Kushiel's Dart

By: Jacqueline Carey

Narrated by: Anne Flosnik

Length: 31 hrs and 5 mins

Publisher's summary

The land of Terre d'Ange is a place of unsurpassing beauty and grace. It is said that angels found the land and saw it was good...and the ensuing race that rose from the seed of angels and men live by one simple rule: Love as thou wilt.

Phèdre nó Delaunay is a young woman who was born with a scarlet mote in her left eye. Sold into indentured servitude as a child, her bond is purchased by Anafiel Delaunay, a nobleman with very a special mission...and the first one to recognize who and what she is: one pricked by Kushiel's Dart, chosen to forever experience pain and pleasure as one. Phèdre is trained equally in the courtly arts and the talents of the bedchamber but, above all, the ability to observe, remember, and analyze. Almost as talented a spy as she is courtesan, Phèdre stumbles upon a plot that threatens the very foundations of her homeland. Treachery sets her on her path; love and honor goad her further. And in the doing, it will take her to the edge of despair...and beyond.

Hateful friend, loving enemy, beloved assassin; they can all wear the same glittering mask in this world, and Phèdre will get but one chance to save all that she holds dear.Set in a world of cunning poets, deadly courtiers, heroic traitors, and a truly Machiavellian villainess, this is a novel of grandeur, luxuriance, sacrifice, betrayal, and deeply laid conspiracies. Not since Dune has there been an epic on the scale of Kushiel's Dart - a massive tale about the violent death of an old age and the birth of a new.

©2008 Jacqueline Carey (P)2009 Tantor

Critic reviews

"This brilliant and daring debut catapults Carey immediately into the top rank of fantasy novelists." ( Publishers Weekly)
"A very sophisticated fantasy, intricately plotted and a fascinating audiobook." (Robert Jordan, author of the Wheel of Time series)

Intriguing mix of court suspense and eroticism

What made the experience of listening to Kushiel's Dart the most enjoyable?

This is not my usual type of book. The story of young girl sold into servitude similar to a geisha. Add the backdrop a a society rife with ambitious Counts, Marquis, of various sexes and appetites. Good story but the sex is bdsm and other alt lifestyle. The children are raised to be spies.

Would you recommend Kushiel's Dart to your friends? Why or why not?

This book is geared to the erotic taste. I fast forwarded though a lot of the sex scenes. They were just to rough for my taste.

Which character – as performed by Anne Flosnik – was your favorite?

Phedre was done very well. She is the main character.

Magnificent

I'm glad I listened to this as an audio book. The voices clear and distinct. She gave me shivers, made me cry, and the story stayed so captivating that I kept listening even when not in a place where I needed an audio book for entertainment.

Excellent, escapist, thoughtful

Nice to have a society structured around consent rather than what ours is. Thoughtfully written and really enjoyable world building.

A tale to get lost in

I have read and re-read this series. It aleays intrigues me and makes me think. I have no clue how the author could dream up a world so very different from our own and yet so very similar. If you are looking to get lost in a world of different values, religions, and traditions from our own that is sewn with a thread or two to teather it to reality, look no further.

This book needs a new narrator.

I love this book — the audiobook, not so much. Jaqueline Carrey created one of my favorite characters with Phèdre; she is smart, sassy, sexy and confident. When I was a teenager, I read this book over and over, getting lost in the world and its characters. It is really good if you want to escape reality for a while.

But when I purchased the audiobook, I was really sad to hear that none of that was translated by the narrator. Her voice is flat and lifeless, and made this complicated but compelling story hard to follow or care about.

Go to the library and get a copy or buy a physical book or ebook; it’s so much better.

A total surprise.....

WOW, this book was amazing, it was very hard in the first 2 parts of the book, alot of information is opened up, lots of names are thrown out there that there is some confusion in trying to keep them all in your mind, but as you move forward into the story you find that the key people are easy to keep track of, its a wonderful love story in which I have no ideal of place or time span she writes of, I fell in love with Phedra and her bravesness, I listened to all 3 and now looking forward to the last 3.....

Amazing when I read it years ago . . .

Even better as an audio book! I have always promised myself to go back and read this series again, but I've never found the time. BUT! As an audio book, the Kushiel series is AWESOME! I highly recommend it for adult readers who like their fantasy on the spicy side. (I also LOVE the narrator!) Be smart -- buy this one, and prepare to be amazed!

Ahh, Blessed Elua... I <3 The Kushiel's Series

If there is one thing to take away from the series, It would most definitely be..."When Love cast me out, it was Cruelty who took pity on me." ~ Love As Thou Wilt...

Overall Very Satisfying

Who was your favorite character and why?

Phèdre steals the show - despite it all. She is an Anguisette - which in modern parlance probably means sexual masochist. I cannot say i completely 'get' the draw as described - but i did get the eloquence with which it was described. I totally got the stream-of-conscience type explorations into Phedra's thought processes as she grew up and into herself. And although her being an Aguisette was a pivotal reality - it was only a portion of the person we learned of, and that she grew in to! Phèdre was one of the most realistically crafted characters I've encountered in a long time! She was hot, she was cold, she loved as she hated, she vascillated, she fought and she won and she lost, she made decisions and doggedly stuck to them - despite! That was her gift to the reader - being real.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

It was just too long for one sitting - and i found the enforced breaks in listening great opportunities to think on the way Carey gently challenged religious and moral tomes.

Any additional comments?

Carey has crafted an interesting world - with a different moral and religious structure - giving one pause to consider their own beliefs on occasion. There are many paralells that can be made between Jewish tennets and those Carey has laid out. It is all done without intent to insult, and i believe she has accomplished that! The blending of various cultures is well done! I am amused that this series, this first book written so many years ago, is only now coming to general popularity, as our society is starting to openly explore and be more accepting of "alternate" lifestyles and sexual practices.

Carey takes us on a long trip, where we meet some lovely people, and some very scarey ones, and some very very memorable ones, but they are all real! Despite the Medieval-style timeframe, the intrigues and betrayals, loyalties and conflicts, the myths and legends, and loves, it all feel very timeless. There are those little bits of detail in the descriptions of a setting or situation that Carey does so well, without the violence necessarily becoming overpowering.

Phèdre and Joscelin are. What they are evolves, changes, becomes victim and beneficiary of wants, needs, desires, schemes and betrayals, and friendships and loves and loyalties of all types, from almost every possible direction. And yet ...
I am going to continue with this series - I enjoy Phèdre's world. I want to see where she has yet to go - what she can accomplish! What she and Joscelin can accomplish.
And she reminds me in so many ways - that which yeilds is not necessarily weak!!!

even the second time around it rocked.

I read it when it first came out and v listened to it recently. the story still finished strong