Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

Kushiel's Dart
Kushiel's Dart
Kushiel's Dart
Audiobook31 hours

Kushiel's Dart

Written by Jacqueline Carey

Narrated by Anne Flosnik

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

4/5

()

About this audiobook

The land of Terre d'Ange is a place of unsurpassing beauty and grace. It is said that angels found the land and saw it was good...and the ensuing race that rose from the seed of angels and men live by one simple rule: Love as thou wilt.

Phegrave;dre noacute; Delaunay is a young woman who was born with a scarlet mote in her left eye. Sold into indentured servitude as a child, her bond is purchased by Anafiel Delaunay, a nobleman with very a special mission...and the first one to recognize who and what she is: one pricked by Kushiel's Dart, chosen to forever experience pain and pleasure as one.

Phegrave;dre is trained equally in the courtly arts and the talents of the bedchamber but, above all, the ability to observe, remember, and analyze. Almost as talented a spy as she is courtesan, Phegrave;dre stumbles upon a plot that threatens the very foundations of her homeland. Treachery sets her on her path; love and honor goad her further. And in the doing, it will take her to the edge of despair...and beyond. Hateful friend, loving enemy, beloved assassin; they can all wear the same glittering mask in this world, and Phegrave;dre will get but one chance to save all that she holds dear.

Set in a world of cunning poets, deadly courtiers, heroic traitors, and a truly Machiavellian villainess, this is a novel of grandeur, luxuriance, sacrifice, betrayal, and deeply laid conspiracies. Not since Dune has there been an epic on the scale of Kushiel's Dart-a massive tale about the violent death of an old age and the birth of a new.

Editor's Note

A romping adventure…

The worldbuilding is lush. It’s like our world, but different. Blessed Elua sprang from the blood of the Christ, and he changed the shape of the world with a single blessing, “Love as thou wilt.” It’s a romping adventure, a spy game, a pull between love and sacrifice.

LanguageEnglish
Release dateFeb 9, 2009
ISBN9781400179497
Kushiel's Dart
Author

Jacqueline Carey

Jacqueline Carey is the New York Times bestselling author of the critically acclaimed and award-winning Kushiel’s Legacy series of historical fantasy novels. Recent novels include the Shakespearean adaptation Miranda and Caliban and the epic fantasy standalone Starless. Carey enjoys doing research on a wide variety of arcane topics, and an affinity for travel has taken her from Iceland to China to date. She currently lives in West Michigan.

More audiobooks from Jacqueline Carey

Related to Kushiel's Dart

Titles in the series (6)

View More

Related audiobooks

General Fiction For You

View More

Related articles

Reviews for Kushiel's Dart

Rating: 4.11573468849477 out of 5 stars
4/5

2,199 ratings131 reviews

What did you think?

Tap to rate

Review must be at least 10 words

  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This was a fantastic start to a new fantasy series for me! This is a fantasy novel, but it many ways it can be described as alternative history. The world building was tremendous as it basically is set in a Europe where England was able to fight off the Romans and the Norman invasion never happened, a completely different version of Christianity developed, and the German tribes and French power ruled mainland Europe in different ways. Fascinating to think about from an historical point of view, and then the political intrigue and wars kept me turning pages. A great read and I will certainly continue the series.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    i have always loved this series but have never found the time to read the first 3. the only way this could have been better is if the reader had a french accent to match the characters!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I read this book last year and loved it. I found the audiobook on Scribd and in this time of social distancing what a perfect thing to listen to. This book has it all, adventure,romance,fantasy,history(even if it is reimagined). And the ALL the characters are realized so well, none more than Phaedra. I see this was written almost 20 years ago but its better than most books today.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    Kushiel’s Dart is one of the most amazing and well written fantasy novels out there, but the narrators shrill voice makes this an incredibly hard listen. Terre D’Ange is a fantastical version of France, and yet the narrators voice couldn’t be further from it.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I don't normally do a very long or thorough review for books that are part of a trilogy: I tend to wait for the end of the trilogy. But Kushiel's Dart is an exception, mainly because there's enough action and intrigue for a whole trilogy in the first book alone. A lot of people start their reviews by saying that this book is not for everyone. Well, bah to that. No book is for everyone. Kushiel's Dart does deal with a lot of sex. Kinky sex. I thought, on the whole, that part was well done -- and a lot of Phèdre's assignations were also plot points. I think that even a person with no interest in BDSM in itself could enjoy the books, and just skim or skip the sex scenes if they're that troubling. Now, some of the torture scenes: they made me wince.

    I wasn't fond of the narrative voice, at first, but once I got into it, I quite enjoyed it. The voice is quite distinctive, being decidedly not modern English, although it does remind me a little of Fitz and Nevare in Robin Hobb's work -- I think it's mostly that they and Phèdre tell their stories from the same distance.

    This book is incredibly rich in terms of world building. There is so much depth to it, woven into the story. Perhaps a little more than is exactly necessary, but if you appreciate a lot of world building, it's brilliant. You probably have to lay aside any scepticism about a land where everyone is beautiful, having the blood of the son of Jesus, but if you suspend your disbelief and let the details build up, I think it's a very compelling world. The politics that drive the plot are also amazing, and this is one of few books that kept me guessing a lot. Melisande really does play a deep and subtle game.

    The characters themselves, again, you have to be willing to buy into, I think. I know that some people think she's a "Mary Sue" because she's beautiful and she's special and she's marked by a god and all of it. Yes: okay. I can see that criticism. But once you're drawn into the story, once the setup is over, the characters become incredibly compelling. The complex relationships between them are very, very interesting, and I can't wait to see how things will play out. My favourite characters were Joscelin and Hyacinthe, fairly predictably. There's something I find incredibly compelling about the depth of loyalty Joscelin and Hyacinthe have for Phèdre in their different ways. Melisande is also incredibly interesting, of course.

    I loved the subplot of Ysandre and Drustan, too, including the part with the Master of the Straits. Hyacinthe's subplot in that breaks my heart, and yet I love it.

    Jacqueline Carey keeps a lot of threads on the loom, in this book, and I think she manages them all admirably. I'm eager to read Kushiel's Chosen -- though I might have to take a day or two to recover first!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Ah. Finally finished. This one has taken me a little bit to finish. There's a seriousness about the story which makes it hard to read more than a few chapters at a time. That and it's 700 pages made for a long read. The writing style is very formal, and more the story is told from Phedre's view point as if she's looking back on it years later. Politics play a heavy role in this book as well, and since I'm not partial to it, that also caused me to struggle though instead of just reading. Other than that? I liked it a lot. For a mature audience, but worth the read. I'm off to find the next book.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This is my favorite fantasy book of all time! I read it first as a teenager and it hooked me and changed my approach to sexuality to an extent I cannot overstate, I’ve still never read its compare.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    There's an awful lot in Kushiel's Dart to drive the discriminating reader up the wall. The writing is somewhat florid, especially at the beginning. The pacing leaves much to be desired, and folks who pay too much attention to editing job in an unabashedly braincandy novel will be tearing their hair out from the numerous incomplete sentences, spelling errors, and typos. The characters are all a bit trite -- Joscelin being by far the worst offender in this category -- and free will doesn't appear to be a concept, despite the novel's catchphrase, "Love as thou wilt."Despite these factors, the novel is somewhat better than average for high fantasy writing. While florid, the writing is solid enough to avoid being distracting. The most interesting facet is the society created -- an alternative to the chains of St. Augustine's anxieties that have dominated the Western European world, where the enjoyment of worldly pleasures is embraced as a good. It's an interesting concept on which to base a society, whether or not it adds enough meat to make this brothy novel truly worthwhile, I can't quite say.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This book was good and very complicated. There are many different people mentioned and its hard for me to follow but over all it was a very good read.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I must say that I was deeply impressed by this first novel though I thought it was a bit long for comfort. When I started it reading it, I felt like “wow, I might’ve to wait for a French translation this timeâ€? but since there didn’t seemed to be any project of one, I shrugged it off and gave it a try nonetheless. After reading other reviews, I reassuringly found out that I wasn’t the only one being impressed/annoyed by Carey’s heavy and showy writing style. Don’t get me wrong, it’s excellent and does a lot for Phèdre’s convincing characterization and Carey’s world credibility, but it can get unnerving at first… you eventually get used to it in the end. Carey’s world is a sort of alternate Europe with Alba and Eire as Great Britain and Ireland, Caerdicca Unitas which used to be the Tiberium Empire standing without doubt as the Roman Empire (interestingly enough, Tiberium never managed to invade Alba), Terre d’Ange as France, Skaldia as Germanic countries. Terre d’Ange has been discovered by Elua born of the earth and the mix of the bloodshed of Yeshua and the tears of a woman, and his Companions among whom Cassiel, Namaah and Kushiel. D’Angelines are descendants of Elua and his Companions and are therefore all beautiful… much like elves, except smaller and without the pointy ears… ok, so actually nothing like elves except for the fact that they are beautiful.Phèdre’s mother was a servant of Namaah; Namaah who at the time of Elua laid with strangers so that he and his male Companions could find shelter and food anywhere they went… yet Elua was never considered as a macho…no, his precept is Love as thou wilt. And that’s what the Thirteen Houses serving Namaah do… they train women and men to the ‘pleasures of the chamber’ for women and men alike. But Phèdre is flawed because of the red mote in her left eye. Her mother manages to sell her into servitude to Cereus House and only when she aged seven is she recognized by a nobleman, Anafiel Delaunay, for what she really is; Kushiel’s Chosen destined to experience pleasure and pain as one. Phèdre will later go to Valerian House whose specialty this pain-pleasure dealio is. In the meantime, she is trained from the age of ten in Delaunay’s household with another boy Alcuin as a spy. Delaunay is even known by some as the Whoremaster of Spies. Alcuin and Phèdre are trained to see, listen and think and take part in Delaunay’s political plots mostly by retrieving information. So yes, I guess you can say that the heroin is a sadomasochist Sydney Bristow… and she’s quite proud of it. But needless to say that Delaunay’s got a mysterious past that Phèdre and Alcuin constantly try to reveal it and when they do, they both regret it. I love political plots, behind the curtain manipulation, spy stories so of course, this was a part of the book that I enjoyed very much… the only problem I had to face was to remember throughout to 900 pages who was who and where and what… it got a bit confusing sometimes because there were so many characters of secondary importance. I thought main characters were convincingly portrayed (did I mention that Carey’s got a BA in psychology?); Hyacinthe, Joscelin, Delaunay, Alcuin, Melisande, Ysandre, Drustan, Waldemar Selig and the Twins –oh, I loved the Twins.There was very little magic if you excluded the whole Master of Straits subplot… while reading it, I wasn’t sure it was essential to the plot. It occurred at a time when Phèdre really doesn’t have a minute to loose and perhaps my impatience as to what was going to happen once she got back in Terre d’Ange influenced this feeling. However, I’m pretty sure, we’ll hear about it again in coming books. As far as characters are concerned, there was one thing that bugged me during the last third of the book… Joscelin’s strong character was at times treated as a secondary character anytime Hyacinthe was around… maybe Carey did this purposefully because it was the way Phèdre saw it… but it didn’t seem so in the end… I liked Hyacinthe’s character a lot but I thought there was room enough for two strong male characters at the same time. But then again, maybe it has to do with Cassiel and his damn choice. Melisande’s character is horribly wonderful as well as her almost magical enthralment of Phèdre. I remember her answer to the question why she did all that she did, “Because I couldâ€?. Overall, I would defend this book against those who think that it is nothing but a series of sex scenes (though there are quite a few and not the most common ones). I would recommend to any fantasy lover if he’s not scared and old enough to read what some refer to as erotic fantasy and if he enjoys long political plotting.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Phèdre no Delaunay is a beautiful young courtesan. She is also a highly trained spy, fluent in four languages, and greatly skilled in the arts of remembering and analysing information for her master Anafiel Delaunay.This combination is not unique in history. What makes Phèdre special is the crimson mote in her eye: Kushiel's Dart, a sign that she has been chosen by Kushiel, the angel of punishment, as an anguisette — a natural-born masochist, cursed and blessed in equal measures to feel pain and pleasure as one... but that which yields is not always weak. When her master is betrayed to his death, Phèdre is, much against her will, cast even further into the middle of political intrigue, and also manages to have lots of kinky sex on the way.As far as kink goes, Carey's Terre d'Ange (an alternate-history parallel of medieval France, where the rest of the known world is also very recognisable as a parallel Europe and Middle East) seems like a much more pleasant place for men and women alike than John Norman's Gor. Also, Carey is at least a decent writer, whereas Norman is a clown with delusions of adequacy.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Simply put, one of my all-time favorites. I needn't say more. ?
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    2018 Reread:

    This totally happened for some friends (all the way up through book two for now), and I remain forever in the charms and arms of Jaqueline Carey's type of writing. I love her vocabulary and lyricism, and they I'm just stolen away forever by her fully flushed culutres, religions, politics, histories, and how they all overlap. Nothing about this series ages in the years since purchasing it on each first publication dates or reread since.

    2016 Reread:

    How do I even words about this book. It's still as perfect, painful and masterfully done, from the bedroom to the politics of a whole world, the scope of endless religions, across so many different countries and continents. Even know all that happens, I swept up the dangerousness of the epic nd lost myself in the deepest truth: 1000 pages is still never enough.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I would describe this book as "masochist woman with slightly magical vagina conquers the world".

    Note - this is not a criticism. It's well written, amusing, intricate, interesting. It's nice to read a book where people don't have sexual hangups, which is straight faced and upfront about bdsm (not being silly) while also thoughtfully exploring the implications of a society which incorporates it.

    The romance aspect is actually chaste for the most part, because in a world/book where sex isn't much of a big deal, people by and large aren't repressed about these things; therefore the people she doesn't sleep with take on additional significance.

    I have no desire to read the rest though because I think the book is complete as is and would not benefit from sequels.
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    Sorry just not into torture porn, especially with teens.I gave this 7.5 hours out of a 31 hour audiobook, before I read some reviews to find out if it was gonna be any different in last 3/4ths; sounds like it's not. Every sex scene included a new kink, and I wasn't waiting around to not enjoy the scat and golden showers scenes.Obviously Carey can write and it seems like she created a very detailed society and was setting up some political intrigue, but really it was about the sex and I get enough sex to not have to read about it, especially when it's stuff I'm totally not into.Reading this was anxiety inducing as I sat there wondering if the 10 year-old character was going to be raped or prostituted out by her elders. The author had the good sense to wait until the character was at least a teenager, but really I'm not sure, at 51, what I would think about myself if I enjoyed reading about a teen age girl having kinky sex with adults. My son is about the same age. Just really freaking gross.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Sweepingly epic, sensual, romantic, erotic, and a hell of a good read. I actually bought this book 5 years ago (when I bought Harry Potter #5), and it's a shame I waited this long to finally read it. It seems like the epic books I've read recently (this, Cryptonomicon, Foucault's Pendulum) have been the best and brightest of my collection, easily outpacing everything else I pick up. It makes me want to read them all the more, now, which is great considering I have the two other books in this trilogy, as well as any number of huge and imposing books waiting in the wings.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    I don’t get the accolades. What, for me, started out promising soon wore on me. I struggled to care or finish.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Well, that was a journey.
    I like the unique ways she used to create a society in this story. I was loving that most of the world was a version of our world with a twist and just a tad of magic.
    I don't think that this story is for everyone. Some people won't like the sensuality or the rough way the main character is treated in several scenes. It doesn't bother me and makes sense for the plot, but some people will balk at it. It's also pretty long, as in I kept thinking the plot had tied up because I know that this is the first in a series, but then my audio said that I had hours left to go. For me that's not a criticism, but some people might get annoyed by such an epic long plot.
    I immediately started the next book when this one ended.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I really enjoyed this. The world is beautifully drawn, and while I sometimes lost the thread of the complicated political plotting I appreciated the story's scope and depth. Also, SO MANY of the top-rated reviews on here are like: THE BDSM SEXES IN THIS BOOK ARE SO EXTREME. Apparently those reviewers and I have very different tolerances for what we would consider extreme content. I wouldn't necessarily hand this to a 13 year old, but as an adult reader the assignation scenes weren't particularly shocking or nearly as explicit as I would have expected after reading those reviews. Maybe all that fanfic I used to read desensitized me or something.

    Anyway, I read this on my e-reader and didn't realize quite how long it was until I came here to rate it. It was a great book to read on vacation, because it gave me time to really savor the story slowly and enjoy the world building.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This review and others posted over at my blog.If I had to describe this book I’d say something like, “Ok, so, this is like alternate history where all of Europe is very sexy and there’s like 13 different houses dedicated to the arts of sex, because one of AlternateJesus’s son’s followers had to like, have sex to help save the group. So sex is pretty important and sex work is totally normal and respected. And like, this girl, she’s like the ultimate sub, so she’s doing all sorts of intrigue stuff while having sex with powerful/influential people, because there’s a big game being played here by those in power. And, so, there’s a lot of history and world-building and political intrigue. Oh, and a decent amount of BDSM. And I guess there’s magic too?!”The short version is, if you think you’ll enjoy sexy alternate historical fantasy, then I think you should check this out. (Of note: I forgot to expand in my blog post, but I wouldn’t class this as an erotica novel, for those of you wondering. The majority of the book is alternate historical fantasy; the plot revolves around the leadership of the country and threats to those in power, etc. While the BDSM aspects are a major part of who Phèdre is and there are some pretty sexy scenes, that’s not the meat of the book, just some extra spice thrown in.)Mass market reprints of the trilogy were reissued this year and I was happy when Tor offered to send me Kushiel’s Dart because I’ve seen the series in the stores many times, but really never stopped to check it out. I’m not sure why. I guess, maybe the last time I noticed it I was a bit younger and maybe not interested in the sexy covers. But you can count me in now!Phèdre is certainly an interesting character. I can’t recall having read a sex-heavy fantasy before and I know I’ve never read one where the main character is basically born to be the ultimate submissive. Carey did a great job of expressing Phèdre’s feelings during her encounters; the passion, the pain, the shame, the pleasure she takes in all of it – certainly a unique viewpoint to me! While I enjoyed Phèdre, I think Jocelin might actually be my favorite character. He’s basically a celibate warrior monk turned bodyguard and, boy, talk about character growth!There is a dreaded cast of characters list in the beginning that’s about 4 pages long. I’ve mentioned in the past that I’m a bit intimated by them (if they’re included, I would prefer them in the back so as not to scare me before I start reading), but I decided I just wouldn’t reference it. At first, I was a little confused when it comes to the royal family connections, but I do tend to have a pretty good capacity for remembering characters (I’ll give some credit to starting Gurm’s Song of Ice and Fire series when I was like 15.) Once I was immersed in the world, the characters were familiar enough and I only referenced the cast pages a couple times.If you like historical fantasy, political/court intrigue, sexy times, a hint of magic, and a female lead, then I definitely recommend this book. I will need to read the rest of the trilogy!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I don't want to give it five stars because I couldn't finish and I now hate the book but that's no fault of the book itself.

    This is actually amazing. I haven't been emotional involved in a book like this for SOSOSO long but the plot went a way that messed me up so bad I couldn't finish. I dunno. It's great and one of the best stories I've read in a REALLY long time.

    If there was ever a book that was too good, this is it.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Wow, what a fantastic book! I picked it up a few years back, intrigued by the idea of political machinations and a woman who uses her abilities as a spy while also a courtesan, and I was so totally immersed in the world I found it hard to put down. Jacqueline Carey's abilities as a writer breathe life from the first few sentences into the live of Phedre and her world (loosely based on medieval Western Europe and the British Isles). She can turn a swordfight into a song of 5 sentences, or the siege of 30,000 Skaldic warriors into a panorama of 2 paragraphs, and still I felt as though I were there. There are political intrigues a-plenty for any "Game of Thrones" fans.The main character is born into a world where "Love as thou wilt" is woven into the fabric of Terre d'Ange (France), where a son of Mary Magdalene's tears and Yeshua's blood from the Cross is born from the Earth and Elua wanders it with His Chosen. One of them is his mistress, Naamah, the Companion of Love, and Phedre is born into this world. She is abandoned by her parents so that they may go more a-roving, and the mote of red in her eye marks her as an "anguisette" who experiences pain as pleasure.There are some S&M sex scenes, though not nearly as graphic as vampire-does-everyone-s/he-can (they are more part of the plot than thrown in to sell books), and being a scion of one of Naamah's Thirteen Houses is seen as a calling in the way that others are wheelwrights or shop keepers. Phedre is brought up to serve and finally taken into the care of Delauney, a learned man with a household and a mysterious past. He brings up Phedre and Alcuin to serve as spies while training them at their craft of sexual pleasure. And there are strict rules in this world: for every assignation, a contract is drawn up; a courtesan has a marque tatooed into her/his back, and when that marque is complete, they are no longer under contract to a House and may choose their own assignations. In addition, Delauney guards his charges with an armed guard for their safety.And there is royalty in and out of these pages, and an aged King, his unwed granddaughter, traitors to the crown, Universities of learning, legends of the Master of the Straits (the seas between Terre d'Ange and Alba), and raids by the Skaldi into the fertile lands. The writing is gripping, the action takes place without apology, and over it all is a worshipfulness of love in its many forms.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Forgot how heartbreaking this book is, every time I read Master of the Straits I get sad.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Listening to the audiobook reveals a lot of the flaws in the writing that may not be as apparent on the page. So many repeats of "and then they discussed many things long into the night" (or similar wording).Fun story though that is more interesting than your typical "band of adventurers" epic fantasy.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This isn't going to be so much a review as a collection of impressions and random thoughts. (It's a popular book: plenty of other reviews out there to read!) I'd known about this book for years—I dimly remember it coming out—but although the book description is accurate, it never enticed me. I even read other books by Carey and enjoyed them without ever feeling an urge to read this one. I finally dove in because I'm doing an A-Z book challenge and needed a book with a title that starts with K(!). And then I was pleasantly surprised to find that I enjoyed reading it, although not enough to keep my copy.The book is long, and I didn't like all parts equally. The first bit (Phèdre's childhood) dragged, but I got more interested as she reached adulthood. But as the plot turned to political machinations, while I was still enjoying it overall, the sheer number of characters and how they were related to each other overwhelmed me. (Yes, there are over five pages of "dramatis personae" at the beginning of the book, and I much appreciated that, but I still lost track of who was who. Maybe I needed an infographic.) Perhaps a few hundred fewer pages of everything might've improved things. For instance, I'd like to have gotten a more well-rounded view of the villain beyond "beautiful" and "Machiavellian," but she almost got lost in the flood of characters.Yeah, there's sex. Quite a lot compared to many books, and the BDSM flavor of most of it won't be to many readers' tastes. Luckily, there wasn't enough to totally drag the plot to a halt for me. 901 pages, and no mention of contraception or unwanted pregnancies: clearly this is a fantasy novel.There are two more books in this trilogy, and I'm willing to try the next one. If nothing else, the world-building has sucked me in!
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    If only it had ended as well as it began, this book would have gotten 4 stars from me. Unfortunately, I found the later part lacked the pace and excitement of the beginning.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I really enjoy this series. This was far from the first time I've read this book, as the spine will attest. I enjoy the alt-history setting, the lore and magic woven into the world, and the depth of intrigue - be it political, personal, or sexual. Now I want to read all the rest all over again.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Interesting premise - kind of like the Companion character in Firefly
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    SPOILERSRomance novels for the kinky. In an alternate world, the blood of Yeshua mixed with the tears of Magdalene to give birth to Elua, a sort of Buddha/Christ quasi-divinity, who wandered around the world accompanied by twelve companions. Elua’s precept is “Love as thou wilt”, which means in the quasi-Renaissance France of the land of Terre d’Ange, a thousand or so years later, anything goes. Each of Elua’s followers had a particular specialty; Naamah’s was sacred prostitution and Kushiel’s was punishment. Combine the two and in Kushiel’s Dart we met Phedre no Delaunay, your typical spunky, clever, beautiful heroine who just happens to like getting tortured for money. Not quite enough to make for a novel, so Phedre also manages to get herself trained as an espionage agent, and accompanied by her faithful and long suffering bodyguard and erstwhile lover, Joscelin, thwarts a plot to overthrow the kingdom. Then, in Kushiel’s Chosen, she and Joscelin thwart yet another plot, and finally, Kushiel’s Avatar, she convinces Joscelin to sell her into slavery so she can infiltrate a evil genius’s harem, thwart yet another plot, rescue the son of an old nemesis, and find the key to free an old friend from perpetual enslavement to a demon, ending up making things safe for Truth, Justice, Free Love, Bondage and Sadomasochism. Well, you had to be there.
    The next three books, Kushiel’s Scion, Kusiel’s Justice, and Kushiel’s Mercy, follows the coming-of-age of the aforementioned rescued son, Imriel de la Courcel. This time it’s Imriel who has to wander all over the place trying to Do The Right Thing and rescue his beloved Sidonie from various unpleasantness, with Phedre, Joscelin, and miscellaneous other characters from the earlier novels making cameo appearances. They live happily ever after.
    Perhaps there is a little damning with faint praise above, but these actually aren’t half bad. The characters are all interestingly complicated, with a little good even in the most evil and a little kink even in the most good. The imaginary world is quite well thought out, without too much in the way of plot inconsistencies (although we don’t find out until the second series that d’Angeline ladies only become pregnant when they wish, which explains how they can get away with rampant and random coupling). It does get kind of over the top in the second series, with me wanting to grab the author, shake her, and say “For Elua’s sake, just leave the poor kids alone instead of infesting them with werebears and evil sorcerers and black magic!” Despite the fantasy theme definitely not for children, else you will find yourself answering a lot of embarrassing questions. Oh, Maybe four out of five for books 1-4 and three out five for five and six.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Okay, so it took me about 128 pages to really get into this one...after that there was just no stopping! Unending thrill and adventure. Full fantasy with tons of strong women and hunky men. I thought, at about 5/8 of the way through, how can this be a series? What more can possibly happen to these people? Yet in the final 200 pages - loose ends were tied and new storylines plotted, old characters stopped in to say hello and introduced the next generation cast! I'm looking forward to picking up the next installment and seeing poor Josceline make his choice over and over again.