Rating: 
Summary: This was the best book I've read all year, maybe ever....
Review: I found this book to be excellent - very intelligent, well written, and intriguing. It had everything - action, an intricate plot, romance, eroticism and a bit of magic. I definitely found it as sophisticated as Martin and Jordan. I highly recommend this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Lose the foreshadowing!
Review: I cannot compete with the lengthy review already posted for this novel. I just want to tell you I picked up this novel on Wednesday and could not put it down.
Phedre is a very compelling character. Despite her bizarre gift that makes pain one with pleasure and her consequent role as an exotic plaything, the reader empathises with Phedre. The author cunningly sets up Phedre's world to make it perfectly clear an adept of the Night Court is not the same as a prostitute and so sidesteps the reader's automatic stereotype of Phedre as unclean.The only negative thing I would say about this novel is about the excessive use of foreshadowing at the beginning of the novel. I found it quite annoying and distracting. This novel chronicles the maturation of Phedre. At the beginning she is a child, but I did not hear the voice of a child. The narrative voice of Phedre the adult gets mixed in and quite negates the impression I am sure I was meant to have of the headstrong young woman eager to try her new skills or the awed little girl at her first Midwinter Mask. It would have been much more poignant if all the foreshadowing had been left out. I would have been drawn into Phedre's world from the onset instead of waiting until Delauney's death to become fully immersed in her world. I would have better appreciated the scale of the gilded trap created by all of the political intrigue. This is why I give it four stars. I look forward to picking up the next one.
Rating:
Summary: Kushiel's Dart
Review: I have to admit I was skeptical when it was compared to Dune. But it does not disappoint. Plan ahead to have plenty of spare time to read, because Carey has created a page turner.
Rating: 
Summary: Not Your Average Fantasy
Review: What all the reviews say about this book is true--it's something new for the fantasy genre--in fact, it barely fits in that genre at all. I have to admit I've never read anything quite like it. And while many readers will enjoy this very original, senusal, sophisticated book, others who prefer a more traditional kind of fantasy writing (like myself) will find it hard to finish. In fact, at the time of writing this review I'm only half done the book and I don't think I'm going to finish it. Quite frankly, I found the graphic scenes of masochistic ... (both heterosexual and homosexual) quite distasteful. It's just not something that I can relate to, although I will admit it is written in a sophisticated language--no crude language is used. If anything, the language of this book is too flowery. The plot outside of Phedre's career as a courtesan I find both confusing--dozens of names, the Duc of this and the Comtesse of that--and quite boring--it all seems to be about nothing but court intrigue, which is a waste of time for me to read. In a fantasy novel I want to see magic and exciting battle scenes. Although Kushiel's Dart does have many vivid characters, the plot just doesn't interest me. Perhaps it gets more interesing toward the end of the book; but I'm not sure if I can make it that far.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant and different
Review: Most of what I have to say, people have already said, so I'll forebear gushing and keep it short. The subtitle for this book could well be a line that reappears frequently throughout: "All that yields is not weak." (Or something along those lines -- I just finished Kushiel's Chosen, and have forgotten the exact wording.) Phedre finds pleasure in pain and submission, yes, but she rules her patrons through that same submission. It takes an incredible amount of talent to make this concept believable, but Carey more than acheives it. Some of the scenes are shocking -- this is not a book for the faint-hearted -- but they are never inappropriate or even overdone. The sex is integral to the plot, and after a few initial moments of revulsion, I was able to accept that Phedre truly enjoys and needs this. The mix of real and fictional cultures is engaging, and Carey's language is lovely, although in Kushiel's Chosen she becomes a little too fond of "'tis" and "'twas" for believability. I've noticed a few reviews complaining about the length. Grow up, people. This story is no longer than it needs to be -- Carey could not possibly have pulled it off in less than 701 pages. Seriously, I read it in three days -- you can't put it down. If anything, I wished it would last longer. Kushiel's Chosen is 700 pages exactly in hardcover, and I'm dying waiting for the third book! Also, someone was complaining that the names are incomprehensible and unpronounceable. I think the term was "jumbled up letters." Huh? They're French. Some of the names later in the book are Germanic or Gaelic. There's nothing jumbled-up here. Sheesh.
Rating: 
Summary: Different heroine, interesting and readable book, not great
Review: _Kushiel's Dart_ is a very long novel set in an Alternate History/Fantasy version of France. The divergence happens when Jesus (Yeshua) has a child by Mary Magdalene. This child, Elua, believes that the supreme command is to "Love as thou wilt". Elua and his seven companions, who are held to be angels, wander the Earth, finally settling in Terre D'Ange (France). Carey does a good job of presenting D'Angeline beliefs as real beliefs, while leaving open the likelihood that they are semi-mythological. (E.g., Elua's companions are believed to be angels, but, one might assume, they were actually just humans he recruited.) D'Angelines hold themselves to be preternaturally beautiful -- because they are descended from Elua and from angels. The narrator and heroine is Phedre no Delaunay. She is fostered to Cereus House, one of the Thirteen Houses (a tradition D'Angeline high class brothel), but she is imperfect: the red mark in her eye makes her unacceptable to Cereus for their service. But as she comes of age, she is bought by a nobleman, Anafiel Delaunay, who recognizes that the red mark means she is an anguisette -- a natural masochist, and as such potentially a fabulously valuable prostitute for people of certain tastes. Under Delaunay, she learns a number of languages, and various other useful talents. It becomes clear that Delaunay, for mysterious reasons, wants her to be a spy on people in the highest circles of government. These reasons are surely related to Delaunay's friendship with the late son of the aging King, and to his enmity with this late Prince's also dead wife. The story develops from there, at great length. Phedre becomes famous in her profession, and learns many secrets for Delaunay, some quite tragic. Eventually she is driven to slavery in Skaldia (Germany) where she learns of a terrible plot against the rightful rulers of Terre D'Ange. With her faithful companion, a super swordsman vowed to celibacy, she journeys across much of Europe, trying to find a way to stop the Skaldian threat. The story is pretty enjoyable, and reads quite quickly for such a long book. Carey's prose is rather good, a bit ornate and mannered, but that is in keeping, I suppose, with the image of the people of Terre D'Ange. A number of the fantastical elements, such as the Master of the Straits, who keeps ships from passing between Terre D'Ange and Alba (i.e. Great Britain), are rather nicely imagined. The main fault is that about halfway through the book much of the tension leaches out. It becomes clear that Phedre and her companion Joscelin are superhuman and unkillable, and that really there is no way to stop them. Carey does a lot of things well -- she uses Phedre's submission quite effectively in creating a fairly unconventional heroine. But while for a while, pretty much through her time with the Skaldians, we really fear for her, and we feel that she is being heroically abused and that she is in real danger. After that, the novel moves into an extended sort of "Triumphal March". It's not that Phedre doesn't get abused some more, and it's not even that she won't suffer some real emotional loss. But the shape of the ending becomes very clear, and there really isn't any believable opposition to her achieving that ending. To complain just a bit more, I felt that the deep mysteries that Carey plants at the beginning were resolved too simply -- that is, Delaunay's secrets were actually kind of trivial, and the political intrigue wasn't quite twisty enough. I also felt that the blatant setup of a sequel, just before the end, weakened the book. The characters and setting nicely support this one long book -- I don't think they will support two more books of the same length.
Rating:
Summary: Jacqueline Carey taking fantasy writing to another level!
Review: Normally, fantasy novels aren't necessarily my cup of tea. I like a dose of reality in my books. But "Kushiel's Dart" just barely fits into the category 'fantasy.' It could be more accurately descirbed as reimagined history! There are elements in this story borrowed from everything from ancient Rome to the Bible! Carey weaves an extremely realistic world, Terre d'Ange, with beautiful, passionate characters to go along with it. Phedre no Delaunay, our heroine and narrator throughout the tale, is born into bondage the likes of which will make more conservative readers blush. And when she is bought by her master Anafiel Delaunay at the tender age of ten, her training in the delicate arts of love and espionage begin. Delaunay works to make her his eyes and ears in a world full of scandal, and when Phedre discovers a plot to destroy her world as she knows it, all her skills are put to the test as she becomes the sole person with enough knowledge at her fingertips to save a nation. This steamy tale of love, magic, and betrayal, first in a series of three, will have you hooked in no time, and the cliffhanger ending will leave you begging for more!
Rating:
Summary: A shattering novel of pleasure and pain
Review: This is the story of Phedre, marked as a masochist by the angel of pain and punishment, and trained from youth as a courtesan and spy. The book follows her through her childhood and then the vicissitudes of one fateful year, in which Phedre learns more about pain and love than she had ever dreamed possible. Tragedy strikes her comfortable life, and she is sold into slavery among the Skaldi (Vikings), and must use her talents and her wits to survive. The Skaldi plot to take over Phedre's home country of Terre d'Ange, and Phedre is stunned by the fact that several nobles she knows are complicit in the plot. She escapes to warn her Queen, but finds herself assigned to a dangerous mission in Alba (Britain), which will further test her skills and her emotional strength. The climax comes with a battle scene almost as adrenaline-laced as the siege of Minas Tirith, and _Kushiel's Dart_ ends with the aftermath. I don't think I understood the depth of Carey's novel until I finished it. Pleasure and pain are forever mingled in Phedre's life, but it goes far beyond the bedroom. Terre d'Ange may have won a great victory, but we are never allowed to forget those who died to make it possible. Many fantasy novels focus on the triumph of the nobility while seeming to forget the commoner blood spilled to achieve the nobles' goals. This is not one of them. War in Carey's world is always a tragedy, no matter who wins, because there are good and bad people on all sides, and because the dead are made real to us instead of just pawns on the chessboard. Love, too, is a double-edged sword. What if you found the bravest, kindest, most loyal man you could possibly desire, but could never be satisfied with him because he could not satisfy your darkest proclivities? And what if you knew you would forever long for a cruel traitor who had the blood of your family on her hands, but who was the only one who truly understood your cravings? Love and pain are never far apart. By the end of the book, we've all been pricked by Kushiel's dart. One caveat: Before you read this book, make sure to check out the number of pages! _Kushiel's Dart_ is forbiddingly long and relentlessly serious; I could only read a few chapters at a time before becoming overwhelmed and setting it aside for lighter reading. However, Carey's plot was interesting enough that I never left the book sitting idle for more than a day or so. Very good, though long.
Rating:
Summary: Kushiel's Dart
Review: What a phenominaly different read. It was a chance buy that really paid off; and though it took me a little while to get into it, I was well and truely rewarded. I have never read a book where the development of the character(s) was the plot in and of itself; leading to an enchanting book and memorable personalities. I have also never been so challenged linguistically during a reading. It's been a long time since I had to pull out a dictionary to look up a word here and there. I can't wait for the next one.
Rating: 
Summary: Confusing, terrible, and terribly boring
Review: This is one of those fantasy novels where the first 10 pages are nothing but a list of characters that seems to go on forever. This is also one of the few fantasy novels where you actually need to look at that list in order to understand anything that's going on for the first 300 pages of the book. I found myself either falling asleep in mid-sentence, or putting the book down because it gave me a headache. Summarized, the first 300 pages of the book are the worst, then it picks up and actually gets interesting for about 200-400 pages, and then it gets incredibly practical and even more boring than the first 300 pages. I will grant that it has excellent use of vocabulary which gives it the perfect disguise for how much it really sucks. The characters names are also almost impossible to sound out. Some sound exotic, the others are just jumbled up letters. I will not torture myself any further by reading the rest of this series yet to come, and I recommend that noone else torture themselves with it either.
|
