Angela Lemus-Mogrovejo joins us to discuss Ellen Kushner’s “Swordspoint”, the indie tabletop roleplaying game scene, questioning why fantasy is wedded to the European medieval era, our patron polls, confusing characters with one another in political intrigue, relatable gay content, a shortage of female characters being given the spotlight, female characters as whores and laundresses, examples of noir prose, giving the generic fantasy tavern more character, making cool use of support characters, scholars of disappearance, and much more!
Appendix N Book Club 
I adore this book and its sequel, Privilege of the Sword.
So a little disappointed we got a guest who didn’t like it very much. And of all the books Appendix N has covered, this was not one I expected to be dunked on for being heavy on heterosexual and patriarchal tropes.
On the specific points about one armed swordsmen and preferring death to disability, I would have two comments: First, I don’t think the duelists are meant to be idealized or their attitudes embraced. An second, well, the sequel has some relevant drama that might clarify Ellen Kushner’s attitudes to this question.
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