Swordspoint
Interesting early urban fantasy, set in a (fairly) realistic world in which noble duels are commonplace and where duels are typically conducted by hiring a professional surrogate swordsman to literally fight one’s battles. This is the story of one such professional and his friend, a failed academic. The book is now fairly conventional, but its frank homosexual undercurrents doubtless raised eyebrows and hackles when it was newer and it retains a certain raw sincerity about reclaiming Manners for the rest of us.