Note: rating changed from 3 to 4 stars on this reread.

I enjoyed this book the first time I read it, but I didn't get it, not in the way that I got it this time. Kushner's writing is within the realm of fantasy, but not really fantasy and her characters are enough to drive you mad even when you love them.

Listening to the book did make me love them again (even the damn Mad Duke, who is delightfully, wonderfully awful) and Katherine's story resonates now in a way that it didn't when I first read the book (which my brain believes was a long time ago, but it only came out 8 years ago so clearly I'm misremembering). I think I had read it then with the goal of making sense out of [b:The Fall of Kings|20002|The Fall of the Kings (Riverside, #3)|Ellen Kushner|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1388335315s/20002.jpg|1441950]...which is still a goal of mine.

But returning to this book not long after listening through [b:Swordspoint|68485|Swordspoint (Riverside, #1)|Ellen Kushner|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1388903158s/68485.jpg|1453593], I find I like it a lot better (also, how did I forget about St. Vier?) for the story it tells, the realness of the characters, the rawness of the situations they face and how well Kushner deals with the role of women and, as she puts it, the Privilege of the Sword. This book does so many clever things that I entirely failed to appreciate on first read and I'm so glad I took the time to listen.

Well, I have audible credits sitting around. I wonder whether [b:The Fall of Kings|20002|The Fall of the Kings (Riverside, #3)|Ellen Kushner|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1388335315s/20002.jpg|1441950] will win me over if I try it one more time.