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Oct 02, 2011

Kat rated it:

Did you cop a big eyeful of that? That's right. Those Tortoises are totally boning. Now, I'm sure there's many a tortoise out there who would find that image very appealing. Unfortunately, I don't.

And this is my BIG PROBLEM with Kushiel's Dart.

Not that it's full of tortoise sex, mind you. There's almost no tortoise sex at all! It's that the sex in this book just does nothing for me. In fact, I'd probably enjoy tortoise sex more.

I'm hardly go More...

74 comments like (83 people liked it)

Dec 08, 2010

Lady Danielle "The Book Huntress" rated it:

Just a disclaimer here: This will be a very difficult review to write. In order to truly review this book, I have to talk about my own views on things and how books affect me personally. I am opening myself up here, which always makes me squirm. If you are reading this review and you don't agree with my beliefs on things, that's totally fine. But, I am not going to deny how I feel, because that is very important to me when I review a book, since I read books emotionally and not from a detach More...

115 comments like (104 people liked it)

Dec 31, 2007

Zen rated it:

I enjoyed this a lot at first, in a stupid trashy way, but got bored after a while, which is why I took so long to finish it. I think it reaches its height of trashy fun in Terre d'Ange; all the bits with Phedre living with the Skaldic tribes, getting away from them in the wintry tundra etc. etc. drag a lot for me. Maybe it's just 'cos "swept away by a barbarian!" isn't my kink.

Carey has a habit of saying really obvious things in a hilariously portentous way, e.g.

More...

17 comments like (64 people liked it)

Jun 04, 2011

Cassy rated it:

There is this new guy at my office. The moment I learned he used to work at B&N, I wanted to run to his desk and start hounding him about books. Don’t scare him off, Cassy. Pace yourself. I started stealthy checking the cover of the books he’d read during lunch. I tested the waters before team meetings – dropping the names of authors from different genres. Turns out he reads a lot of fantasy, which is great. I have always enjoyed the genre and seem to lean heavily toward it this year. When I men More...

2 comments like (21 people liked it)

May 11, 2011

mark rated it:

once upon a time, in response to the question What Would You Like To See In Fantasy, i responded:

1. i would like to see an old woman as a protagonist.

2. or an interesting demon - but not a 'sexy' PNR demon.

3. or more epic fantasies set in steamy, wet jungles rather than european-style forests or meadowlands.

4. or a hero who is also a slut (male or female).

5. or a YA fantasy series in which the hero grows progressively more villainous More...

9 comments like (18 people liked it)

Jun 10, 2008

Jessica rated it:

The first thing everyone usually talks about regarding the Kushiel books is the sex, so I'll get it out of the way first: S&M, not for the faint of heart, absolutely integral to the plot.

It's easy to summarize the book very briefly or very in-depth; it's almost impossible to do anything in between, so I'll keep it brief; Phedre is an elite courtesan in Terre D'Ange, a land whose residents boast traces of angelic blood in their veins. She is trained as a spy by a mysterious court More...

5 comments like (37 people liked it)

Jun 13, 2011

Zeek rated it:

Tight, intricate plotting, side characters with a mythological flavor (I swear The Master of the Straights came right out of The Odyssey), And Phedre- the heroine of the story.

Never would I have guessed I would like a character with masochistic tendencies who sleeps with "whoever she wilt". But I did.

I also liked the way the author weaves politics, war, betrayal, treachery and love into this story, and rather adeptly in my opinion.

Such intricate plot More...

18 comments like (13 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2011

Keely rated it:

This book is so overwrought, so full of tangled, convoluted prose, that I found it hard to take seriously. The world, instead of being built up as an original creation, seems to be taken fairly whole cloth from the French Court of Louis XIV. I know everybody steals, but the best writers steal the most, and I could have used some more depth of inspiration.

Then, of course, there is the sex. The constant rampant, submissive, fetishy, 'pain=pleasure' sex. Sex is fine, even porn is fine, More...

12 comments like (7 people liked it)

Nov 17, 2010

G N added it

This novel is one of those which could come carrying a warning label: "flammatory material", or a back cover blurb including: "no liability accepted for wanton acts of a prurient nature."

Kushiel's Dart is fantasy without the Elves, Dwarves etc, a pseudo mediaeval and feudal Europe in which each character claims allegiance to one of the ruling gods. It also constitutes soft/hard-core pornography of various persuasions, and is laced with scenes of brutal savagery - More...

4 comments like (7 people liked it)

Nov 22, 2008

Mary-Beth rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

6 comments like (6 people liked it)

Dec 01, 2007

Natalie rated it:

Everyone recommends these books to people who liked Anne Bishop's Black Jewels Trilogy; they're both "dark fantasy" and have sex in them. However, I only got halfway through the first book before giving up completely.

I don't like Carey's writing style at all. It bores me to death. I don't mean to say there's anything in particular wrong with it, but it's just not my cup of tea. Instead of racing along, I find myself bogged down and rereading the same paragraph ten times and g More...

0 comments like (17 people liked it)

Jan 18, 2009

Nikki rated it:

I don't normally do a very long or thorough review for books that are part of a trilogy: I tend to wait for the end of the trilogy. But Kushiel's Dart is an exception, mainly because there's enough action and intrigue for a whole trilogy in the first book alone. A lot of people start their reviews by saying that this book is not for everyone. Well, bah to that. No book is for everyone. Kushiel's Dart does deal with a lot of sex. Kinky sex. I thought, on the whole, that part was well done -- and More...

1 comment like (12 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Nowie rated it:

This is one of my favourite books for these two reasons, "Love as thou wilt" and "That which yields is not always weak." This book (and the books that follow) is an incredibly detailed, involved, beautiful story and I can't really do it any justice. The plot is intricate, the characters are vivid and Carey rarely leaves you a moment where you're not anticipating... something. That said, it is graphic (to an extent. It's not quite romance novel graphic, but it's close) and it More...

0 comments like (8 people liked it)

Mar 10, 2011

Sath rated it:

Noticed this has been shelved several times as 'Romance' and even as 'erotica', but I think its important to note that there is a difference between books which are actually Romance, but contain fantasy elements; and books which are Fantasy but contain some romance. I'd say this book definately falls into the latter category. Certainly some parts are somewhat graphic on the bdsm parts, but thats where it's important for plot and character, a lot of 'encounters' were suprisingly of the tasteful More...

6 comments like (4 people liked it)

Jun 11, 2010

Richard rated it:

Here we've got a court-intrigue romance novel with a central element that is mildly kinky — well, mild to me, but then I'm from San Francisco.

The central character, Phèdre, is born into a religious guild that provides services of a sexual nature, i.e. sacred prostitution. But she's damaged goods, so she's sold by the guild to a private party who sees something very rare in her. What he sees is a flaw in her iris — a blood-red spot next to the pupil — that he recognizes as "Kushi More...

4 comments like (3 people liked it)

Oct 13, 2009

Becky rated it:

This is going to be a very unpopular review. So, to all of you who may hate me after reading this, I apologize in advance.

From the rave reviews, and based on the vast number of people who seemingly loved this book enough to tattoo a representation of it on their body, I expected it to blow me away. I love fantasy, I love stories with a kick-ass female lead, and despite the fact that this might tell you a bit more about me than you bargained for, I was really looking forward to enjoy More...

53 comments like (42 people liked it)

May 30, 2011

Kat rated it:

I read and enjoyed Kushiel’s Dart years ago after it won the Locus Award for Best First Novel and I’ve recently re-read it so that I can finish the series (I’ve read only the first trilogy) and move on to Ms. Carey’s newer books. This time I listened to Tantor Audio’s version, which was read by the incredibly talented Anne Flosnik.

The Kushiel series is set in an alternate Europe which is easily recognized by its geography, language, culture, religion, mythology, and politics (e.g., a More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

May 16, 2008

Sean rated it:

This is one of those series I've seen around for years but have never happened to pick up. In my mind I linked it with the lusty-but-wholesome Outlander books, I think, so when I finally read the back of the first volume my eyebrows nearly climbed up into my hair. An alternate medieval Europe, where Christianity has not caught on, and where the (alternate) French have raised prostitution and pleasure to an art form and turned sex into a religious act? A heroine who is marked from birth as a tort More...

0 comments like (10 people liked it)

Apr 09, 2008

Xeyra rated it:

It's done. I have read this book. And I am not quite sure how to really put into words what it made me feel and what I thought of it. Sometimes words lack to really convey what you'd like to say, but I will try to the best of my ability.

This is one of the best books in the fantasy genre I've read in a while. I don't fancy myself to be very knowledgeable in the workings of the genre, since I haven't read half as many authors and books I would like to, but I can say without a doubt tha More...

0 comments like (7 people liked it)

May 27, 2008

Abby rated it:

This was recommended to me by a colleague who prefaced the recommendation with, "Give it the first 200 pages. Then it gets really good." This almost turned me off from it, not because I don't trust this colleagues recc's (she's never lead me astray yet), but because I don't really have time to "give a book 200 pages" to convince me to like it. If a book doesn't catch me in the first 50 pages, it gets dropped. I'm a curmudgeon like that.

Kushiel's Dart was worth More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Apr 19, 2008

John rated it:

I just seem to pick good things to read and watch! Maybe I don’t take enough chances in my selection of what to watch and read, only going with things that I’ve heard positive things about. In this case, I heard about Kushiel’s Dart in the [infrequently updated] weblog of one of my favorite fantasy writers, Steven Brust.

I’ve already warned you, this is going to be a positive review. The characters (if you’ve been reading my blog long, you know how important those are to me) are well- More...

4 comments like (7 people liked it)

Feb 04, 2012

Sassafrass rated it:

I am in complete awe of the amount of detail and world-building that went into this book. I mean, just keeping all the characters and houses straight would have done me in, but this author did it seamlessly.

I have to warn people out there: this is not fluff. it's not some cutesy little fantasy world. this book is heavy and it's long. the beginning really was dragging a bit for me. there was so much background. I'm grateful for it, but it was hard to get through at first. But More...

3 comments like (2 people liked it)

Aug 22, 2011

Regina rated it:

4.5 stars. A little too long generally, the beginning is too dense especially with regard to the world building in the beginning. But after the beginning and aside from the length, I loved this book. It is beautifully written, the main character is inspiring, the side characters are fun to read about, the romance is very sweet, the world created is enormous and creative. I love how the author pushes beyond what is comfortable for many people in terms of relationships and sexuality. Unlike o More...

32 comments like (11 people liked it)

Dec 15, 2009

Renée rated it:

I was intrigued by the world woven by the author.
There were some fascinating reinterpretations of faith based pledging of servitude.
Although the themes are obviously as old as time, there were a few unexpected quirks.

However, I was not so interested in the extreme repetition of internal monologue of the main character (information dumps are only interesting the first time around), the people being so helpless in dealing with their emotions and the fact that the author is More...

2 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 22, 2007

Christian rated it:

No. Didn't really like it. Still haven't gotten halfway into it. Sadly, I also bought the next two volumes. Just too slow and convoluted and uninteresting. Maybe I'll give it another try sometime, but...

3 comments like (5 people liked it)

Apr 14, 2010

Darlene rated it:

I have tried to read this several times as my husband loved it so much. I am not into the old language that Ms. Carey uses to tell a tale. I had a hard time with the names of places and people so I gave it up. Then I found it recorded so I could listen to the story while I read it. Anne Flosnik narrated it so well that I was hooked by the second paragraph.

Many get into or are turned off by the sexual escapades but the sex isn't blatant but rather an important part of the tale. Humbl More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

May 26, 2010

Charlotte rated it:

This review might contain the word "sex" entirely too many times. But I figured that "sex" is what captures the novel's essence best, so here we go! If you made it through the first 200 pages of the book it won't bother you anymore, if you didn't read it yet - well, get an exclusive insight to the book's juices! Uh, did I say juices?

"A story of political intrigue in a vivid fantasy world with great characters" is the statement summing up a lot of reviews More...

3 comments like (3 people liked it)

Aug 17, 2007

Sarah rated it:

I put it down after a couple of chapters and moved to a different book.

0 comments like (6 people liked it)

Dec 13, 2008

RandalM rated it:

A prostitute, a gypsy, and a warrior-priest walk into a bar.... Actually, this isn’t too far off from the plot of this book. The main character, Phedre, is an anguisette, the ultimate submissive, chosen to experience pleasure and pain as one. She is taught by her patron to be a spy as well, and she infiltrates herself into the lives of royalty and courtiers.

Her spying leads her to discover a plot against the country she so dearly loves. Aided by an uptight warrior-priest and a half-ps More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jan 23, 2011

Tina rated it:

This book played in in three acts with the last two acts being much, much stronger than the first.

The first part of the story is strong on world building. We learn all about the land and the theology that drives the people and the culture.

The second part is where the plot kicks in and begins a section where discovery, betrayal and growth are hallmarks of the main characters.

And Finally the third section is a long drawn out denouement that consists of war and More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)