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A review by mouseyhare
Kushiel's Dart by Jacqueline Carey
4.0
I put "queer" in here but it's kind of a reach - the end game is very much m/f but she did love like one woman in this (kind of...)
I picked this for Read Harder 2021's "book you don't like the cover of". I wish I had checked the page count before doing so, as picking a ~1000 page epic fantasy book for the first book of the year was not ... the most fun. But it's been a long time I've read a book this chunky.
I liked this a lot more than I expected to. I felt kind of middling about what I thought would be a pretty rosy view of prostitution which I just kind of avoid because like ... ~sexy prostitution~ seems to miss the point. Not to mention that like the "legal age" is 14 ... it's like well, it is supposed to be fantasy medieval Europe, I guess. (Not sure if it needs to be accurate to medieval Europe if it's fantasy.)
But I grew to like Phedre a lot, in spite of her arguably Mary Sue BDSM powers. I thought there was a lot of really interesting political stuff (even if my eyes glazed over) and I loved the Albans. And also the Yeshuites, if only for being pretty positive depictions of fantasy Jews (although I think it was more like fantasy Judeo-Christians or something... either way.)
Mostly at the end though, I loved loved loved Joscelin.
There is no way I'll read the rest of these though DESPITE the really glaring cliffhanger. It's too much book for me right now.
I picked this for Read Harder 2021's "book you don't like the cover of". I wish I had checked the page count before doing so, as picking a ~1000 page epic fantasy book for the first book of the year was not ... the most fun. But it's been a long time I've read a book this chunky.
I liked this a lot more than I expected to. I felt kind of middling about what I thought would be a pretty rosy view of prostitution which I just kind of avoid because like ... ~sexy prostitution~ seems to miss the point. Not to mention that like the "legal age" is 14 ... it's like well, it is supposed to be fantasy medieval Europe, I guess. (Not sure if it needs to be accurate to medieval Europe if it's fantasy.)
But I grew to like Phedre a lot, in spite of her arguably Mary Sue BDSM powers. I thought there was a lot of really interesting political stuff (even if my eyes glazed over) and I loved the Albans. And also the Yeshuites, if only for being pretty positive depictions of fantasy Jews (although I think it was more like fantasy Judeo-Christians or something... either way.)
Mostly at the end though, I loved loved loved Joscelin.
There is no way I'll read the rest of these though DESPITE the really glaring cliffhanger. It's too much book for me right now.