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juushikaTitle: Kushiel's Dart
Author: Jacqueline Carey
Published: New York: Tom Doherty Associates, 2001
Page Count: 701
Total Page Count: 19,657
Text Number: 57
Read For: My own enjoyment (borrowed from the library)
Short review: Yet another bad fantasy monstrosity, but one that I sped through and, on a limited basis, enjoyed. Phère is born with a scarlet mote in her eye, the mark of Kushiel's Dart. The flaw marks her as Kushiel's chosen, the only one in three centuries to fine her pleasure in pain and suffering. She is sold into servitude as a child and is later purchased by Delaunay, a enigmatic nobleman that teaches her history, politics, languages, sexual pleasure, and above all the ability to see, listen, and interpret. However, as Phère matures, becoming a talented servant of pleasure in the name of her lord and a cunning all-seeing eye for Delaunay, she becomes increasingly immersed in a political intrigue against the crown that will come to destroy her home and the spread to the far reaches of her continent and beyond. Rife with sex, politics, and religion, Kushiel's Dart attempts to create a new world order based on a sexual derivative of Christianity, anxiously sweeping the entire map and disparate cultures, throwing in plenty of sex and politics. Carey oversteps her potential, and the end of the book becomes rushed and some of the visits are superfluous; however, the world order that she invents is interesting, her main characters are dynamic, attractive, and easy to love, and the book is certainly amusing and engrossing. If you have the time to get sucked in to a 700 page fiction monstrosity that will entice you but then leave you a bit exhausted and frustrated, then I recommend this book. It isn't the same quality as the "real" novels that I usually read, but it is interesting and enjoyable.
Unless I'm mistaken, this book has a pretty large cult following and a number of sequels. I can see why: Carey takes a proactive approach towards redefining both religion and sexuality, often in the same context. The world that she creates is something of a welcome extreme from our own. The founder of their religion if Eula, the scorned son of God, and the branches of the religion follow the eight fallen angels that chose to serve Eula. Naamah, one of the eight, sold her body in order to protect and serve Eula, and now prostitution is a sacred part of the religion. The precept of the religion is "Love as thou wilt." Sexuality is liberated from our social mores, a blessed, enjoyable, sacred religious practice that is practiced without shame. Phère is a servant of Naamah, a trained prostitute. Marked by Kushiel's Dart, she specializes in masochistic practices. Forthright, liberating, and titillating, Carey recreates religion and redefines sexuality. Her ideas are interesting and her open-armed embrace of free love, sexual practices, and BDSM is simply heartening and exciting to read.
That said—while Carey has the right idea, she obviously doesn't have much experience and she rather skimps on detail. From the route (birth control is never discussed and STDs don't exist) to the complex (the nature of sado-masochism, the gamut of human sexuality), the text doesn't quite fulfill all of its promises. Carey assumes that all individuals are sexual creatures, and that no one is ever unhappy about being sold into what would be, in our society, forced prostitution. Because they chose their patrons, the servants (adepts) are "loving as they wilt" and so generally enjoy their jobs. Everyone has a fluid sexuality, willingly coupling with either gender. There are no homosexuals, heterosexuals, or asexuals in Carey's world. While she pretends to have an open minded, revolutionary view, there's a lot she forgets to take into account. In fact, in the case of human sexuality she is so open-minded that she forgets the few that do fall in to some of the more strict and/or conventional categories.
And then there's the matter of BDSM in her work. Outside of Phèdre, the adepts trained to be masochistic have to be essentially tricked into it by a constant combination of pain and pleasure. Phèdre is unique because she, unlike any other, can interpret pain itself as pleasure. Somewhere out there are a thousand masochists hitting their heads on walls: there are a lot of people that fit Phèdre's mold, making her "first in three generations" status seem ill-measured and foolish. Contrary to masochists, however, there are many many sadists who get pleasure from causing pain alone—that group is nearly a dime a dozen. There seems to be a real flaw in Carey's reasoning, and her view of masochism is severely limited. As far reaching as Carey pretends to be, it seems that she's still stuck thinking in the terms of the modern middle class world that she knows. The idea behind Kushiel's Dart is an interesting, even admirable one. The underpinnings fascinate me. But the body of the text itself doesn't fulfill it's promises. It's limited, the details aren't thought out, and it remains trapped in our world.
I have other complaints: Carey tires too hard to show off the entire world that she has created, turning the last third of the book into a frantic, pointless tour of her landscape; the focus on politics is interesting but there are honestly too many characters, families, areas, and nations to keep them all straight; Carey definitely concentrates on the sex scenes, trying to use them to sell the whole book. However, I did enjoy this text. It reminds me strongly of The Black Jewels Trilogy, with its redefined social structure and role of sexuality; it also reminded me of the video game Fable with its political, sweeping scale, constant travel, and adept-to-royalty social structure. It is engrossing, the main characters (those who receive enough development) are complex and lovable, the erotic elements are generally enjoyable and exciting, and it definitely is a book to lose yourself in for a few days. While the book fails to live up to the expectations it creates for itself, it is still an interesting and entertaining read. There is better literature out there but if you're looking for a long, fun, easier read, I recommend Kushiel's Dart. Just remember not to take it at face values and assume that Carey's understanding of BDSM is complete. What she has is raw ideas and good intentions—the whole, however, is unfulfilled.
Author: Jacqueline Carey
Published: New York: Tom Doherty Associates, 2001
Page Count: 701
Total Page Count: 19,657
Text Number: 57
Read For: My own enjoyment (borrowed from the library)
Short review: Yet another bad fantasy monstrosity, but one that I sped through and, on a limited basis, enjoyed. Phère is born with a scarlet mote in her eye, the mark of Kushiel's Dart. The flaw marks her as Kushiel's chosen, the only one in three centuries to fine her pleasure in pain and suffering. She is sold into servitude as a child and is later purchased by Delaunay, a enigmatic nobleman that teaches her history, politics, languages, sexual pleasure, and above all the ability to see, listen, and interpret. However, as Phère matures, becoming a talented servant of pleasure in the name of her lord and a cunning all-seeing eye for Delaunay, she becomes increasingly immersed in a political intrigue against the crown that will come to destroy her home and the spread to the far reaches of her continent and beyond. Rife with sex, politics, and religion, Kushiel's Dart attempts to create a new world order based on a sexual derivative of Christianity, anxiously sweeping the entire map and disparate cultures, throwing in plenty of sex and politics. Carey oversteps her potential, and the end of the book becomes rushed and some of the visits are superfluous; however, the world order that she invents is interesting, her main characters are dynamic, attractive, and easy to love, and the book is certainly amusing and engrossing. If you have the time to get sucked in to a 700 page fiction monstrosity that will entice you but then leave you a bit exhausted and frustrated, then I recommend this book. It isn't the same quality as the "real" novels that I usually read, but it is interesting and enjoyable.
Unless I'm mistaken, this book has a pretty large cult following and a number of sequels. I can see why: Carey takes a proactive approach towards redefining both religion and sexuality, often in the same context. The world that she creates is something of a welcome extreme from our own. The founder of their religion if Eula, the scorned son of God, and the branches of the religion follow the eight fallen angels that chose to serve Eula. Naamah, one of the eight, sold her body in order to protect and serve Eula, and now prostitution is a sacred part of the religion. The precept of the religion is "Love as thou wilt." Sexuality is liberated from our social mores, a blessed, enjoyable, sacred religious practice that is practiced without shame. Phère is a servant of Naamah, a trained prostitute. Marked by Kushiel's Dart, she specializes in masochistic practices. Forthright, liberating, and titillating, Carey recreates religion and redefines sexuality. Her ideas are interesting and her open-armed embrace of free love, sexual practices, and BDSM is simply heartening and exciting to read.
That said—while Carey has the right idea, she obviously doesn't have much experience and she rather skimps on detail. From the route (birth control is never discussed and STDs don't exist) to the complex (the nature of sado-masochism, the gamut of human sexuality), the text doesn't quite fulfill all of its promises. Carey assumes that all individuals are sexual creatures, and that no one is ever unhappy about being sold into what would be, in our society, forced prostitution. Because they chose their patrons, the servants (adepts) are "loving as they wilt" and so generally enjoy their jobs. Everyone has a fluid sexuality, willingly coupling with either gender. There are no homosexuals, heterosexuals, or asexuals in Carey's world. While she pretends to have an open minded, revolutionary view, there's a lot she forgets to take into account. In fact, in the case of human sexuality she is so open-minded that she forgets the few that do fall in to some of the more strict and/or conventional categories.
And then there's the matter of BDSM in her work. Outside of Phèdre, the adepts trained to be masochistic have to be essentially tricked into it by a constant combination of pain and pleasure. Phèdre is unique because she, unlike any other, can interpret pain itself as pleasure. Somewhere out there are a thousand masochists hitting their heads on walls: there are a lot of people that fit Phèdre's mold, making her "first in three generations" status seem ill-measured and foolish. Contrary to masochists, however, there are many many sadists who get pleasure from causing pain alone—that group is nearly a dime a dozen. There seems to be a real flaw in Carey's reasoning, and her view of masochism is severely limited. As far reaching as Carey pretends to be, it seems that she's still stuck thinking in the terms of the modern middle class world that she knows. The idea behind Kushiel's Dart is an interesting, even admirable one. The underpinnings fascinate me. But the body of the text itself doesn't fulfill it's promises. It's limited, the details aren't thought out, and it remains trapped in our world.
I have other complaints: Carey tires too hard to show off the entire world that she has created, turning the last third of the book into a frantic, pointless tour of her landscape; the focus on politics is interesting but there are honestly too many characters, families, areas, and nations to keep them all straight; Carey definitely concentrates on the sex scenes, trying to use them to sell the whole book. However, I did enjoy this text. It reminds me strongly of The Black Jewels Trilogy, with its redefined social structure and role of sexuality; it also reminded me of the video game Fable with its political, sweeping scale, constant travel, and adept-to-royalty social structure. It is engrossing, the main characters (those who receive enough development) are complex and lovable, the erotic elements are generally enjoyable and exciting, and it definitely is a book to lose yourself in for a few days. While the book fails to live up to the expectations it creates for itself, it is still an interesting and entertaining read. There is better literature out there but if you're looking for a long, fun, easier read, I recommend Kushiel's Dart. Just remember not to take it at face values and assume that Carey's understanding of BDSM is complete. What she has is raw ideas and good intentions—the whole, however, is unfulfilled.
