Rating: 
Summary: Love as thou wilt
Review: "Ten years peace, she had promised; one, I thought, for every man I sent to death outside the City of Elua." Ten years of peace is shattered by two dreams; one of Hyacinth, Phedre's childhood Tsingano friend, and the other of a diamond on a velvet chord, a token of Melisande. When Melisande summons Phedre's aid to find her son Imriel de la Courcel after he has gone missing, she offers up the only thing that could tempt Phedre to undertake such a task, the location where she might discover the clue to breaking Hyacinthe's curse, the name of God.
Her search leads her to Aragonia, where she unearths a child slave trade market that has been selling D'angeline children to foreign lands for high profits. To follow the trail is to venture first to Menekheten, then to hell itself. Phedre must decide whether the gain outways the risk as her relationship with her perfect companion, Joscelin, is put to the test and her own sanity stretches to the brink.
I didn't think this series could have gotten any better than "Kushiel's Chosen" but I was happily mistaken. "Kushiel's Avatar" is a stunning book, fraught with peril, sacrifice, and yearning unlike anything I have read before. I blew away all of my expectations and sets a new precedent for the fantasy novel. This was, simply put, a fantastic conclusion to a phenomenal series, one that showcase Carey's skills with such resonance. I found myself completely drawn into this spellbinding world of intrigue and opulance once again, and also found a pleasant new addition in the presence of Imriel, whose story is so compelling and heart rendering that there was several times I had to put the book down to clear my head and readjust my thoughts to accommodate him. This, for me, was a fabulous book, and a great end to a treasure of a story.
I almost wish that Carey would pursue the story of Imriel in a follow up series, as I found him so ingaging and so haphazardly thrown into the world his mother had created for him against his will. If it never happens, I will not hold it against Carey, as she has already made me a stalwart fan with this series. I am sure that I will be reading anything she writes after this, and I am a little sorry that the story is over because I am going through "Kushiel" withdrawl already. This is a must read. I would not avoid it if I were you.
Rating:
Summary: An Intense And Glorious Conclusion To The Kushiel Trilogy!
Review: "Kushiel's Avatar," is the last book in Jacqueline Carey's dramatic trilogy of life in a world similar to Earth, during a period reminiscent of our Renaissance. This fantastic romantic adventure is every bit as exciting as Ms. Carey's first two books, "Kushiel's Dart" and "Kushiel's Chosen," and a very worthy conclusion. (Although there are still some loopholes left - tiny ones, but just enough room for another book to slip through. Always hoping)!Ten years have past since we last saw our lash-loving lady, the true "anguisette," Phedre no Delauney, Comtesse de Montreve, peer of Terre d'Ange. She and her beloved companion, the Cassiline apostate, Joscelin Verreuil have been residing on their estates and maturing with grace and beauty. But neither is able to forget the fate of Phedre's childhood friend Hyacinthe and the terrible sacrifice he made in order that a queen be crowned and peace reign. Nothing less than discovering the most secret and holy name of the "One God" will do to free him - an almost impossible task to accomplish which will involve traveling over continents and seas, in what I believe is the most awesome adventure of them all! Then Melisande Shahrizai, Phedre's nemesis and patron of old, surfaces and begs a boon - I won't even go there. You'll have to read the book. The adventures of Phedre and friends are every bit as breathtaking, if not more so, than those in preceding books. Ms. Carey has explored various religions and forms of spirituality in her other novels - religions resembling Christianity and Judaism, and others where gods and demigods are worshipped, similar to those of ancient Greece and Rome. In this, the last part of the trilogy, the author pulls all her characters and their adventures together to show a bigger pattern and spiritual purpose. In other words, there is an author's message. These folks are not just hanging out to have fun while risking life and limb...and lash! Phedre discovers that her service to Kushiel has served a much higher cause than she ever thought possible, and has been integrated into the service of all whom she has served. Ms. Carey gives additional depth and dimension to her characters and story with this last touch. A terrific conclusion to a superb epic fantasy!
JANA
Rating:
Summary: Stunning Conclusion.....
Review: ...However, unlike the first two books of the series, this one takes a little longer to get into. For roughly the first 250 pages of the novel, Phedre goes from place to place, meeting a whole bunch of characters new and old, all very swiftly. This doesn't allow much time for character development, and even reunions with characters not seen for a loooong time (ie Hyacinthe)only take up a few pages. Not Carrey's best style, but all of these meetings prove intrinsic for the rest of the book. And once she gets going, Carrey fully lives up to the promise of the last two books in the series, taking Phedre even farther from home, to ever more exotic places, even as far as the land that "died and lives again."
Carrey sends her characters -most notably the unlikely duo of Phedre and Joscelin- to new heights, and plummeting to new depths of despair. Love is tested time and again, until even Phedre begins to question Elua's path. This is a quest to finally free her childhood friend, Hyacinthe, but it will lead them down paths darker than ever, and places more evil than anyone had ever dreamed.
A word of advice: if you haven't read the first two books recently, before attempting this one, you may want to revisit them, or at least have them close at hand. There's a LOT of reference to characters and places that came before, and obviously, you're expected to know what Phedre's referring to, as it doesn't go into much detail. All the same, one you begin this book, it will be impossible to put it down.
An EXCELLENT read.
((BTW, I love how the maps in each book slowly get larger, to show even MORE places!!!! --but I'm just strange..--))
Rating:
Summary: Excellent!
Review: After reading the first book in this series -- KUSHIEL'S DART, which was incredible -- I wondered if Ms. Carey could keep her stories interesting and her characters growing. My estimation of the trilogy fell a little with KUSHIEL'S CHOSEN -- less exciting than the first but still an involving story -- but KUSHIEL'S AVATAR more than proves that Jaqueline Carey is a master. Set a decade after the end of KUSHIEL'S CHOSEN, the book starts off strong with a mysterious letter from Phedre's down-but-never-out adversary, the beautiful and deadly Melisande, quiet in exile these ten years. The adventure begins immediately and doesn't end until the last page, with Phedre on a dangerous double quest: to locate a missing person whose very existence threatens Terre d'Ange, and to find a way to set her childhood best friend free of the geis that will otherwise bind him for eternity. AVATAR has all the adventure, eroticism, intrigues, and creative twists of DART, with none of CHOSEN's slowness. Joscelin and Phedre have both matured immensely, and the relationship between them is well-drawn and plays almost painfully into the plot. Melisande spends less time as a major player, but her shadow is everywhere, lending the story another layer of mystery. There is also a delightful new character on the scene, whose inclusion adds new depth to Phedre and Joscelin, and who helps to bring the cycle to a satisfactory -- indeed excellent -- close. The only drawback is that there are no more Phedre novels!
Rating:
Summary: What a vast, impressive story
Review: As you can see in the other reviews, there is much that happens in this book. The story that JC tells is simply incredible. The detail that she uses, the depths of each character, the flow of the story are all aspects that make her a truly great author. But setting that aside, the VAST world that JC creates is just amazing. The number of characters and their family histories and how those histories intermingle with other family histories is nothing short of amazing. Yet it is never so overbearing that the reader can't follow. I truly great book to me is one that when you finish it, you feel that you have visited another world, and watched characters that became living people to you. And a book that when you are done means a certain amount of sadness in knowing that your are done following the lives of characters/people that you have come to care about. Get this book, read this book, love this book, eagerly await her next series.
Rating:
Summary: A Great Ending.
Review: At last we see the end of Phedre's journeys. After reading the first two books of this saga, I was eager to see the finish. Jacqueline Carey did a fabulous job wrapping up the series, although I hope there is room for more. AS always, the writing was beautiful and moving. Phedre travels the ends of the earth to set free Hyacinthe and to help an old enemy who holds a key to Hyacinthe's freedom. I would recommend this book for all who have read the first two of the series. Jumping in at this point could be done, but I think the books should be read in order.
Rating:
Summary: The best (and darkest) of them all
Review: Be warned, there is darker sex in this one. It is the best of them all, but it may be more difficult to read for the more sensitive of her readers.
Phedre and her ever-present Cassiline consort Jocelin, set out to find Melissande's abducted son, and end up in the forbidden land of Drujan, where Phedre confronts absolute evil, that risks to destroy, not only her life, but her relationship with Jocelin; not satisfied with saving the worl, she then sets out to save Hyacinthe, and finds the hidden name of God in the process.
I can't wait for her next book. Ms. Carey is arguably one of the best new writers in the fantasy fiction genre. It is unbelievable that this three books are her first!
Rating:
Summary: Wow, wow and wow yet again
Review: Carey does such an amazing job of world-building that I feel like I've been in Terre d'Ange,(France) La Serenissima, (Venice) Menekhet, (Egypt), Akkadia (Iran, Iraq) and oh yes Drujan (Georgia & Azerbaijan) along with her characters. (And I really, really didn't want to be in Drujan. It's a terrible horrible no good place.) Then they follow the Nile River to Lake Victoria. It's quite a hero's journey Phedre, Joscelin and then Imriel make. And as with hero's journeys, though a lot of land is covered, most of the changes are internal. I'm sorry to have finished this book. I read this long book quickly, without getting much sleep, I had to know what was coming next. I want to read more about these characters. Fortunately, according to the author's website, she is planning a series about Imriel. I wish I could read it ***now.***
Rating:
Summary: Wow, wow and wow yet again
Review: Carey does such an amazing job of world-building that I feel like I've been in Terre d'Ange,(France) La Serenissima, (Venice) Menekhet, (Egypt), Akkadia (Iran, Iraq) and oh yes Drujan (Georgia & Azerbaijan) along with her characters. (And I really, really didn't want to be in Drujan. It's a terrible horrible no good place.) Then they follow the Nile River to Lake Victoria. It's quite a hero's journey Phedre, Joscelin and then Imriel make. And as with hero's journeys, though a lot of land is covered, most of the changes are internal. I'm sorry to have finished this book. I read this long book quickly, without getting much sleep, I had to know what was coming next. I want to read more about these characters. Fortunately, according to the author's website, she is planning a series about Imriel. I wish I could read it ***now.***
Rating: 
Summary: World traveling and loose ends tied up.
Review: Carey set this up so she could end the series here. There are still stories she can yet tell, but she's done a good job of tying up loose ends. I'm very satisfied with how she has ended it.
This novel takes place ten years after the end of Kushiel's Chosen. Not much has happened in that time. For the first 200-300 pages of this novel, I wasn't that happy with it. Phedre does a LOT of traveling back and forth across the land, and Carey never delves deeply at all into any events or characters. This is partly because Phedre never spends more than a chapter or two in one place! Carey can't write well in that style. However, Phedre does end up spending time in several locations and it is that majority of the book that the story is extremely interesting and Carey shines.
I definitely recommend the book and the entire series!
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