Kushiel's Dart

Rating:
Summary: absolutely amazing
Review: i read extensively, and jaqcqueline carey might now be the best author i've found. she casts a mind-bogglingly complex web of characters, places, history, romance, intrigue, and plots. Even more amazing, she carries it to the finish without missing a step, and manages to tie up all of the loose ends, while leaving a perfect opening for the next book to start from. if you love gothic fantasy/adventure, this book, along with its successors, will suck you in and leave you begging for more. kushiel's dart is a sensual adventure, but even beyong that aspect of it, it is fascinating, and challenges the reader intellectually. i bought this book, and then i had to go out and buy the sequel, kushiel's chosen, and now i can't wait for kushiel's avatar to come out in paperback. trust me on this, you won't want to miss out on this amazing author's work!

Rating:
Summary: Not to be Rivaled...
Review: This is an amazing book. The sheer imagination required to come up with the world in which the main character, Phaedre, inhabits is simply mindboggling (check out the details as written by professional reviewers). Ms. Carey writes with a skill I've rarely come across in this genre. The depth and breadth of her story which spans three books, ingnites a compulsion to read all three in one fell swoop. What I like best is the very humanity of the characters. The good guys have flaws and the villians have their sympathetic moments. Most important, I never once went "Oh riiiggghht, like THAT could happen", even though the most fantastic things do happen. Ms. Carey manages to infuse realism into every situation. I'm heartbroken that the series appears to be finished. I could do with more of Phaedre's adventures. Read these books!

Rating:
Summary: Excellent first volume of a unique fantasy series
Review: This is the first of three volumes (so far) in what has to be the most unconventional fantasy series I've ever read. Unconventional because the heroine, Phedre no Delaunay, is everything you'd expect in a series of this kind - she's beautiful, smart, and intuitive. And she also happens to be a courtesan, trained in both gathering intelligence and in the darker side of giving pleasure. To put it bluntly, she's a high-priced S&M call girl who's also something of a spy.

Rather an unusual combination and occupation, but Carey makes Phedre, her world and fellow travellers, and her story entirely believable. She describes Phedre, her companion Joscelin, and all the other characters of her world in great detail without going overboard - and the story she has to tell is just as detailed and believable.

What makes this even more incredible is that despite the fact that this is a fantasy, Carey tells her story with a bare minimum of magic. There are only two characters in the story who display any magical talent - Hyacinthe, Phedre's friend from childhood who's clairvoyant (what Carey's characters refer to as the dromonde); and the Master of the Straits - an 800-year-old victim of a mysterious curse who magically controls a vital waterway and whose permission must be obtained to cross it.

The history and geography Carey gives for her world is close to our own. She gives her countries different names, and parallels the story of Jesus up to a point - but she then takes a left turn and provides her own mythology, which she makes frequent use of as background to her tale.

It took me two weeks to finish this book. Part of the reason was that it's long - just over 900 pages. But most of it is due to the excellent way Carey writes and tells Phedre's story. I hope the other two volumes of this series are just as good.

Rating:
Summary: Great Book!
Review: This is a great book! Rich in detail and characterization. It has passion, intrigue and betrayal, with plenty of plot twists. Don't let the warning scare you off, the sex scenes are tastefully done. The author only goes into detail the first time Phedre has sex with another character and even then the detail is not over done. I found the look into a masochistic mind most intriguing. This is funny because I almost didn't buy the book because of the masochistic theme. The only thing that ticked me off about the book was no fault of the author, the cover art doesn't represent the character in the book. Phedre was clearly described as having a massive amount of long curly hair and pale skin and her marque (the tattoo) ran up her spine from the top of her tailbone to the nap of her neck. The cover art shows her with straight hair (that just touched her shoulders, in the book it was past her shoulders so she would have to move it to show her marque.) and her marque is clearly to the right of her spine and finished below her shoulder blade. The placement (and the length) of the marque was right on the second book only to be screwed up again on the third. And none of them have the blood red drops that she loved the most of the details on the marque. I know this is nit picking, but I think that when the cover art doesn't match the description in the book it throws off the visualization of the character.

Rating:
Summary: pseudo-history
Review: I ordered based on the www.amazon.com reviews but I was somewhat disappointed. I found it style of "olde-Englishe" to be unnecessary and a little pretentious. Too many names and references were introduced too soon and too briefly to keep them straight, despite the characters guide in the front of the book. I didn't ever feel very attached to the main character and, consequently, didn't really care what happened to her. It was readable but it was also put-down-able and certainly didn't keep me up at night wanting to read more. And for those of you wondering, the sado-masochistic sex is very secondary, not too graphic and rather off-putting unless you're into pain. All in all it was vaguely entertaining but I won't buy the next one. The fantasy part was too close to reality for me - next time I'll just read a history book.

Rating:
Summary: A Good Book - Avoid if S&M disgusts you
Review: Kushiel's Dart began with difficult imagery, but after the second chapter it became a real page turner. I find myself agreeing with some of the other reviewers about its flaws, but if one isn't particularly judgemental about the character's sexual preferences the story stands well on its own.

It is true that the story is told from Phedre's point of view in such a manner that one can only discover the plot in written word, regardless of how obvious events may be, when the main character herself finds them. Sadly, it's my opinion that this is a limitation of the first-person point of view, not the author's plot design. Generally the story was creative enough that I did not correctly second-guess every turn of event, and I doubt most people would either.

This book, however, was written for a certain type of person. It relies heavily on the worship of forms (Socrates and his belief in a universal beautiful, etc), the idea that the reader hungers to read of a people who are "perfect". In this manner, I found the book to be more high fantasy than most of the reading I've gotten my hands on in the past five years or so. Though this appreciation extends to S&M, which I'm sure causes a great deal of the core revulsion in several readers who cannot fit such things into their value systems as "beautiful", it isn't particularly offensive to the person without prejudice to those types of sexuality. Kushiel's Dart smoothes over literal events in the bedroom and betrays less than 99% of the romance novels I've read.

There are always people who walk into reading a book of this nature with previous feeling that the values presented are fundamentally wrong. For this reason, though the book rates high for an overall read, I would caution anyone who actively disapproves of or dislikes S&M.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting and worth reading
Review: This book was pretty good! I found the story line interesting and I'm glad I purchased the book. The back cover sounded a bit more erotic than the book was in actuality, but the story was well written and complex. Once I got into it (it took me a couple of chapters), I had trouble putting it down. Its a thick book and I managed to get through it in a few days. Another thing I will mention is that its not a romantic "feel good" book... just as bad things happen to good people in real life, Kushiel's Dart runs the gamut of positive and negative emotions... its very telling that I was pulled into the story so much that I was disappointed when negative things happened to the characters (Sorry, can't be specific or I'll ruin the plot).

Rating:
Summary: Too much torture... too little to hold my interest
Review: Even before I started reading the book, I was extremely concerned about the level of sexual encounters involving pain. I'm not a prudish person, and I quite enjoy a well-written sex scene, but throw in any kind of pain, and you lost me. Even so, I was constantly encouraged by friends who have read "Kushiel's Dart", to put my concerns aside and give the novel a try.

As it turns out: I couldn't handle it. Every time Phedre was whipped, slapped, burned with a hot poker, pinched, hit, tortured, had her hair pulled, etc, I winced and read faster, willing it to end. It didn't matter to me how much Phedre enjoyed it... the only thing I noticed is how much these situations bothered me. Even this I could have handled, if I had found any of the characters enjoyable in the least. I didn't.

I found I could have cared less about the political/courtly intrigue, an aspect of fantasy novels that I normally enjoy greatly. I got 200 pages into the book, and I couldn't find one character I liked. I didn't like Phedre. I couldn't relate to her. Worse, I couldn't understand her motivations - what drove her, what made her the way she was. Maybe all that will be explained in more detail later in the book, but I won't be finding out. I didn't like any of her friends, or influences. I hated Alcuin. He seemed a weak character - one who wasn't developed well enough for me. Delaunay seemed cold, and I also found it hard to understand his motives (again, I assume this will be explained later also). I had no feelings one way or another for the Prince, or Melisande, or any of Phedre's patrons.

In short... there was nothing to keep me reading through the torturous sex scenes. This is the first book I tossed, unfinished, in a very long time. I'm normally very stubborn, and I like to finish what I start; but I just couldn't see myself reading another 700 pages of "Kushiel's Dart".

Rating:
Summary: I just don't get the hipe
Review: I'm sorry, but I just don't understand all the praise. I read constantly. I can usually complete a book within three to four days regardless of the size, and I've been known to go on all night read-a-thons (to my husbands aggrivation). Yet, I could not continue to force myself to finish this book even after an entire week of trying to get through the dull, unorignial pages. Out of 925 pages I only made it to 112. I even tried scanning ahead (looking for some sort of action or interest). Needless to say, I found none.

Rating:
Summary: ...just one more thought...
Review: I realize that I just finished a review for this book, but after reading some other reviews, I wanted to add another thought.

Jacquline Carey is a new writer on the level of Guy Gavriel Kay. I am highly surprised that anyone would compare her to Martin or Jordan--neither of them could approach the quality and complexity that infused Kushiels Dart. I have read widely in both the science fiction and fantasy genres, and only Tolkien and Kay have displayed the talent and lushness of description possessed by Carey.

While Martin certainly has talent, don't try to compare him with Carey--there is no comparison. Don't get me started on Jordan. Besides, a real Jordan fan probably wouldn't like this book anyway.