Kushiel's Dart
Kushiel's Dart could essentially be summed up thus:
Phèdre is a courtesan, trained to it from the age of ten. She lives in a world that holds to the doctrine "Love as thou wilt", which means that free love abounds. Everyone is aggressively bisexual, sex is both casual and an act of worship, and monogamous partnerships are formed mostly for political purposes. Phèdre herself has been cursed by one of the gods to experience pain and pleasure as one, meaning that there's also a heavy BDSM component.
But Phèdre is also a spy, working in secret for her adoptive father as he attempts to unravel a plot against the throne and protect the heir apparent. Phèdre enters into this work ignorant of the greater goal. When her ignorance proves to be an ineffective shield against danger, she finds herself sold into slavery, fleeing for her life, and trying desperately to finish her adoptive father's work lest her country be conquered by the war-hungry neighbors to the north and east.
The story starts slow. The first 300 pages are given to Phèdre's upbringing and the conspiracy is only ever hinted at. Characters and political players are introduced so rapidly and obscurely that it's hard to keep them straight, and even the cast list in the front of the book didn't always help. It took me a long time to grasp the thrust of the conspiracy, and I'm still not sure I fully understand it.
But there's a lot of other grasping and thrusting that make this book a whole lot of fun, even when it's confusing as hell. Phèdre is a courtesan first, and she gathers most of her information by sleeping with various nobility. When she is later cast as a diplomat, she employs the same strategy to get the other leaders on her side. It's a unique approach to the whole high fantasy, swords and kings genre, and one that I absolutely loved.
There's a smattering of magic, just enough to let you know that this is a fantasy world. Other than that, the setting is essentially an alternate history of Earth. Phèdre lives in the equivalent of France. Great Britain, Spain, Rome, and Scandinavia are also represented to varying degrees. This mapping onto our own history, as imperfect as it was, helped me keep a lot of the major players straight. I wasn't as lost as I could have been because of what I recognized.
I'm really excited to settle into this world in 2016 and follow the sexy adventures of Phèdre and the protagonists of the other two trilogies. It's a wonderful world to escape to.
Joscelin: You can't solve all your problems with sex
Phèdre: Watch meThat hides away a lot of the complexity and intrigue in this story, and glosses over the fact that Joscelin doesn't even show up until 1/3 of the way through, but it does get at the heart of what makes this book so fun and the reason I loved it as much as I did.
Phèdre is a courtesan, trained to it from the age of ten. She lives in a world that holds to the doctrine "Love as thou wilt", which means that free love abounds. Everyone is aggressively bisexual, sex is both casual and an act of worship, and monogamous partnerships are formed mostly for political purposes. Phèdre herself has been cursed by one of the gods to experience pain and pleasure as one, meaning that there's also a heavy BDSM component.
But Phèdre is also a spy, working in secret for her adoptive father as he attempts to unravel a plot against the throne and protect the heir apparent. Phèdre enters into this work ignorant of the greater goal. When her ignorance proves to be an ineffective shield against danger, she finds herself sold into slavery, fleeing for her life, and trying desperately to finish her adoptive father's work lest her country be conquered by the war-hungry neighbors to the north and east.
The story starts slow. The first 300 pages are given to Phèdre's upbringing and the conspiracy is only ever hinted at. Characters and political players are introduced so rapidly and obscurely that it's hard to keep them straight, and even the cast list in the front of the book didn't always help. It took me a long time to grasp the thrust of the conspiracy, and I'm still not sure I fully understand it.
But there's a lot of other grasping and thrusting that make this book a whole lot of fun, even when it's confusing as hell. Phèdre is a courtesan first, and she gathers most of her information by sleeping with various nobility. When she is later cast as a diplomat, she employs the same strategy to get the other leaders on her side. It's a unique approach to the whole high fantasy, swords and kings genre, and one that I absolutely loved.
There's a smattering of magic, just enough to let you know that this is a fantasy world. Other than that, the setting is essentially an alternate history of Earth. Phèdre lives in the equivalent of France. Great Britain, Spain, Rome, and Scandinavia are also represented to varying degrees. This mapping onto our own history, as imperfect as it was, helped me keep a lot of the major players straight. I wasn't as lost as I could have been because of what I recognized.
I'm really excited to settle into this world in 2016 and follow the sexy adventures of Phèdre and the protagonists of the other two trilogies. It's a wonderful world to escape to.
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