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Fantasy Review: Kushiel's Dart

Over the last few months I've been trying to read more adult fantasy. In theory I want to read recently published fantasy, but at the same time, my physical TBR shelf calls me. I've had Kushiel's Dart on the shelf for a couple months, but with everything going on in the world didn't feel able to focus for that long (910 pages!). 

With the dawning of November, I finally felt like I had the headspace to dive in. Plus, it's finally gotten cold. Last winter I slowly read Sara Douglass's Darkglass Mountain series over the winter, so the return of the icy weather had me craving something similar. 

Despite the fact that Kushiel's Dart is huge, I tore through it in 4 breathless days. I understand now why it's a classic. The character is endearing, the world is fascinating, and the political machinations! The treachery! I loved it. 


As I read I tried to focus on what made it so enjoyable. 

1. The world.  The world of Terre D'Ange is so interesting. I'm sure some people might be turned off by the religious aspects, or the sex--but I thought the way that Carey wrapped these two things together and showed them through the various character interactions was incredible. Even though this is historical fantasy, it wasn't our world with this funny quirk--she fully crafted a new world with fully fleshed-out viewpoints and consequences for moral behavior. 

The one thing I do want to comment on, that has less to do with the book and more with my own lack of knowledge: Skaldia and Waldemar Selig. After finishing the book, I googled "Skaldia," and apparently this is the real name of a real group of people in history. Within my frame of reference, it was so similar to the Scanrans and Maggur Rathhausak of Tamora Pierce's universe. I still am not certain which historical figure Selig and Rathhausak are based off of, but it is pretty clearly the same one. 

This coincidence--two books with plot driven in similar ways by the same unknown-to-me historical events--has me thinking a lot about epic fantasy's dependence of western history. I'm definitely on board with the need to pull in more non-western-european based historical events. It also has me wondering--will we ever get to a point where fantasy readers are bored by the historically-based events being published today? I hope so--history is too broad to have plot twists ruined by totally unrelated fantasy novels. 

2. The friendships. Alcuin! Jocelin! Hyacinthe! Hyacinthe!!! Though Carey is known for her super-descriptive passages, what stood out to me was the simple ways that she hammered home our feelings for Phedre's friends. Simple metaphors, repeated themes, spread over 900 pages--wow. I haven't cried so hard over a book in a very long time. 

3. The narration. I found the tone of this book to be very similar to The Name of the Wind. I loved the foreshadowing and the tension early in the book through Phedre's "if I knew then what I know now...", and the slow reveal of each twist and turn to be very engaging. 
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