Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Unavailable
    Point of Dreams: A Novel of Astreiant
    Unavailable
    Point of Dreams: A Novel of Astreiant
    Unavailable
    Point of Dreams: A Novel of Astreiant
    Ebook501 pages7 hours

    Point of Dreams: A Novel of Astreiant

    By Melissa Scott and Lisa A Barnett

    4.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    “Readers of police procedurals will recognize the form of Point of Dreams, if not the details, which are necessarily changed by the fantasy setting.... Scott and Barnett blend the genres deftly, transposing their mystery plot seamlessly into their magical world, effectively building suspense and scattering both clues and red herrings with panache.... Point of Dreams is a thoroughly rewarding reading experience.”
    —SF Site

    The citizens of Astreiant have become obssessed by a new play, The Drowned Island, a lurid farrago of melodrama and innuendo. Pointsman Nicolas Rathe is not amused, however, at a real dead body found on the stage and must investigate. A string of murders follows, perhaps related to the politically important masque that is to play on that same stage. Rathe must once again call on the help of his soldier lover, Philip Eslingen, whose knowledge of actors and the stage blends well with Rathe’s own hard-won experience of human greed and magical mayhem.

    Their task is complicated by the season, for it is the time of year when the spirits of the dead haunt the city and influence everyone, and also by the change in their relationship when the loss of Philip’s job forces him to move in with Nicolas. Mystery, political intrigue, magic, and romance—on and off stage—fill the pages of this Lambda Literary Award-winning novel.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherLethe Press
    Release dateJul 20, 2013
    ISBN9781301065448
    Unavailable
    Point of Dreams: A Novel of Astreiant
    Author

    Melissa Scott

    Melissa Scott is from Little Rock, Arkansas, and studied history at Harvard College and Brandeis University, where she earned her PhD in the Comparative History program. She is the author of more than thirty original science fiction and fantasy novels, most with queer themes and characters, as well as authorized tie-ins for Star Trek: DS9, Star Trek: Voyager, Stargate SG-1, Stargate Atlantis, and Star Wars Rebels. She won Lambda Literary Awards for Trouble and Her Friends, Shadow Man, Point of Dreams (written with her late partner, Lisa A. Barnett), and Death By Silver, with Amy Griswold. She also won Spectrum Awards for Shadow Man, Fairs’ Point, Death By Silver, and for the short story “The Rocky Side of the Sky” (Periphery, Lethe Press) as well as the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer. She was also shortlisted for the Otherwise (Tiptree) Award. Her latest short story, “Sirens,” appeared in the collection Retellings of the Inland Seas, and her text-based game for Choice of Games, A Player’s Heart, came out in 2020. Her most recent solo novel, Water Horse, was published in June 2021. Her next solo novel, The Master of Samar, will be out in 2023.

    Read more from Melissa Scott

    Related to Point of Dreams

    Related ebooks

    Gay Fiction For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Oat Grass

      Jun 25, 2020

      Oat Grass
      4 min read

    • Article

      Cookies

      Sep 23, 2021

      Cookies
      3 min read

    • Article

      Tuesday New Release Day: Starring Orner, Dermansky, Simic, Tate, and More

      Jul 2, 2019

      Sexy satire, a biography of the semicolon, and the latest collection from a Pulitzer Prize-winning poet are just a few of the new reads out this week. The post Tuesday New Release Day: Starring Orner, Dermansky, Simic, Tate, and More appeared first o

      8 min read

    • Article

      A Year in Reading: Matt Seidel

      Dec 18, 2021

      This spring, I became involved in a fence dispute with a neighbor. I have decided to transmute any lingering resentment into literary channels, and thus my year in reading focuses on fences literal and metaphorical. The post A Year in Reading: Matt S

      4 min read

    • Article

      Must-Read Poetry: June 2018

      Jun 5, 2018

      Here are six notable books of poetry publishing in June. American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin by Terrance Hayes “I wanted to have my form and explode it too,” said Wanda Coleman of sonnets. Hayes names her with gratitude in this book. Ath

      5 min read

    • Article

      In The Spotlight:your Writing Dark Side

      Dec 7, 2023

      Spooky season evidently offered creative inspiration aplenty for the WM writers, who responded to the call for writing in November’s crime-themed issue on the theme of ‘Dark Side’ with our fullest mailbox yet. The poetry and prose sent in demonstrate

      4 min read

    • Article

      TWO ESSAYS from FINGER EXERCISES FOR POETS

      Nov 1, 2022

      Russian Formalists have a word, “ostranenie,” which means constantly attempting to discover new ways of looking at everyday things. There are almost always two realities rubbing up against one another in every poem, whether they are specified or not,

      10 min read

    • Article

      Book Reviews

      Feb 17, 2022

      A year ago, in the May 2021 issue of this magazine, I reviewed a book by Erin Sullivan titled Where in the World: Astro*Carto*Graphy and Relocation, and though I certainly recommended it for the content, and for Erin Sullivan’s clear knowledge of the

      3 min read

    • Article

      Great Read

      Jun 16, 2021

      Great Read
      4 min read

    • Article

      Alice And The Jabberwocky

      Apr 10, 2022

      ‘Twas brillig, and the slithy tovesDid gyre and gimble in the wabe:All mimsy were the borogoves,And the mome raths outgrabe. Once again, Alice found herself in her bedroom, feeling rather mimsy indeed. Every day now, at two o’clock, she would sit at

      18 min read

    • Article

      A Clean, Crisp Wind

      Jun 1, 2019

      A Clean, Crisp Wind
      8 min read

    • Article

      Worlds Of Ink And Paper

      Nov 22, 2022

      As a young girl, I still remember my dear mother, smile on her face, curled up with Family Circle magazine in her lap. She was engrossed in an article titled “Butternut Wisdom,” written by Gladys Taber. At my age, it didn’t mean a thing to me. But as

      6 min read

    • Article

      New Titles

      Oct 10, 2018

      By George Keithley George Braziller, Inc. “The Donner Party is one of the three or four finest book-length American poems ever written.”—Poetry. “Out of the western migration of the 1840s…Keithley has made a lean, taut narrative poem that moves with

      9 min read

    Reviews for Point of Dreams

    4.5/5

    75 ratings4 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      This is a sequel to Point of Hopes. Basically, this is a mystery series; it just happens to be set in a fantasy world with an interesting cosmology and magic system. Just as the real test of whether you're likely to enjoy Hammerfall is whether you enjoy Cherryh's fantasy, not her sf, I think the real test of whether you're likely to enjoy this book is whether you enjoy mystery series, not whether you enjoy fantasy series.

      Astreiant is the capital city of a land with a roughly 17th century level of technology, with the difference that magic and divination work, with interesting effects on the culture. Somewhat earlier than in our world, the inhabitants are inventing policemen--called pointsmen--to investigate crimes and arrest malefactors. This is still a new idea, and the pointsmen, especially the Chief and Adjunct Points who have to deal with aristocracy unaccustomed to the idea that anyone other than the Queen can question their actions, have problems because of it.

      Adjunct Point Nicholas Rathe, recently transferred from Point of Hopes to Point of Dreams, is handed a murder investigation which is potentially politically explosive, and has another murder investigation snatched away from him and handed to a younger but well-connected pointsman of whose abilities he entertains serious doubts. Meanwhile, his lover, Philip Eslingen, has lost his former position and found another, as the newest member of the Masters of the Guild of Defense, who provide all military and/or fighting performances in Astreiant's theaters. Life is further enlivened by the fact that this is the Ghost Tide, the time of year when even the normally quiet dead return to visit their living friends and family. None of these things, naturally, remains unrelated to the others.

      Very enjoyable.
    • 5/5
      More assured than Point of Hopes and a marvelously inventive scheme. I won't even tell you about it, because it is too much fun.

      Sadly, Lisa Barnett died around the time this was published, but I'm delighted that Melissa Scott is writing another book set in Astreiant, "Point of Knives".
    • 4/5
      Upgraded from three to four stars - I enjoyed this more on re-read than I originally did. The mystery plot is fun and clever, and the dynamic between Rathe and Eslingen is wonderful. But the real star in this series is the worldbuilding. The reimagined Elizabethan era with gender equity and full acceptance of queer relationships is both well thought-out and satisfying to linger in. Very rewarding read.
    • 5/5
      As well written and exciting as Point of Hopes . Philip and Nico are just way too cute. The mystery was pretty interesting and well developed. I wouldn't hesitate to pick it up.