Point of Hopes - Softcover

Scott, Melissa; Barnett, Lisa A.

3.81

1,062 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0812550994 ISBN 13: 9780812550993

Publisher: Tor Books, 1997

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A guard in the great city of Astreiant, Nicholas Rathe must calm an angry and frightened population as he searches the overcrowded streets of the city for a kidnapper and the children he has abducted, before it is too late. Reprint.

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From Publishers Weekly:

This new collaborative effort by Scott and Barnett, like their first (The Armor of Light), is a well-researched medieval fantasy told in a literate and urbane mannerist style. Rathe-a handsome, young, incorruptible pointsman (basically, a police detective)-is given the nearly impossible task of trying to discover why the children of the town of Point of Hopes are being spirited away in droves, and where they are being taken. For assistance, he enlists the aid of both an out-of-work soldier, Phillip Eslinger, and the necromancer Istre b'Estorr. Astrology, necromancy, greed and power struggles all play major roles as Rathe attempts to find the children before a major astrological brings about a foretold catastrophe. Set in an alternative Middle Ages where the authors' intricate world-building only occasionally overshadows their plotting, this novel, though not fast-paced, offers intriguing looks at guild interrelationships, the uses of hand-cranked printing presses and medieval attitudes toward magic. It also offers considerable delight to those who enjoy intellectual puzzles of the fantastic kind.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist:

It is the time of the annual fair in the city of Astreion, and a major astrological conjunction is approaching and heralding the advent of a new monarch. At this time--of all times--children start disappearing. Where are they going? Is the new monarch connected with the disappearances? Can the police and assorted odd civilians find the children before the city explodes? Like Scott and Barnett's previous collaboration, The Armor of Light (1987), this book features good writing, good characterization, and exceedingly superior world building. Astreion has a marvelous lived-in quality, and most of the characters are ordinary middle-class citizens, not members of either the fantastic elite or the hyperrealistic underclass that are both so prevalent in fantasy these days. Place this one high in the just-plain-good-reading category. Roland Green

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