Kushiel's Dart (Kushiel's Legacy) by Jacqueline Carey Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Kushiel's Dart (Kushiel's Legacy)
Book Review: Well-read author, badly written read
Summary: 1 Stars
This book was disappointing.
1) Didn't live up to its interesting premise.
While Carey's idea of a masochistic courtesan (or bluntly, prostitute), using her "extreme" charms to lure her victims into revealing her political secrets is interesting, it simply isn't treated well. Either Phedre has some kind of brain-washing pheromone or all the people in the novel who fall under her spell (which would be more or less everyone she meets) are simply... idiots. Grarrr. See beautiful woman. Beat/flay/whip/whatever beautiful woman. Get off. Do everything she wants.
Additionally, despite the accoutrements of torture, whipping, flechettes, tying this and tying that, none of Phedre's patrons come across as actually having a great time in the process.
Especially compared to Storm Constantine's Calanthe from her Wraethu ?sp? series - Carey's characters are simply depthless projections who fall flat. (Constantine's not for everyone, but even those who dislike her will probably find her far superior to Carey.)
2) No engaging characters
I read this book from start to finish hoping that it would get better - simply because a good friend liked it. Not only did it not get better, there was simply, at the end of the book, no one I gave a fig about. Yes, I was happy on finishing this book - overwhelming relief at being done with it!
3) Incredibly bland treatment of BDSM
Carey's BDSM scenes are so bland that they might as well not be sex. The language is stilted, unevocative and undescriptive all at the same time.
For lyrically erotic renditions, there's Tanith Lee's style, for graphically erotic treatments, there's Anne Rice (whom I dislike for other reasons, but at least she can write erotica that fulfills its purpose), for sex (and BDSM, no less) less engaging than doing the dishes, there's Carey.
To be honest, you can find better sex in text-based online communities than anything Carey wrote in this book.
4) Waste of Nephilim research / references.
This one is a pet peeve with me. I've quite an interest in the Watchers/Nephilim, and to see Carey use what is obviously a fairly detailed knowledge of the associated mythology and boil it simply down to 'sex is good and we're the most beautiful people ever to exist because we're descended from angels' breaks my heart. Particularly because it's rarer to use Nephilim references than it is to use the others she did. Irish, Norse, etc.
Jim Butcher's fallen angel, Lasciel, in his Dresden Files series, is in ONE SENTENCE, more convincing, more interesting and more real than any single person OR god in Carey's novel when she (Butcher's Lasciel) says to the protagonist whom she's arguably trying to possess (in the demonic sense), (bear with me, it's a paraphrase) 'So you find the idea of being subject to someone's objectives and desires, completely different from your own, of being without free will - repulsive? Believe me, there are none who know this more keenly than the Fallen.'
This is not a one track mind sex-puppet of a god/angel talking... But sadly there's not even one line like it in Carey's novel.
...I could go on and on but - suffice to say this book was a waste of time for me, and I won't be reading the sequels.
Book Review: Intriuging story with some serious flaws
Summary: 2 Stars
Many reviews here present what is good about this book. And, I did like it. However, I found that there were some flaws in it that were so jarring that I haven't yet decided if I want to continue the saga. The three that prompted me to write this review are these:
1) In the first third of the book, Carey overuses the technique of "foreshadowing"..... The structure of this section of the book is Phedre recounting her youth and she often says things along the lines of "....if I had only known that going to the Valerian House would have had such an important consequence.... " Use this technique once. Maybe twice.... Or even better --- not at all! But to use it over seven times in the first third of the book. I found that very amaturish and it so jarred me out of the storyline, that I started counting how many times it happened. I don't think the author needs to point and go: "LOOK LOOK! Look how important this is going to be!" Or, at least, not in such a contrived way.
2) The eroticism in the book was such an interesting part of it --- again, in the first third of the book. You were right there with Phedre and her patrons, and the writing was very evocative and I liked it a lot. However, after the first third, Carey suddenly changes her technique and the sexual interludes are handled by Phedre saying something like: "And I am not going to go into the details of that night." WHAT??? Why not? The details were cool and interesting and erotic and evocative. Granted, this is not a book of erotic literature -- but why write it one way for the first 100 pages and then change afterwards? Again, I felt this was amaturish and I felt a little manipulated....
3) I, personally, didn't like the use of slightly-bastardized medieval history and places and people and things. The Picts and the Vikings and ancient Europe and Jesus and the Magdalene. The Irish mythology of Cuchulian and the Black Boar. Again, I thought it amaturish. Maybe even a bit like stealing or "sampling". The idea of the Night Court was so interesting and unique and unlike anything that I had ever read before. And, then, to plop it down into Bizarro-History-Land? Other authors have created worlds from whole cloth. Carey would have been better served to do that, in my opinion.
All of these points, to me, detract from what would have been a top-notch, A-one fantasy saga. The characters in the story are interesting, and they grow and develop and change. And you understand their motivations. Argh! This could have been great! Up there with George R.R. Martin's Songs of Ice and Fire, or Rosemary Kirstein's Steerswoman Saga --- if only it had been handled with a bit more maturity.
After writing this review, I am almost convinced that I won't be reading the second book of the saga. However, maybe that book has the maturity I am looking for.... because authors *do* grow and change......
Hmmmmm...
Book Review: Thoroughly enjoyable
Summary: 5 Stars
Just finished this and as there are many other reviewers I won't go over old ground. Just to note that this is a profoundly well crafted story with interesting and richly painted characters. This is a BIG story, which covers alot of ground as you would expect of an epic. If you like "world building" stories, like those of Frank Herbert (the ORIGINAL Dune works, not the more recent ones), Larry Niven, Nicola Griffith (Ammonite, great book), Tolkien or even Michael Moorcock, you should read this. Carey has built a very interesting world, borrowing somewhat from European and Judeo-Christian history and myth. Just enough for the reader to have a sense of vague, curious familiarity but not too much. To enjoy this book note that you have to be willing to suspend Western (esp American) values regarding sexuality and male primacy. It's not too much to ask though, and in return Carey will reward you with a deeply, thoroughly enjoyable story of love, intrigue, war and redemption.
Cheers,
Eric
Book Review: Mesmerizing Addictive Fantasy Filled With Intrigue and Eroticism
Summary: 5 Stars
Phedre no Delaunay is the unlucky daughter of a highborn courtesan and a minor nobleman who married in the face of community opposition. Phedre has been cursed with Kushiel's Dart, a scarlet mote in her left eye which marks her as a follower of Kushiel, a god whose worship involves pain. She is an anguisette, born to find sexual release in pain. Sold by her mother to an esteemed house of prostitution, Phedre's contract is purchased by Anafiel Delaunay, a mysterious aristocrat who will find a use for Phedre's talents. Pledged to protect the child heir to the throne of Terre D'Ange, Delaunay needs a courtesan he can groom as a spy. Phedre's unique predelictions provide her entre into the bedrooms of the most powerful men and women in the country. But when Delaunay's dangerous game of intrigue goes wrong, Phedre is betrayed into slavery in the distant land of the Skaldi, a primitive but war like country whose ambitious leader seeks to expand his empire. Accompanied only by a reluctant young warrior-priest who disapproves of Phedre's profession, Phedre is at the mercy of Waldemar Selig, the clever Skaldi king who has forged secret alliances with Terre D `Ange traitors. It is up to Phedre and Joscelin to warn the young Queen Isandre and save Terre D'Ange from invasion. Carey has crafted an exquisite novel that elevates political intrigue to a work of art. Phedre is a fascinating heroine whose penchant for pain is so delicately depicted that the reader can understand her torment. Although the erotic scenes comprise only a small portion of this epic fantasy, their influence permeates the novel with a sensuality that provides an intriguing undertone. This is a magnificent first novel and only the beginning of a series that will fascinate and intrigue readers for years.Book Review: Absolute Genius
Summary: 5 Stars
There really is no way to describe how brilliant this story is in a single sitting, but I can say this: Jacqueline Carey is an absolute genius.
I won't sit here and try to describe the extent of the story to its fullest, but it is one of the most intricate tales of espionage and conspiracy I've ever read, especially while so controlled from the point of view of a single character, Phedre no Deluanay.
The greatest part about this story is that she takes the first person narrative to a whole new level. She gives Phedre very prominant graces and abysmal flaws to her personality that not only define her as a character, not only define her as a person, but hook you with an emotional attachment and response to her that you scarcely find in any literature. She is beautiful, sharp, quick-witted, and intelligent, and that leaves you feeling proud of her growth as a person. But at the same time, she's haughty, self-centered, self-absorbed, selfish, and a repugnant elitist, and it leaves you wanting to pull her from the book and scream at her, telling her to get over herself, lol.
And even with all of the deeply plotted conspiracy and trees of acquaintence and nemesis, even with Phedre's overwhelmingly powerful presence as a character and as a narrator, each individual supporting role is given enough attention to detail as to be convinving and intriguing, each in their own right.
The story moves you to the point where you can't put it down, to the point where you actually feel that a 912 page book is actually too short, and rejoice that it continues the legacy in a series of sequels. Even things that might have once gotten a different reaction from you take charge in a new way when told in this story. Normally, homosexual scenes make me uncomfortable, but they were classy, moving, appropriate, and captivating to the point where even I could celebrate their meaning and impact in this context.
To put it simply, this is a must read. Carey's genius actually rivals if not dwarfs the great Lord of the Rings fantasy epic, and that's a bold statement, but I stand behind it. READ THIS BOOK!!!