The Privilege of the Sword is a fantasy novel by American author Ellen Kushner. First published in 2006 by Bantam Spectra, [1] the novel won the 2007 Locus Award [2] and was nominated for both the Nebula Award [3] for Best Novel and the Gaylactic Spectrum Award [4] in 2007. Although part of a series, the book also serves as a stand-alone.
Katherine Talbert, a young country girl from good origin, is invited by her uncle, the Mad Duke of Riverside, to come as a guest to his house in the capital, where he decides it would be more amusing for his niece to learn swordplay than to follow the usual path to marriage. As her world changes forever, Katherine must navigate into a world filled with secrets and scoundrels. It is not immediately clear what her Uncle really wants from her. She was always told that the Duke hated her family, so when he makes her look ridiculous in front of the city by letting her dress like a boy and swing a sword, Katherine is determined not to let him ruin her future.
The Privilege of the Sword was well received by critics, winning the 2007 Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel. [2] It was also nominated for the 2007 Nebula Award [3] and the 2007 Gaylactic Spectrum Award. [4] Robert N. Tilendis from Green Man Review said in his review, "If it predecessor Swordspoint is a perfect gem, The Privilege of the Sword is the gem in its full setting: elegant, wicked, funny, intelligent, and fluent." [5]
Ellen Kushner is an American writer of fantasy novels. From 1996 until 2010, she was the host of the radio program Sound & Spirit, produced by WGBH in Boston and distributed by Public Radio International.
Ian McDonald is a British science fiction novelist, living in Belfast. His themes include nanotechnology, postcyberpunk settings, and the impact of rapid social and technological change on non-Western societies.
Esther Mona Friesner-Stutzman, née Friesner is an American science fiction and fantasy author. She is also a poet and playwright. She is best known for her humorous style of writing, both in the titles and the works themselves. This humor allows her to discuss with broader audiences issues like gender equality and social justice.
The Gaylactic Spectrum Awards are given to works of science fiction, fantasy and horror that explore LGBTQ topics in a positive way. Established in 1998, the awards were initially presented by the Gaylactic Network, with awards first awarded in 1999. In 2002 the awards were given their own organization, the Gaylactic Spectrum Awards Foundation.
Ellen Klages is an American science, science fiction, fantasy and historical fiction writer who lives in San Francisco. Her novelette "Basement Magic" won the 2005 Nebula Award for Best Novelette. She had previously been nominated for Hugo, Nebula, and Campbell awards. Her first (non-genre) novel, The Green Glass Sea, was published by Viking Children's Books in 2006. It won the 2007 Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction. Portable Childhoods, a collection of her short fiction published by Tachyon Publications, was named a 2008 World Fantasy Award finalist. White Sands, Red Menace, the sequel to The Green Glass Sea, was published in Fall 2008. In 2010, her short story "Singing on a Star" was nominated for a World Fantasy Award. In 2018 her novella Passing Strange was nominated for the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Adult Literature.
Kelley Eskridge is an American writer of fiction, non-fiction and screenplays. Her work is generally regarded as speculative fiction and is associated with the more literary edge of the category, as well as with the category of slipstream fiction.
Holly Black is an American writer and editor best known for her children's and young adult fiction. Her most recent work is the New York Times bestselling young adult Folk of the Air series. She is also well known for The Spiderwick Chronicles, a series of children's fantasy books she created with writer and illustrator Tony DiTerlizzi, and her debut trilogy of young adult novels officially called the Modern Faerie Tales. Black has won a Lodestar Award, a Nebula Award, and a Newbery Honor.
Tim Pratt is an American science fiction and fantasy writer and poet. He won a Hugo Award in 2007 for his short story "Impossible Dreams". He has written over 20 books, including the Marla Mason series and several Pathfinder Tales novels. His writing has earned him nominations for Nebula, Mythopoeic, World Fantasy, and Bram Stoker awards and has been published in numerous markets, including Asimov's Science Fiction, Realms of Fantasy, Orson Scott Card's InterGalactic Medicine Show, and Strange Horizons.
Naomi Novik is an American author of speculative fiction. She is known for the Temeraire series (2006–2016), an alternate history of the Napoleonic Wars involving dragons, and her Scholomance fantasy series (2020–2022). Her standalone fantasy novels Uprooted (2015) and Spinning Silver (2018) were inspired by Polish folklore and the Rumpelstiltskin fairy tale respectively. Novik has won many awards for her work, including the Alex, Audie, British Fantasy, Locus, Mythopoeic and Nebula Awards.
Was is a WFA–nominated 1992 novel by Canadian author Geoff Ryman, published by HarperCollins, focusing on themes of L. Frank Baum's 1900 novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, and the 1939 musical film version, ranging across time and space from 1860s Kansas to late 1980s California.
Charles Coleman Finlay is an American science fiction and fantasy author and editor.
Sarah Elizabeth Monette is an American novelist and short story writer, mostly in the genres of fantasy and horror. Under the name Katherine Addison, she published the fantasy novel The Goblin Emperor, which received the Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel and was nominated for the Nebula, Hugo and World Fantasy Awards.
Bending the Landscape is the title of an award-winning series of LGBT-themed anthologies of short speculative fiction edited by Nicola Griffith and Stephen Pagel. Three books were produced between 1997 and 2002, subtitled Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror. Each volume won LGBT or genre awards.
The Gaylactic Spectrum Awards are given to works of science fiction, fantasy and horror that explore LGBTQ topics in a positive way. They were founded in 1998, first presented by the Gaylactic Network in 1999. In 2002 they were given their own organization, the Gaylactic Spectrum Awards Foundation.
The Gaylactic Spectrum Awards are given to works of science fiction, fantasy and horror which explore LGBTQ topics in a positive way. They were founded in 1998, first presented by the Gaylactic Network in 1999, and in 2002 they were given their own organization, the Gaylactic Spectrum Awards Foundation.
Amanda Downum is an American fantasy author best known for her Necromancer Chronicles trilogy: The Drowning City (2009), The Bone Palace (2010), and Kingdoms of Dust (2012). For these novels, which explore of LGBT topics and characters, she was nominated for the Gaylactic Spectrum Award, David Gemmell Award, and James Tiptree, Jr. Award. Downum’s books consist of themes relating to identity, gender roles and sexuality, death, secrets and social stratification.
Ann Leckie is an American author of science fiction and fantasy. Her 2013 debut novel Ancillary Justice, which features artificial consciousness and gender-blindness, won the 2014 Hugo Award for "Best Novel", as well as the Nebula Award, the Arthur C. Clarke Award, and the BSFA Award. The sequels, Ancillary Sword and Ancillary Mercy, each won the Locus Award and were nominated for the Nebula Award. Provenance, published in 2017, and Translation State, published in 2023, are also set in the Imperial Radch universe. Leckie's first fantasy novel, The Raven Tower, was published in February 2019.
Passing Strange is a 2017 LGBT fantasy novella by American writer Ellen Klages, published by Tor.com. It tells the story of several women's intersecting lives in 1940s San Francisco.
The Black Tides of Heaven is a 2017 LGBT fantasy novella by Singaporean author Neon Yang. The story centers around the twin children of the Protector, whose magic powers cause them to become entangled in the political machinations of their mother. It is one of the first two novellas in the Tensorate series, the other being The Red Threads of Fortune. It was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Novella, Locus Award for Best Novella, and World Fantasy Award for Best Novella.
Swordspoint: A Melodrama of Manners is a 1987 fantasy novel by Ellen Kushner. It is Kushner's debut novel and is one of several books and short stories in the Riverside series. Later editions of the novel were also bundled with three short stories set in the same universe. Swordspoint has been called a defining text of the fantasy of manners subgenre; Kushner was one of the first authors to use the phrase "fantasy of manners" to describe her own and similar works.