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Kushiel's Dart ReviewI have to say I had really low expectations going into this book. I bought it to read to my wife, who has a vision disability, but loves the fantasy genre, and there is very little serious romantic fantasy out there, even less available on audiotape. I reluctantly chose this one, figuring I'd suffer through it for her entertainment. From the premise of the book, described on the back cover, I expected it to be a practically endless sequence of raunchy sadomasochistic sexual encounters weakly tied together by a paper-thin plot. Can you blame me? Here's what it says of the main character: "chosen [by some divine power] to forever experience pleasure and pain as one.... trained equally in the courtly arts and the talents of the bed-chamber..." How could that possibly have prepared me for the depth and skill of storytelling I was in for by reading this book?
We hear the story as told by Phèdre, who bears the mark of "Kushiel's Dart," as the scarlet mote in her eye is referred to. This first volume in the trilogy starts with her humble beginnings as the "unwanted get" of a woman of little social consequence, her indenture into the Court of Night-Blooming Flowers, and her rise into the highest social circles of the city. That's merely the first act. The trilogy is set in an alternate history of Europe, where the principal difference seems to be that in this novel, the French may actually be justified in their claim to divinity. The story's main location is geographically analogous to our world's France, but in Phèdre's world, it is called Terre D'Ange (Land of Angels), because the inhabitants (D'Angelines) are descended from divine beings who left the holy land over a thousand years previously. The religion is explained early on in the story, and is close to, but not quite, real-world Christianity. The story takes place some time in the late middle ages or the early Renaissance. Carey uses real-world societies from various time periods to model her world upon. The names of the nations are changed to older, variations on, or more obscure references to those regions they describe. Spain is Aragonia, for example, England is Alba, and so on.
The stage thus set, Carey proceeds to weave an intricate story of politics, love, betrayal, and adventure. One of the strongest points to recommend this story is the cast of characters. The many political figures who take a role in the story are all well-developed characters, each illustrated in great detail in the story, each with their own multifaceted personalities, desires, merits, flaws, and distinctive habits. There are erotic episodes, as the summary implies, but they are woven into the story so seamlessly, and in fact essential to the plot, so that to dismiss this book as merely common erotica is selling it far too short. To begin with the concept of a main character whose uniqueness is based in the erotic, and to build such a full and complicated story, Carey shows a skill with the written word rarely seen in fantasy today, and in fact in most genres of literature.
No work of fiction is perfect. This book was not without its flaws or idiosyncrasies. Many of the reviews here complain about the overly flowery speech, indicating that the telling detracts from the tale. It depends a bit on personal taste, but I didn't think that the narration style was too far over the top, and it was entirely consistent. What did become tiresome in this first volume is that the "voice" of the narration is as if these events happened long ago in Phèdre's life, and she is telling this as if looking back through the years. The consequence of this motif is that the first 400 pages are rife with this one cliché that began to get frustratingly repetitive. She is constantly saying something to the effect of, "...if only I had known then what I know now..." It did lend a foreshadowing of tragedy to the telling, but was used much too often. Fortunately she lays off that cliché about halfway through the book, and while it does rear its head occasionally after that, it is nowhere near as pervasive.
So much happens in this one book that it would use more words than I'm allotted to describe all the various plots, subplots, and cliffhangers and give my opinion of each. We are treated to vibrant descriptions of many of the locales of Phèdre's world, traveling through D'Angeline cities, barbarian villages, rough wilderness, high seas, and palace halls. Phèdre finds and loses friends along the way and each one she comes to know, we know through her. Her enemies, as well, we come to know, and find that they are not the typical cardboard cutout villains that one typically finds in tales of love and magic. These villains have motivations that one could even sympathize with under the right conditions, and this use of moral shades of gray heightens the complexity of the work as a whole. The 900 pages pass in the blink of an eye, and I couldn't tell you the number of times I finished reading a chapter aloud, and my wife and I looked at each other and could say nothing more than "Wow."
One of the writer blurbs on one volume of this series says that the trilogy has "something for everyone," and I think that's the best description I've heard yet. Complicated political plots within plots, a multilayered back story that could support a novel or two of its own, fantastic swordfights, massive army battles, erotic sex scenes, fascinating personal relationships... I could go on. I consider this book one of the nicest surprises I've had in a while, in that it was a totally unexpected enjoyment. After reading the entire trilogy aloud to my wife, we look forward to anything else Jacqueline Carey publishes in the future.
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