers, but I'll see how that goes when I move along to the sequels. This first installment, however, is by Ellen Kushner herself, and even though it's really just an introduction, it's got the magic!Here we meet the Duchess of Tremontaine, a savvy but less-tha...

3 of 5 stars at The BiblioSanctum https://bibliosanctum.com/2017/04/27/...Driven by the excellent experience I had with Bookburners earlier this year, I vowed to myself I would check out more serials from Serial Box. Pleasantly surprised by how well the structure of the serial novel worked for me, I wanted more—and thus my attention immediately fell upon Tremontaine Season One, the collection of all thirteen episodes released from Saga Press.But while Bookburners came out of the gate running, th...

An eARC of this book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This review reposted from my blog The Conversationalist. What isn’t to love about sword wielding women, politics, hot chocolate, frocks, parties, manners and physics? The serial format of Tremontaine works very well, it’s clear that the background world and universe of Ellen Kushner’s is beloved by all the authors that are invited to play in the world for this story. I’d fallen off the appeal of epic fantasy for...

FRTC.

Brilliant! And the narrators were awesome, especially the duchess.

Due to life, it took me several weeks to finish this book. But like a good cup of hot chocolate, this was a book to be savored. It was twisty and full of political machinations, and I loved it. (Though side note: The plot was not nearly twisty enough, or subtle enough in its twists for me. But maybe that was the point? Since the book mimicked a season of a TV show, foreshadowing could be a little heavyhanded deliberately.)I had not read the original Riverside books, though they are on my shelf.

I read the season without having read the original novels by Kushner, and knowing very little about them beyond the fact that they are a staple where queer sff is concerned.The truth is, I started reading Tremontaine season 1 a long while ago. I got through the first three episodes on my own before becoming frustrated with the format, particularly when some sections appeared to become repetitive (giving us the same information to clue in a reader who read the last part a month ago would be okay,...

I picked this up attracted by the idea of a swashbuckling LGBTQIA adventure written in a shared-world way by multiple authors.The result is indeed a fabulous swashbuckler of a book, with terrific characters and excellent worldbuilding. The writers overlap timelines occasionally, offering difference perspectives for characters. The styles don't always meld quite smoothly and sometimes information is repeated, but on the whole the shared writing works very well.The various and intertwined stories

Thanks to netgalley.com, the authors and serial box for the advance ARC copy for my honest review.'Tremontaine: Season One', was a recommendation from a co-worker of mine, figured why not give it a try, it's my first read of a Riverside book and even if it's not a typical genre that I read. That it was a serial installment book, with various authors did make it attractive to read and also may discover new authors to read. With that said, I did like Ellen Kushner, Alaya Dawn Johnson, Malinda Lo,

Tremontaine is the prequel to Ellen Kushner’s Swordspoint and also a story published through Serial Box, a service that provides serialized “episodes” of written stories somewhat in the manner of TV shows, with different authors writing each episode. The edition I’m reviewing gathers together all thirteen episodes of Season One into a single volume.Duchess Diane Tremontaine teeters on the edge of financial and social ruin when a ship she’d heavily invested in goes down at sea. At the university,...

Romance and adventure in the chocolate trade! Big fun. http://fedpeaches.blogspot.com/2016/0...