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A review by eyan_birt
Kushiel's Avatar by Jacqueline Carey
slow-paced
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
My favorite of the original trilogy and I loved it still. Dark and intense, melding history with the fantastic, Carey's prose will always be among my favorite. As a medieval scholar in my own right now I got so much more out of it, and the discomfort I had with many aspects of early 2000s writing was addressed and rectified in this book (the guild for Namaah's servants setting age requirements etcs) though the ethnocentrism was intense this time around as part of the plot and that I didn't care for. Still, it made my heart ache and I will always love it.
7/19/23 update: I just finished reading the trilogy again, for perhaps the tenth time over the years, in preparation for both Cassiel's Servant in August as well as my intended use of this series as an aspect of my PhD dissertation. It's been a handful of years since my last review, when I had just begun my medieval literature schooling. Once again, I appreciated a new depth to the alternate history created by Carey in this world, but this time, I read the series as though they were a medieval romance, like Le Morte d'Arthur by Malory, and my appreciation of the text increased so much. While I wouldn't necessarily say this book remains my hands down favorite, it has so many elements which I love as both a reader and an academic. I think Phédre remains one of my favorite literary heroines; for all that she is exquisitely female and feminine in a way that is often presented as the antithesis of what it is to be "heroic," Phédre nevertheless is brave, intelligent, determined, and she never backs down. That which yields is not always weak, indeed.
Love as thou wilt.
7/19/23 update: I just finished reading the trilogy again, for perhaps the tenth time over the years, in preparation for both Cassiel's Servant in August as well as my intended use of this series as an aspect of my PhD dissertation. It's been a handful of years since my last review, when I had just begun my medieval literature schooling. Once again, I appreciated a new depth to the alternate history created by Carey in this world, but this time, I read the series as though they were a medieval romance, like Le Morte d'Arthur by Malory, and my appreciation of the text increased so much. While I wouldn't necessarily say this book remains my hands down favorite, it has so many elements which I love as both a reader and an academic. I think Phédre remains one of my favorite literary heroines; for all that she is exquisitely female and feminine in a way that is often presented as the antithesis of what it is to be "heroic," Phédre nevertheless is brave, intelligent, determined, and she never backs down. That which yields is not always weak, indeed.
Love as thou wilt.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Sexual assault