NUMBER: 13TITLE: Kushiel's Dart
AUTHOR: Jacqueline Carey
STARTED: February 25, 2005
FINISHED: March 17, 2005
PAGES: 901
GENRE: Fantasy
FIRST SENTENCE: Lest anyone should suppose that I am a cuckoo's child, got on the wrong side of the blanket by lusty peasant stock and sold into indenture in a shortfallen season, I may say that I am House-born and reared in the Night Court proper, for all the good it did me.
SUMMARY: [From barnesandnoble.com] "When Love cast me out, it was Cruelty who took pity on me." Phedre was the product of an ill-advised union. The daughter of a merchant prince's son and an adept of the Night Court, she was born into a society of courtesans who followed in the service of their angels. She was a flawed child with the mark of the devil.
Sold into indentured servitude by indifferent parents, she had little reason for hope. But hope would come in the form of a banned poet named Anafiel Delaunay, who would become her mentor. He wanted her for her mark; he knew what it meant and how he could use it. He taught Phedre to move within the royal halls virtually unseen -- to look, listen, and think. She learned to spy in places of power, and her greatest danger would be that eventually she would know too much.
REASON FOR READING: Rose gave it to me for Christmas and I needed and thick book to keep me entertained during my two transatlantic spring break flights.
THOUGHTS: This book was absolutely amazing. I did not what to expect because I rarely read fantasy. To be honest, I was slightly worried that I would despise it. The first few chapters were difficult for me to get in to. There were a gazillion names, plot lines, and details that were all being introduced at the same time. I had trouble keeping them all straight in my head (it didn't help that I was reading on an airplane). In the end, however, I grew to love the story and the characters.
Carey's characters are wholly developed and seem to be real people that just wrote themselves. They have flaws, the have loves, they have hates, they feel desire, needs, duties. They are real people, even if they live in a world that doesn't exist.
The plot of the novel is also intriguing. Politics, war, and sex. This book was right up my alley. It's hard to condense the plot into a few simple sentences so I won't even try. All I need to say is this book is worth the read. The characters are amazing. The plot is addictive. And the prose is sensual and smooth.
MISCELLANEOUS: Two more books in this series. Yippee!
KEEP/SHARE/CRINGE(?): Keep forever!
RATING: 9/10 [Excellent! Couldn't put it down]
CR: Slightly Married Mary Balogh
RN: Another book by Mary Balogh, but I have yet to decide which.
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