Swordspoint

The prequel to The Fall of the Kings set sixty years earlier, this book follows the adventures of a swordsman-for-hire and his more than slightly mad lover. (Sound vaguely familiar?) The madman is, in fact, the predecessor of the one in FotK, but Kushner never made Theron (from FotK) sound at all like Alec from Swordspoint. This book had a slightly less intriguing plot, probably because there was no magic in this one, but I still was hooked by the story and the characters. Again, the ending was less than satisfactory, but it was also incredibly sweet, so I'll let that one slide.