Carey, Jacqueline: Kushiel's Dart
Kushiel's Dart
Writer: Jacqueline Carey
Genre: Fantasy/Romance
Pages: 901
No, I didn't read this whole book during the month of June. That would've been quite a feat, and an insane one at that, given how busy I've been. No, I started Kushiel's Dart back before January, and was in the middle of reading it when I started the Seton Hill Program, got my reading list, and suddenly became way to busy to focus on finishing it. I thought it only appropriate, then, to actually finish the book before I went up for my second SHU residency, so finish it I did. I just forgot to post the review before I left!
There is a lot that I love about this book. First off, I haven't seen too many fantasies in the first person, let alone fantasies that focused on the idea of free love and what it's like to live in a society that doesn't shun sexual promiscuity and homosexual relationships. Don't get me wrong, the society in Kushiel's Dart is far from utopic, but it was refreshing to see sex treated from a point of view that wasn't prudish.
This book, however, isn't for everyone: first off, the content might make some people uncomfortable, as it focuses on a woman who receives pleasure out of pain, which means there is a lot of sodomy and torture involved, especially of sexual nature. And before feminists get into a tissy, please note: this character was created--born--to be this way. She's marked by the angel Kushiel, which means she seeks out pain as surely as some seek out food. So this isn't a story of someone who was sold into sexual slavery and learned to like it: Phedre was given to slavery, but by nature, she would've sought out the exact same lifestyle regardless. Only given her station, she just learned the artistic way of doing everything (think of her as a French Courtesan).
But this isn't all about sex and violence. There's a lot of political intrigue that drives the story, though sometimes it's hard to keep up with. There's a huge cast-list in the beginning of the book, as characters that you meet at the beginning have huge significance in the end. If you plan on reading this book, I don't recommend doing what I did, which is put it down for about four months--something I did because I had to, not because I didn't like it.
One of the nice things about Kushiel's Dart is that it's a stand-alone book. Granted, the ending sorta sets up the second book so you know what's coming, but not in such a way that you have a cliff-hanger, and not in such a way that you feel obligated to read it. If you read this book and not any of the others, you'd be fine.
The voice I enjoyed very much. Carey has a lovely handle on language and keeping true to the voices of her characters. However, I reached a point where I was nodding along, wanting her to wrap things up. Some scenes stretched out too long, or she'd use the ever famous line, "I won't go into details, but suffice to say..." and have the character summarize what just happened. For battle scenes, I didn't mind this. For certain sex scenes, I did: for a book about sex, I don't believe in skimping the detail unless all the detail from all the sex scenes are skimped.
Still, this book made me happy. It made me shippy for goodness sakes! I was set to read the second book in the series if not for the fact I was packing up to leave, so that's saying something: I've found a fantasy that doesn't exactly imitate Tolkien to the letter, and it brings its own sense of realism to the genre. There's sex, there's romance, there's politics, there's battles, mythology, angels: what's not to love? But like I said earlier, it's not a book for the weak of heart or squeamish, but if you're looking for a fantasy with an interesting, driven, complex female protagonist, I can't recommend this book enough. :)