Book Review & Poll!
So, I finished Kushiel's Dart. I always welcome the change to broaden by reading horizons, and this was certainly page-turning fun.
On the whole, I have to give Jacqueline Carey credit for engaging world-building (albeit from a lot of borrowed territory), and demerits for character development and plotting. The (very thick!) novel felt very linear in its plotting (even though the whole tale is told in a kind of 3rd person in retrospective), which added to its sense of being very conventional. I felt the section on "Alba" was particularly weak, as Carey figured she could ride Marion Zimmer Bradley's coat-tails. Perhaps in a nod to her own impatience with the story, she had her protagonist describe sections, songs, and poems, rather than develop them fully as a writer herself. Further, the whole denouement battle, it's results telegraphed to a foregone conclusion, felt rushed, and less engaged by the author ... as if she was told by her editor that she couldn't have velvet-lined cocktail parties in the whole book, and she needed to target some male market readers, and so pulled out a writer's manual for battle scenes.
Sections were amusing, and there was certainly plenty of engaging intrigue. Ultimately though, for fantasy world-building and characters, I found it far less engaging than say, China Mieville's Bas-Lag.
I probably would have found Carey's work the bee's knees 15 years ago, as I was thoroughly engaged with the sword & sandals fantasy genre then.
Cheers mahkara for the introduction. :-)
Poll Next Book
On the whole, I have to give Jacqueline Carey credit for engaging world-building (albeit from a lot of borrowed territory), and demerits for character development and plotting. The (very thick!) novel felt very linear in its plotting (even though the whole tale is told in a kind of 3rd person in retrospective), which added to its sense of being very conventional. I felt the section on "Alba" was particularly weak, as Carey figured she could ride Marion Zimmer Bradley's coat-tails. Perhaps in a nod to her own impatience with the story, she had her protagonist describe sections, songs, and poems, rather than develop them fully as a writer herself. Further, the whole denouement battle, it's results telegraphed to a foregone conclusion, felt rushed, and less engaged by the author ... as if she was told by her editor that she couldn't have velvet-lined cocktail parties in the whole book, and she needed to target some male market readers, and so pulled out a writer's manual for battle scenes.
Sections were amusing, and there was certainly plenty of engaging intrigue. Ultimately though, for fantasy world-building and characters, I found it far less engaging than say, China Mieville's Bas-Lag.
I probably would have found Carey's work the bee's knees 15 years ago, as I was thoroughly engaged with the sword & sandals fantasy genre then.
Cheers mahkara for the introduction. :-)
Poll Next Book