"Kushiel's Dart" Discuss Everything *Spoilers*

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

While there are many spoiler threads for this book, there wasn't a general purpose thread, so here we go!

What did you think? Did all the different elements mesh for you?

[Beth]

I'm not finished with the book yet (just short of halfway, actually) but figured I'd check in since it's the 15th.

- It's readable and engaging and is going surprisingly quickly despite the mildly ponderous style. I'm always interested in what Phedre will be up to (or what will happen to her) next. The short-ish chapters make it easy to "take a break, after just one more."

- It's very cool that bisexuality is the default in this world. Other vectors of diversity feel a lil' weak, i.e. the mystical Romani analogs.

- I usually love court intrigue but in KD it's so boring. Phedre seems to know very little about it despite being bred as a spy, and there are like forty princes and princesses of the blood and 450 nobles without personalities to go along with their names, and that makes things confusing as well.

- The "if only I'd known" stuff is getting careworn. For example, I could see Anafiel's fate from a mile away thanks to Phedre's telegraphing it well in advance.

- Melisande and Joscelin are my favorites so far. I liked Alcuin, too--docile and agreeable on the surface, but actually willful and determined.

- It'd be oh so easy for Phedre to be the center of the universe, everybody falling all over themselves to lust after or hate on her, and it's refreshing that Carey didn't go that route. In fact, the world seems like it could quite easily do its thing without her.

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

I'll be curious how you feel as you continue!

[CBRetriever]

I have to admit that this is one book i did not like. I read it back in January 2018. I didn't like the pain is pleasure bit at all. Or the what seemed like slavery system either. The only reason I read it was because it came as part of a Humble bundle. I'd avoided it before because I didn't think it was for me (I was correct).

Sorry, but this is one I'll have to differ with people on.

[Sonny]

I originally picked up the book thinking it was gonna be just a shallow romance & smut with some fantasy elements sprinkled here and there. Turns out that I was pretty happy to be proven wrong on that count. It helps that the whole mixture of religion and sex was handled fairly well, JC obviously put a lot of thought into it.

I was never really bored reading this book, which is pretty rare for a book this big. Every chapter kept me on the hook waiting to see what happens next.

The "if only I'd known" stuff, as mentioned by Beth, was my biggest complain about the book. I HATE it when authors do this. It might sound crazy, but I prefer tragic events to hit me like a sucker punch so I can fully appreciate what they mean to the characters and plot.

Melisande is really what made this book work for me. She makes a damn compelling villain. She's literally exactly what Cersei thought herself to be in GoT.

[Meredith]

I agree with many of the points Beth made above. This was fairly easy reading, even a bit of a page turner in the early portions with the short chapters and scenes really pulling you along. I also don't like court intrigue too much, all the plotting and jostling for position (and keeping track of all the players), but I did like the spying and behind the scenes sneaking around aspects of the first portion.

I found the portion when Phedre and Joscelin are captives of the Skaldi to be slower and not very exciting. Even the escape felt plodding. Once they were back in the main city things picked up again, and I enjoyed the journey with Hyacinth to Alba and back. The final section with the battles and plotting of battles was not my favorite, but things ultimately wrapped up satisfactorily.

The 'sex aspect' was not entirely what I was expecting. I thought most of Phedre's was done well, and not even as explicit as some romance novels I've read. The society's religion being intertwined with different expressions of sexuality was an interesting element. The training of children into the religious houses, however, was on the ick side.

I'm not likely to continue with the series, but I'm glad to read this as a modern classic fantasy.

[Bonnie]

I thought "Elder Brother/Master of the Straits" would be an actual person or role stationed at the English Channel, or else continual bad weather there. Turns out it's some sort of god with a face and a voice. Other than fortune-telling by the Tsingani (Romany analogues), this is the first magical element. Isn't it? So I got to page 600+, Chapter 67, before seeing this as a definite fantasy rather than an alternate history.