Kushiel's Avatar (Kushiel's Legacy) by Jacqueline Carey Summary and Reviews
|
Our Price: $39.46 Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $10.67 (click here) Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
Book Reviews of Kushiel's Avatar (Kushiel's Legacy)
Book Review: The best in the legacy
Summary: 5 Stars
This legacy gets it's grand finale in this book. I highly recommend reading the first two before jumping into this one because you'll undoubtedly be confused if you don't. Nevertheless, Kushiel's Avatar is the avatar of the legacy itself. With a plot so simple yet intricate, with more characters, and more of Joscelin breaking his vows, lol, this last and, in my humble opinion, greatest of the legacy will keep you on the edge your seat and will definitely have you yearning for the future release of the Imri series, Kushiel's Scion. Don't try to figure out the plot to this book before hand, you'll only damage many brain cells. An astonishing fantasy that Carey did an excellent job of engendering to life, this is one book (and Trilogy) you'll never forget. You won't want to put it down. It contains a variety of genre's including those regarding war tactics, romance, seduction, religion, pirating, dark fantasy, betrayal, and most importantly, love.Book Review: Triple Crown Winner
Summary: 5 Stars
What more can be said? A superb fantasy trilogy has a magnificent conclusion in Kushiel's Avatar. This one is even more exotic, erotic, and intense than the first two volumes, and Carey does an excellent job in bringing this huge undertaking of a story to a satisfying conclusion. Believe all the hype; these novels and their characters will linger in the mind and the heart for a long time after you have finished with them. They deserve to be considered classics.Book Review: Bittersweet
Summary: 5 Stars
This, more than Kushiel's Dart or Kushiel's Chosen, is not a story for the faint of heart. After exquisitely detailed political maneuvering in the first two books, Carey sends Phedre on a quest in her final story. A quest that takes Phedre to the limits of her endurance, nearly breaking her, and her Perfect Companion and Consort, Joscelin.
The introduction of Imriel, son of Phedre's nemesis Melisande, is deft and unexpected. Carey has a knack for surprising plot turns, and Imriel was one of the most pleasant surprises of the series. (The wait for Imriel's story, due in 2006, is also likely to kill Carey's diehard fans.)
I've heard complaints that this story was too dark, or too different from the first two novels of this astonishing trilogy. It's true: the quest is more spiritual than political; the conflicts more internal. The story does not suffer from it, and a third round of Phedre saving the throne of her country would stretch believability. This is a very introspective book, and Phedre does grow, and mature.
There are fight scenes, as excellently written as ever, but politics takes a backseat as Phedre struggles to save Imriel and herself from the clutches of a cult darker than any I have encountered in fiction. And she travels to the ends of the earth to save her friend Hyacinthe from his lonely exile, and doomed existence as the Master of Straits. Beautifully interwoven with ancient Jewish history and Kabbalah, Carey is the master of her craft, and the decreased focus on politics does not diminish this story. It is a quest story in the best sense of the word, and the ending is bittersweet, and wrenching, despite the fact that Phedre wins the day in the end. Highly, highly recommended. There are few authors that could create such a well-built world; fewer that could so deftly twist the strands of a plot.
Anxiously awaiting more of Imriel's story; in the meantime, Banewreaker and Godslayer are on the way.
Book Review: Simply wonderful!
Summary: 5 Stars
This novel gets a little dark, so I would caution those not interested in reading about the scarier side of violent sexuality to stay away from it. This may be why some readers didn't enjoy it as much, but for those able to handle such, it is simply amazing. The way that every aspect meshes together is fitting with the idea of divine guidance behind Carey's world and the wrap up is just perfect. I look forward to the forthcoming trilogy on Imriel very much. Again, Melisande's presence is just impressive, as are the other characters. While the ideas behind this volume are a little less historical and more fantastical, I couldn't put it down just like the other two in the series.Book Review: A Divine Epic
Summary: 5 Stars
Kushiel's Avatar is in the line of those rare epic journeys one mourns the end of and desires more of when it is done. The greatness of this trilogy derives from the strength of Carey's unique heroine Phedre and the quality of her and her many companions' love. I would recommend this trilogy and especially the last chapter of it to anyone who believes in and seeks expression of love's fullness in its many forms and also to anyone who enjoys an adventure, for it truly delivers both of these. I would like to thank the author, for I feel she has done a great service with her trilogy by liberating love from its many conventions and in taking me and many others for a time into a world of wonderous beauty and great humanity.