Kushiel's Dart [Paperback]

And how many of us could resist the Cassiline? What a knight in shining armour! I love the way he starts out a pompous idiot and his character develops through adversity. The Perfect Companion indeed.

Not so much magical as mystical, I highly recommend Kushiel's Dart and the following two novels in the trilogy.

The book may be daunting in size but it has an ambitious range and the author writes superbly and sensually. Here is finally a book which deals on a cerebral and physical level dealing often with the extremes of intimate relations (especially due to Phedre's unusual propensities as an anguissette derived from the spot in her eye, Kushiel's dart).

Without elaborating too much, the setting of Phedre's world appears to be a Europe after the Crucifixion which did not occur exactly as it does in the bible. Instead a new deity was born from the blood of Christ and the tears of Mary Magdalene leading to a number of other events which are detailed in the book. The upshot is that Phedre is born into a pleasure house (of which there are many) where everyone is extremely good-looking (a premise explained quite convincingly) consecrated to the worship of Naamah.

The most difficult part of the book is the political intrigues involving a cast of hundreds people which is not always easy to follow. However this aspect of the novel is balanced by the development of Phedre's character with very likeable central characters and a good pace. Buy this one and you won't be disappointed.

This book can be quite erotic at times, but this book should not be dismissed as erotic fiction it is much more than that, an extremely well told book based in the middle ages in Europe, the use of the old country names such as Alba emphasises this.

Phedre bears the mark of Kushiel's Dart, a scarlet mote in her eye. The main part of this story revolves a\round Terre D'Ange (Land of Angels), the inhabitants of Terre D'Ange are descended from divine beings.

The story is based on politics, love & betrayal, aside from Phedre the cast of characters is impressive with extremely well-developed characters, and JC has detailed these very well within the story. The beginning of the story can get quite cumbersome and this is quite a long book but, it is well worth sticking to it after the first 150 pages or so the plot gets much more interesting. I did get the feeling that Phedre was narrating from sometime long ago in the past and seems as though she was looking back and re-living her experiences.

This is a fantastic novel, it has been criticised but, I personally feel this is a brilliant book and remains one of my all-time favourites, it is a very long book as indeed are the others in this trilogy, though this one is the longest but, it is never drawn out and is simply a stunning book to read.