I was talking a lot the other day about the Kushiel books by...

I was talking a lot the other day about the Kushiel books by Jacqueline Carey, and how much I still love them. The alternate history where Jesus had a son who preached “Love as thou wilt” is super compelling, and Phaedre is one of my favorite fantasy heroines – she has a really neat “hook” in that she’s an anguissette, who turns pain into pleasure, but she turns out to be much more than that. She’s incredibly resilient and compassionate, and able to handle it when her devoted soldiers, “Phaedre’s Boys,” make up silly rhymes about her. And she goes through hell, several times over, without losing her humanity.

Image by Donato Giancola