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A review by suzanne2025
Kushiel's Dart by Jacqueline Carey
3.0
Oh, I don't even know, so I'll just call it 3 stars.
Look, I like epics. I LOVE epics. Most of my favorite books are epics. I used to think a book could not be too long. I always wanted More Detail about the characters and What Happened Next and I like diving into a book for a good long time and not having to find a new one. And I read fast, so long books are good for me. This, and GRRM, have proven me wrong. This was like three books in one, or at least two. This is more than an epic. The only thing I can compare it to is ASOIAF, and at least I like it better.
Good: interesting and strong world building; some great characters; it's quite creative (especially the religion); strong female characters and lots of them; interesting alternate history Europe; very sex-positive (no bashing women for liking sex here!); some really good plot twists.
Bad: the sex. I think sex-positive is good and all, I'm fine with the main character being a courtesan, and down with the virgin-whore complex, but I just cannot get comfortable with the level of violence involved in the sex here. It gets fairly graphic in parts and I am just squicked out; having a major part of her sex life involve being beaten severely bothers me. (not a spoiler, and I think potential readers need to know this!) Other bad: the problems/crazy situations/twists just kept coming, to where I started rolling my eyes. In some parts the writing is great and in others it's really repetitive and overwritten. To quote an earlier review, this prose is so purple it's black. The prose is the color of an anguisette's cloak, a color so dark as to be the color purple under a midnight moon, a color so rare that a great search was involved to relearn how to create a color not seen in three generations, a color instantly meaningful to Those In The Know.
Overall, this was a good travel read--lasted me through two cross-country flights as well as a week long trip, which is a LOT for me--and I am reading the next book due to the cliff-hanger at the end as well as curiosity about how a particular thing happens that I was spoiled for by reading the summary for book 3, so it's not that bad, but I am glad I am reading it on my kindle since damn this thing is long. Also, I like it better than ASOIAF, and I've read all of those so far.
Recommended for: someone looking for a very, very long, mostly feminist, distraction read. It's not light, exactly, but it is very escapist!
Look, I like epics. I LOVE epics. Most of my favorite books are epics. I used to think a book could not be too long. I always wanted More Detail about the characters and What Happened Next and I like diving into a book for a good long time and not having to find a new one. And I read fast, so long books are good for me. This, and GRRM, have proven me wrong. This was like three books in one, or at least two. This is more than an epic. The only thing I can compare it to is ASOIAF, and at least I like it better.
Good: interesting and strong world building; some great characters; it's quite creative (especially the religion); strong female characters and lots of them; interesting alternate history Europe; very sex-positive (no bashing women for liking sex here!); some really good plot twists.
Bad: the sex. I think sex-positive is good and all, I'm fine with the main character being a courtesan, and down with the virgin-whore complex, but I just cannot get comfortable with the level of violence involved in the sex here. It gets fairly graphic in parts and I am just squicked out; having a major part of her sex life involve being beaten severely bothers me. (not a spoiler, and I think potential readers need to know this!) Other bad: the problems/crazy situations/twists just kept coming, to where I started rolling my eyes. In some parts the writing is great and in others it's really repetitive and overwritten. To quote an earlier review, this prose is so purple it's black. The prose is the color of an anguisette's cloak, a color so dark as to be the color purple under a midnight moon, a color so rare that a great search was involved to relearn how to create a color not seen in three generations, a color instantly meaningful to Those In The Know.
Overall, this was a good travel read--lasted me through two cross-country flights as well as a week long trip, which is a LOT for me--and I am reading the next book due to the cliff-hanger at the end as well as curiosity about how a particular thing happens that I was spoiled for by reading the summary for book 3, so it's not that bad, but I am glad I am reading it on my kindle since damn this thing is long. Also, I like it better than ASOIAF, and I've read all of those so far.
Recommended for: someone looking for a very, very long, mostly feminist, distraction read. It's not light, exactly, but it is very escapist!