Vier speaks as an educated man, though he’s illiterate and doesn’t seem to have an education. While some of the people in Riverside tend to have clipped words and slang in their vocabulary, like Sylvie, Rosalie’s granddaughter saying “Hullo, old love”, Richard St. The author lets us know he is from the country with phrases like, “ “You were cumbered by the hood.” She looked up, smiling: “cumbered” was a country word.” Again later when Katherine Blount was waiting for Richard in Rosalie’s, a tavern in the basement of a manor, she think of how she first met Richard at Rosalie’s “when he was not much more than a new boy come from the country.” He is the anti-hero of this fantasy, a professional swordsman making him an honorable murderer. Little is mentioned about Richard’s past. Marie’s house, where Richard and Alec live upstairs, was once a noble’s town house, where “the cherubs on the ceiling were flecked with mold.” Those who live on the Hill rarely venture into Riverside, and when they do, they are in disguise. Riverside is the poor area of the city, “a tiny splotch between two riverbanks, an unsavory quarter in a prosperous city.” Buildings are dilapidated old, once noble manors are turned into boarding houses and taverns. Vier and his partner Alec are caught up in the many plots to gain power. But deceit and conspiracy follow the nobles of the Hill like a faithful bloodhound and Richard St. By rules of the society, when Richard finishes his opponent, usually another hired swordsman, and wins the duel, the honor of his noble patron is satisfied and Richard is not charged with murder. A Riverside swordsman for hire by the nobles of the Hill, Richard fights duels to the death for the honor of his patron. The novel follows the dangerous and unpredictable life of the swordsman Richard St. Rowling’s magical world for Harry Potter. Swordspoint by Ellen Kushner is a different fantasy novel from J.K.