Point of Hopes: A Novel of Astreiant

By Melissa Scott

“Set in an alternative Middle Ages...this novel...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.”
—Publishers Weekly

Nicolas Rathe is a pointsman, a dedicated watchman in the great city of Astreiant. During the annual trade fair, with a city filled with travelers and merchants, someone is stealing children. The populace is getting angry and frightened and convinced that a foreigner must be to blame. Rathe calls on the aid of both an out-of-work soldier, the handsome Philip Eslingen, and the necromancer Istre b’Estorr. The art of astrology is a very real power in the kingdom and plays as much a role in politics as greed and intrigue. Rathe finds himself struggling to find the children before a major astrological event brings about catastrophe. The first in a series of fantasy novels filled with adventure, intrigue and gay romance.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lethe Press, Inc.
• Release date: Mar 30, 2012
• ISBN: 9781452446325

Melissa Scott

Melissa Scott is an award-winning science fiction and fantasy author. She is the author of more than two dozen books, including the Astreiant series. She has won the John W. Campbell Award and several Lambda Literary Awards.

Reviews for Point of Hopes

[readinggeek451 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

In a city where astrology is real and people's lives are ruled by the stars, children begin to go missing. Not just the usual runaways, but happy children in good situations. Pointsman Rathe and mercenary Eslingen are caught up in the deepening mystery.This was slow to engage me, but it improved. My final rating is a full star above what I would have given it a quarter of the way through.