Rating: 
Summary: Couldn't put it down!
Review: I read this book after noticing the second in the series, which has a very sexy cover (Kushiel's Chosen), and wondering what IT was about. I'm not a big fan of "fantasy" novels, but I enjoyed this one. And I kept trying to figure out which real medieval countries and nationalities and people the fantasy ones corresponded with. The story had enough romance, court and political intrigue, and adventure to keep me turning pages long into the night several times. Phaedre is a unique and engaging heroine, although her perfection and zeal was a little hard to swallow sometimes. The author includes an exhausive list of characters and their relationships, and I think it would have been helpful if she had given a little more background on the "religious" characters and their traits. If you enjoyed the "Outlander" series by Diana Gabaldon, you'll probably enjoy this book. I can't wait to read "Kushiel's Chosen"!
Rating:
Summary: Great book!
Review: I really enjoyed this book, and can't really say much that hasn't already been said by the other reviewers here. I agree heartily with almost all of them. I picked up this book on a lark, and didn't even really pay attention to the blurb on the back. The frank discussion of a multitude of a subjects I was not quite prepared for took me by surprise: sex, homo/bi-sexuality, S&M, and a near blasphemous portrayal of God and Christ (I lead a sheltered life, what can I say ;-). But once I got past that, the story really took hold of me. I found the language to be quite eloquent, including (and almost especially) the more erotic parts of the story, which I thought were quite sensual, without being perverse or pornographic. Rather, I found they enhanced the story. As someone who finds S&M rather repulsive outside the pages of the book, I think it speaks to the author's skill that I was as engrossed as I was.
I must also mention the characters. In my humble experience, only two other authors have ever elicited such an emotional attachment to their characters as Carey: Robert Jordan and Terry Goodkind (two authors whose books simply must be included in any fantasy enthusiast's collection). In comparison, I find that Carey is easier to follow than Jordan (by which I mean that there are not so many characters as to require the reader to take notes!) without losing any depth of intrigue; and next to Goodkind(whose depiction of Raina's death in Temple of the Winds brought tears to my eyes, maudlin as that might be), I propose that her characters achieve the same connection, but are more intelligent, more three-dimensional.
My only critique is that the author lets us in on future events too often. I don't mind foreshadowing, and every now and then I find that the out and out revelation of future events is constructive, but I feel that the heavy-handed foreshadowing that is sometimes present in Kushiel's Dart is just a touch too much. I strongly advise that you not let this get in your way of enjoying this book. It's a wonderful, and surprising read. Keep in mind, also, that this is the author's first effort. I'm in awe of the natural talent she must possess and I will certainly watch for her in the future.Hehe, well, I guess I had something to add after all.
Rating: 
Summary: boring and unimaginative
Review: The characters seemed flat, almost stereotypical. The religious aspect didn't help. The world, based on medieval europe, wasn't imaginatively constructed. This itself isn't so bad, but the lack of imagination seemed to spill over into other parts of the book as well, such as the characters and religion, which were at most variations on various well-known, standard forms. The prose seemed ponderous to me. I also didn't like the foreshadowing aspect. On a normal day I would give the book a 2 as it had a (very) few redeeming qualities, but seeing all the 5's, I have to say "Why?" and give it a 1.
Rating: 
Summary: Through the eyes of Phedre
Review: Kushiel's Dart is seen totally through the eyes of Phedre, a courtesan and spy raised in the Night Courts of the kingdom of Terre D'Ange, a land founded by fallen angels. In this land, the supreme command of their God is "Love as Thou Wilt", and there are 13 houses of courtesans, each with a different attitude towards sex, from Joy to elegance to mysticism, and, yes, even S&M, who support this commandment. Phedre is marked by Kushiel's dart as an anguisette, one who takes pleasure from pain. She is indentured in the service of Anafiel no'Delauny who protects her and teaches her how to use her intelligence and bedskills to extract information from his enemies. Intrigue and treachery are everywhere and Phedre finds herself in the thick of it, when one close to them betrays her and Delauney. Her travels take her from her homeland to the harsh Skaldi northlands to the isles of Alba and back to her beloved Terre D'Ange, accompanied by an ever increasing number of faithful followers, as she races against time to save the land she loves from treacherous betrayers.
This book is beautifully written, the intrigues are direly clever, and Phedre, for all her strange quirks, is a joy to read about......... I HIGHLY RECOMMEND The Price Of Immortality by C.M. Whitlock..............
Rating:
Summary: Erotic, unsettling, and addictive
Review: The rave on the back cover from Publisher's Weekly compares Kushiel's Dart to "Gone With The Wind," while the synopsis immeadiately below compares it with Frank Herbert's "Dune!" Right then, I knew I had to read it. However, it reminded me more of Mary Gentle's "Rats and Gargoyles" - a Rennaisance world at once our own and at the same time, clearly not, whose diseased beauty is rotten to the core with human bondage, hedonistic religions, and depraved nobles playing games with human lives. All the more unfortunate since it's a world you don't want to leave once you're there.
Carey depicts a kingdom which the locals believed to have been founded by a group of wandering angels who left heaven to protect and serve Elua - a divine outcast searching for his place in the universe. One of these angels -Kushiel- specialized in pain and punishment and every now and then, he will mark a mortal from birth to be his chosen. Such a person is cursed to a lifetime of masochism. Phedre is the latest such individual, and is raised to live a double life as both an expensive prostitute and a master spy. While she enjoys her work, her strange gift and the truly disturbing people who covet her for it quickly catapult her into a series of earth-shaking events and conspiracies which threaten to change the face of the entire world.
This is a character driven story and I admire Carey for depicting her eccentric - and often very ugly - characters as completely human. Despite all the kinky sex, murderous betrayals, and courtly intrigue, no one is ever really a shining saint or a cacklin, black-hearted villain. Love or hate the characters she introduces, you understand them and they are all the more beautiful (or frightening) for it.
Another thing which kept my attention was Carey's cunning use of foreshadowing. Phedre's first-person narrative is frequently peppered with allusions to peoples' fates along the lines of: "He was so happy that day. If he'd known what it meant, he wouldn't have been. But that was later." These warnings come frequently enough to keep suspense piqued, but just seldom enough that whenever the hinted-at event finally does come, the reader is still stunned to see it happen.
All in all, this is an amazing and engrossing debut which I could not put down. Anyone expecting nine-hundred pages of steamy, explicit erotica will be disappointed, but less truly is more in Carey's writing, and the sparesness with which Phedre recounts the frequent trysts makes them all the more unsettling. It's not a book for everyone, but neither is it so offensive that I'd tell anyone not to read it. Such is Carey's skill that I found myself judging the characters by their cultural standards of morality, not my own. No easy task for a writer by any means. Definately a worthy read, and likely a re-read as well.
Rating:
Summary: Yet another book I couldn't put down...
Review: Weirdo that I am, I picked up this book at a used book store mostly by the half-naked woman on the cover O_o... But after the first page, I was hooked. Phèdre is an unlikely heroine, a courtsean of rich and beautiful world, secreting out information for her Lord Delaunay. She is anguissette, marked by Kushiel's Dart, forever cursed and gifted to be pleasured by pain. The book is bursting with detail, bringing together a strange mix of Christianity and erotic paganism along with a sardonic and sometimes dark humor. If you don't mind the sex, it's an addicting read.
Rating:
Summary: not what I expected
Review: Wow! When I picked up this book, I thought it was going to be something totally different; but it was still the best book I've read in a long time. The plot and the place is so interesting, how and who they worship as a religon is very new to me. When I first found out about the romance part I thought it was going to be a hokey book like Fabio or something. But the book just captured me and kept me going to the very end. The descriptions are very powerful and real, I felt like I was in the book. And the other aspects, the love Phedre feels for both her companion and Melisande is so intersting, and the best part is that people don't look down upon the fact that Anafiel loved prince Rolande and Alcuin.
All in all this book was very well written, it even made me cry at some points, and the ending was so sudden and it just left you hanging! It makes you scream for the sequel, and I will get it as soon as I can!!
Rating:
Summary: Epic and Masterful
Review: Kushiel's Dart is truly an epic, not just in length (700 pages!) but in quality and content. Jacqueline Carey has gone through much time and effort in this book to construct a world so alike and yet so different from ours. There is a fundamental difference in most alternate-universe books; the difference here is that when Jesus (or Yeshua, as they call him in this book) was crucified, his blood mixed with Mary Magdelene's tears and begat, on the fertile soil of Mother Earth, God's unwanted son, a whore's unwanted get--Blessed Elua, who makes his home in what we call France, and they call Terre D'Ange. Thousands of years later in Terre D'Ange, another whore's unwanted get is sold into slavery--the heroine of this story, Phedre no Delunay. Phedre is bought by the Night Court, which consists of thirteen houses of prostitutes that all specialize in one area or another. One concentrates on grace, one on artistry, one on beauty, and so on. They do this as a service to a goddess of theirs, Naamah, who was a companion of Blessed Elua and prostituted herself so that Elua might eat. Phedre grows up in this world with an unusual gift/curse--she is marked by the lord of pain, Kushiel, and feels pain and pleasure as one. Because of this unusual trait, she is bought out of the Night Court and into the household of Anafel Delunay, who becomes her foster father and trains her to spy and politick until she is a master diplomat. But what are Delunay's motives, and what does he have to do with the ruling house of Terre D'Ange? Phedre doesn't learn until it's too late, and is caught up in a web of mystery and intrigue that she has unwittingly played a part in. When she is sold in slavery again to the wilds of Skaldia (we call it Germany) she must rely on her skills as a diplomat and her skills as a Servant of Naamah to get back to her homeland and warn her Queen of the plot to overthrow her--and indeed, the entire nation of Terre D'Ange. There are twists and turns at every angle in this book; undying friendship and ancient feuds, unexpected love and unrelenting desire. It is truly an epic, and I highly recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: Richly Textured Borderline Romance
Review: Kushiel's Dart is intriguing. The characters and society are richly layered and compelling. The addition of the pain/pleasure aspect to Phaedre's personality as well as her position in society made for an intriguing main character. During the second half--the book begins to drag and become increasingly repetetive, but it picks back up once Phadre and Jocelyn begin their quest to clear their names. There are elements of cheesy romance novel and fantasy interwoven in what is truly an elaborate and fascinating novel.
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic
Review: I picked up this book simply because it was the first thing that came to hand while looking through the book shop in a train station. I read a little of the beginning and then had to buy it just to finish it. While I loved it and was happy to see that the sequel had been published, there are something that I wish had been done differently: The S&M scenes are glossed over and yet the writer still constantly refers to them. I would have been interested in hearing more about Phedre's patrons and her private indulgences. I think it would havehelped flesh out the emotional life of the character more. The court and political intrigue were amazing, but I was left frustrated by the lack of a resolution to the tension between the main character and her nemesis. It did leave me with baited breath for the next book, which I guess was the point, but it was still a bit frustrating. All in all, a very good and worth while read! I like books that can take me out of my life and surroundings and place me in the shadow of its characters and this book filled that requirement nicely!
|
