"The Privilege of the Sword," Ellen Kushner

A sequel to "Swordspoint" - Alec Tremontaine, the mad student, has grown up into the Mad Duke of Riverside and sends for his teenaged niece, Katherine, to make her into a swordswoman. Katherine gets involved in various intrigues and duels.

Katherine is a great heroine - unlike your typical fantasy heroine, she doesn't particularly want to pursue masculine interests at the beginning of the novel, yet she comes to appreciate the new freedom and power that her knowledge of the sword gives her. Also, the characters are allowed the loose sexual definitions of the first book, which makes for a nice, angst-free atmosphere (at least on that point - I remember reading Mercedes Lackey novels in which it seemed as if everyone was quite tolerant of whatever sexuality you were, until it became convenient for the plot for someone to pop up and start bothering the poor protagonist so they could be very sad and attempt to off themselves. Why are fantasy protagonists always so oppressed in such teenage ways? I mean, durr, the audience and all, but still.)

The one thing that bothered me was the re-use of Richard St. Vier and Alec - they're such outsize characters that I really just wanted to leave them be after "Swordspoint." While Alec's character development makes sense, he's still not as much glorious fun as his younger (older?) version. St. Vier becomes a sort of bland mentor figure, which also makes sense due to his part in the plot, but come on, where's the St. Vier who would take the life from every inch of a man's body? Alas.