Kushiel's Dart by Jacqueline CareyMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
I have a hunch that this is a love-it-or-hate-it type of book. I fall in the first camp, I enjoyed it a lot. It's a heady mixture of sex and intrigue. Carey takes our world, gives it a twist, and creates a truly original society to populate it. I couldn't live there, but I'm happy to visit. I suspect some will be shocked by the main character's mixing of sexual pleasure and pain. If you wonder if you can handle it, may I ask “Have you read The Shadow of the Torturer (Gene Wolfe) or Wizard's First Rule (Terry Goodkind)?” If you liked either of those, this novel should be within your tolerance zone. (I only read 2 of Goodkind's books because the misogyny wore me down, along with the violence.)
I've recently completed three of Anne Bishop's Black Jewels series, another woman-authored sex and intrigue saga. In my opinion, Carey is far superior. She gives us an intelligent female main character, while Bishop writes from a male POV, observing the supposedly powerful woman who seems to often need his rescue. Phedre may get into scrapes, but she takes them into her own hands and learns from them. Her circle of trusted people is small, but sufficient. Plus, the opposition is not over done—they are regular people in pursuit of their own goals, not cardboard cut out villains like Bishop's. Which produces more tension, really, because we probably have people like that in our own lives. We can identify.
I spent this afternoon finishing up this book, while experiencing side effects from my second covid shot. Stupid me, it took me ages to realize what was going on. I'm running a temperature and my arm hurts like fury! Perhaps that's why I bawled through the last several chapters. It certainly hasn't helped my headache, but it has opened up my heart a bit. I will definitely be reading on to see where Phedre goes next.
Book number 417 of my Science Fiction & Fantasy Reading Project.
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