Reviews

Kushiel's Chosen by Jacqueline Carey

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sibilantesses's review

adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

It's been a long time since I've been this frustrated with a heroine. It felt like the entire second half of the book was pointless, and was there mainly to create more situations for Phèdre to annoy me. I continue to adore Joscelin and was saddened he was missing for a significant portion of the book. I've invested too much to not read the final book and hope it will be more like the first installment.

topdragon's review

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4.0

The third book that I read on my vacation journey was Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel's Chosen. That is, I read most of it during the trip but completed it this weekend. This is the second book in Ms Carey's first trilogy of the land of Terre D'Ange, following Kushiel's Dart. This is an adult fantasy novel, as is the series, and not really meant for those that blush at a hint of eroticism.

The main character, Phèdre nó Delaunay de Montrève, is a courtesan and spy and she uncovers a conspiracy of treason and murder that takes her on adventures to other contries accompanied by an intriguing cast of characters. Ultimately she faces her old foe, Melisande. I really enjoyed reading this novel, despite several factors that normally kill a story for me. First it has many many characters, all with names that are difficult to pronounce. Often when I read novels like that, I lose the thread of what is happening and to whom. Not this time. The world itself is a replica of our own Earth, at least the European and Mediterranean areas and I found that to be a solid anchor. Even though different names were used I could "typecast" a new character when they were introduced, associating them with our cultures and physical appearances. Ms Carey's writing is highly skilled and she writes in a style that seems to fit the type of story it is; i.e. sensual writing, almost poetic in some places as would befit a beautiful courtesan protagonist.

I also felt this was an unusually good story line and even though it is the middle book of a trilogy, it fits solidly into a greater whole and doesn't suffer from "'middle book" syndrome that befalls so many fantasy trilogies. I read the first book over a year ago and planned to read the third book sometime next year but now I'm thinking I'll be pushing that up to the next 3 months of this year. I just want to see what happens next and I want to surround myself with these characters once again.

kirajoy's review against another edition

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4.0

Another enjoyable read!

I really enjoyed this second installment in Phedre's story! The adventure, and relationships are exciting to read and it's so great to see STONG female protagonists (and antagonists) like these books provide!

laurentined's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This has a bit of second book syndrome, but I still really enjoyed it. After getting such drawn out and hard-earned relationship payoffs in Kushiel's Dart by virtue of seeing so much of Phedre's upbringing, the more compressed timeline in this plot doesn't hit quite as hard.
But Carey still sure knows how to make me care about characters that only get a portion of a book. And she can really craft a satisfying ending. No matter how lost in names, titles, and intrigue I get through the middle, everything clicks home in the end. She has a real way of making all of Phedre's various stops along the plot all come back around as relevant in a way that just feels excellent to read.
After this, I've got high hopes for a really great conclusion to Phedre's trilogy.