In a short time I’ve really become quite devoted to this series. As I’ve said in my earlier reviews of Kushiel’s Avatar‘s predecessors, these books encapsulate everything that I want in a fantasy series. Balanced on the shoulders of an incomparable heroine, the story is both epic and personal. With every installment, Carey takes the opportunity to expand the world building out into foreign countries that are recognizably rooted in real-life analogs. So far we’d seen Scotland, Scandanavia, Italy, and now this book gets into Egypt and the Middle East. It’s terribly fascinating, and Carey’s research-fueled creativity remains impressive. I’ve […]
Still great
Kushiel's Chosen (Kushiel's Legacy #2) by Jacqueline Carey
After finishing the phenomenal Kushiel’s Dart, I was in a hurry to continue with the series. Nonetheless, I approached Kushiel’s Chosen with caution, because how often is it really that a sequel makes good on the promise of a first book that I had loved so thoroughly? In this case, my fears were unfounded. Jacqueline Carey delivered all of the complexity, intrigue, sensuality, and magic from the first book while engrossing me in the unique culture of yet another of Terre D’Ange’s neighboring countries. While she’s obviously borrowing from Europe proper, it takes no small amount of imagination in addition […]
Love as thou wilt, and I love this book
Kushiel's Dart (Phedre's Trilogy #1, Kushiel's Legacy #1) by Jacqueline Carey
All in 2016 I was going on and on about Captive Prince (and one of the things that I’ve been going on about is how I am just going to have to change my rating for the series, because they are one of my top 3 most favorably remembered books/series of that year and 3/5 stars for any of them just seems unreasonable) and how, along with probably every other modern day epic fantasy series, it’s a wonderful spiritual successor to A Song of Ice and Fire. That’s still true, but by the time it was done, I had started […]
Stories about love and death. No songs, really. The title’s a bit misleading.
Songs of Love and Death: All Original Tales of Star-Crossed Love by George R.R. Martin and Gardner R. Dozois
Overall rating: 3.5 stars This is an anthology, where all the stories are focused around love and death. I know, extremely surprising, based on the title. I will write a tiny bit about each of the stories, and conclude with my general impression of the anthology as a whole. It’s a really long post, what with me writing about 17 different stories. If you’re interested in my write-up, the review is here.
#9 Kushiel’s Dart: A new favourite for the bookshelf…
Kushiel's Dart by Jacqueline Carey
Phedre was abandoned by her family to the Night Court, where the religion-sanctioned courtesans live and train to fulfill the precincts of their pleasure-promoting god. Yet she is destined to tread a more unusual path: a scarlet mote in her dark eyes marks her as an anguisette, one who derives pleasure from pain. When she is adopted by Anafiel Delaunay, a prominent member of the royal court who realizes what she is, she is trained not merely for pleasure, but also as a scholar… and a spy. Phedre endeavors to untangle the web of secrets that surrounds her new benefactor and becomes […]