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A review by brennanaphone
Kushiel's Dart by Jacqueline Carey
3.0
A lot of people talk about the sexual qualities of the book, being as it's about a woman who grows up as a sex worker and is marked by a deity to get pleasure from pain. But it's definitely not a romance novel, nor particularly salacious. Not much is graphic here--rather, it's about sexual politics and how they affect women, which I found interesting! The ways in which the book discusses consent, kink, BDSM, rape, sex workers, and reputation in a medieval fantasy world were delightfully nuanced.
Also, I was like, fully trying to figure out this fantasy world for like fifty page before she hit me with a Jesus reference. I enjoyed the mix of historical elements and straight-up fantasy.
What I didn't care for was the way a lot of exposition expected me to follow tedious descriptions of people, bloodlines, and battles I had no context for and didn't care about. She gives a huge dramatis personae list at the beginning and then expects the reader to do most of the work to keep track of it all. I clocked about half of it and couldn't be bothered for the rest. Once she gets into societies that are new to the character, though (the Skaldi, Alba, etc.), it's a lot more engaging.
Also, I was like, fully trying to figure out this fantasy world for like fifty page before she hit me with a Jesus reference. I enjoyed the mix of historical elements and straight-up fantasy.
What I didn't care for was the way a lot of exposition expected me to follow tedious descriptions of people, bloodlines, and battles I had no context for and didn't care about. She gives a huge dramatis personae list at the beginning and then expects the reader to do most of the work to keep track of it all. I clocked about half of it and couldn't be bothered for the rest. Once she gets into societies that are new to the character, though (the Skaldi, Alba, etc.), it's a lot more engaging.