Kushiel's Chosen

I was waffling between 3 4 stars on this one, but since the second book in this series was a marked improvement for me on the first book, 4 stars it is.our intrepid heroine Ph dre courtesan supreme with a very special talent for transmuting pain into pleasure makes her debut redux as a titled Lady and so re enters various schemes and plots at a very different level and with that elimination of class issues as well as the death of her charming pimp patron in the first book came the erasure of a l [...]

4.35 A Buddy Read with the FBR group This second book in the Phedre Trilogy was, in my opinion, better than the first The pacing was much better and it kept you on your toes throughout It had some lull moments, but they were well spaced and gave the main heroine time for some angst and going through all the facts and things she had done wrong and has to plan to do still The dynamic format might have positively been assisted by the smaller page count, although at 678 pages it is still a hefty to [...]

With the expectations Kushiel s Dart gave me, I might have been worried that Kushiel s Chosen wouldn t match up I wasn t, but I wouldn t have needed to be anyway I loved this book just as much as the first one Everything I ve said about how it s not for everyone still stands see my first review , although there was less sex, I think, and perhaps of the politics Somehow, this book didn t feel as dense as that one, but there s still a lot of content considering it s the second book of a trilogy, [...]

It s funny what the years can do to your taste in books and I m talking about something deeper, something profound than those books that just don t stand up to being revisited Instead, I m talking about those books that you appreciated back in the day, but somehow knew you weren t quite ready to enjoy Books that linger somewhere in the back of your imagination, biding their time until you re ready to continue with the series.Kushiel s Chosen, the second book of the Kushiel s Legacy series by Ja [...]

Perhaps some day I will read one of these BDSM courtesan spy epic fantasy doorstops and actually be able to talk about it afterwards, but today is not that day Because right now, I am just so fucking grateful to this book, it has eclipsed the book itself unintentionally hilarious, strangely unproblematic almost entirely This is what I read during the final two weeks of my last semester in law school It s what I read on the eight minute dog walking breaks, what I read when I snapped awake at 4 30 [...]

Screw magic Give me some political fantasy any day, and I m a happy reader.I liked Kushiel s Dart I m not sure if there s a definite quality improvement or if I m going too easy on this one, but I loved Kushiel s Chosen.The Kushiel s Legacy series takes place in a sort of Fantasy Counterpart Culture world where it s Europe, only not From this starting point, Jacqueline Carey creates a world that, while somewhat similar to our own, nevertheless has unique societies and politics As she crisscrosse [...]

A solid 3.5 stars.This is the 2nd book in the series and while good and true to the story line, it just seemed to drag on.It s a chunkster and I probably wasn t in the right head frame to be reading something that required me to remember a lot of names, places and previous story lines.Jacqueline Carey is an excellent writer It is her beautiful writing style that kept me going with this one.This is part of an epic long series 7 books in all, I believe and each of them is well over 500 pages.I sti [...]

The second in the Kushiel s legacy series, continues on exactly where the first novel left off.Phedre no Delaunay, now the comtesse de Montreve, comfortably living in her country home with Joscelin and her three chevaliers, and spending most of her time learning Habiru, in the hopes of discovering the key to freeing Hyacinth from the yeshuite curse But then a parcel comes from Melisande Sharizhai Phedre s sangoire cloak and there is only one way to interpret it Melisande s games of politics and [...]

Another beautifully written epic fantasy.Kushiel s Chosen picks up where Kushiel s Dart left off But whereas Phedre is initially drawn into intrigue for the sake of her murdered mentor foster brother, the tragedies travails in this second installment are a product of Phedre s own impetus She doesn t have to become involved, but she makes that choice the same way she submits to a patron s whims, but on a larger political scale Likewise, the intrigue in this book has a personal note Vanquished is [...]

When I wrote my first review, I wondered for a while if this was really fantasy or rather, said that up until one particular thing happened, there was nothing that made this particularly fantasy in terms of magic I m not sure what genre non magical but certainly not Earth based historical fiction would fall under.Note The rest of this review has been withdrawn due to the changes in policy and enforcement You can read why I came to this decision here.In the meantime, you can read the entire revie [...]

Kushiel s Chosen was my least favorite of Jacqueline Carey s trilogy featuring the anguisette Phedre no Delaunay In this novel, the action shifts from Terre d Ange to Carey s version of Venice La Serenissima so Phedre is free to display her snobbery and chauvinism to a grating degree no one else is as beautiful as Angelines, no other place is as lovely, cultured, fashionable or interesting, no other language is as beautiful, yadda, yadda, yadda By the time I d read 700 pages of this, I wanted sh [...]

Ph dre s pms was terrible Joscelin is still a cutie patootie Melisande is the best villain everI liked it less than Kushiel s Dart That s the only certain thing I can tell you to be honest The problem for me was Ph dre Even in the first book I had liked her less than the so called secondary characters and she certainly didn t do anything to redeem herself in my eyes this time around It s not a matter of her beliefs or her personality, but simply of taste I do not feel like I can care for her nor [...]

I was almost scared to read this, because I was just sure it wouldn t be able to measure up to Kushiel s Dart If I d known how wrong I was, I wouldn t have waited two months to pick it up I probably won t be able to wait even a week to start the third one.So often, books in a series have different vibes, and the feelings you get while reading them are so varied that its hard to consider them connected Not so with these, Kushiel s Chosen was very much a continuation of the first, and I can t real [...]

So, while I don t plan to give away any major plot twists, I m reviewing the second in a series, so spoilers, of course, if you haven t read the first, and probably light spoilers here anyway.I ll note that my copy of this arrived while I was 18 chapters into the first Game of Thrones book NIGHT AND DAY Carey s prose is so much richer, her characters so much complex, her paragraphs so much unified in a single thought okay, that last is just uncharitable sorry to Martin Sincerely, though, it wa [...]

W Rating B C is appropriate Well, this was not a let down sequel, per say, but was definitely a lesser novel than the first Your sequel really should always be better due to your readers knowing the characters and what the world is about so you, the writer, can spend time on the rest of your story The first 350 pages are Phedre, blindly confident in her vision hunting She screws over Joscelin and continues throughout Basically, she was selfish which is pretty annoying Carey having Joscelin sco [...]

The second book of the Kushiel trilogy is not quite as rough to get through as the first one Well, mostly I had a hard time at the beginning personally, but I think that is due to the fact that I hated how Phedre and Joscelin tortured each other for no good reason Seriously, by the end, they realized no reason was good enough either especially with Phedre s penchant for getting into trouble.Anyway, the story itself is fantastic in its detail and pacing Carey truly knows how to create a multi fac [...]

3.5 stars This is almost as good as the first book, with the same lovely overwrought prose that I am finding quite absorbing.Unsatisfied with her triumph of the previous novel, our heroine travels to a foreign land seeking a traitor who escaped justice It s interesting to have a strong female character who isn t a warrior, although making her a sexually submissive masochist is going rather far in the other direction.I m not quite convinced by Melisande s supernatural power over Ph dre, and there [...]

Mild non specific spoilers for Kushiel s Dart below Top 5 Reasons I Loved Kushiel s Chosen1 The first thing I see when I open the book is a map and a cast of characters sorted by location I asked for it in my review of Kushiel s Dart and book two delivered In these kinds of epic fantasies, I find those so helpful.2 It consistently manages to surprise me When I got to the end of the chapter that revealed a particularly big bombshell, view spoiler the one where Melisande Shahrizai is revealed to b [...]

Son of a bitch, Carey is magnificent Truly anything and everything you want in a complete, low fantasy story, down to an epic, epic duel at the end She s 2 for 2 in immensely satisfying endings.The only complaints I have are fairly minor Carey falls into the trap of having her characters repeat what happened in the previous book presumably for the reader s benefit , and it happened often enough to be tiresome Still somewhere in the middle regarding the prose mostly beautiful, but I tend to get a [...]

Yes, there is erotica, and not necessarily the kind I like, but it is well within the plot and story so take no offense at this Until you have started reading this books you will not understand their depth Rather try to look at these books as an adventure in another Europe of such Ladies and Lords and Queens and battles and deception, intrigue abound The map and cast of characters are in the front of the book to keep you informed.Then there is Kushiel, herself Never have I met a follower of any [...]

Second astonishing book in the trilogy or quintology of Kushiel s legacy featuring the anguisette Phedre, now the close confident of the newly minted Queen.Phedre is a courtesan s daughter, born to one of the Houses of Night Blooming Flowers as a result of an illicit union between a merchant s son and one of the adepts read highly trained, highly paid indentured courtesans Her indenture, or marque, is sold by the head of her mother s house into the household of a nobleman who is already raising [...]

The plot of this one follows the pattern of the first book too closely for me Phedre returns to the life of a courtesan and becomes popular and sought after She then departs on a secret mission to expose a traitor to the throne, visits faraway lands under stressful circumstances, has adventures including several imprisonments and a sea voyage, and saves the country and her queen Sound familiar I had several problems with the story First, Phedre s return to her former occupation seems pointless T [...]

The sequel to Kushiel s Dart does not disappoint The first in the series introduced Phedre no Delauney as an anguisette, the red mote in her eye indicating that she s been chosen by Kushiel to follow a path of pain and pleasure Trained in the skills of a courtesan of the Night Court, she is also trained to be a spy for the master of her marque, Afaniel Delauney In this, the court intrigue continues as traitor to the crown, Melisande Shahrizai escapes from prison Suspecting another traitor within [...]

As with Kushiel s Dart, this book suffers from Omniscient Bad Guy syndrome in the form of Melisande This book is intense than Dart, partly because the whole book can be devoted to the main plot and the author doesn t have to spend pages introducing the main characters A friend of mine described this book as a Map book , in that the characters go to every place named on the map just inside the title page.The book didn t do anything for me The OBG overshadowed the whole thing, so that s what I re [...]

This is hands down one of my favorite books The whole first trilogy is one I ve read at least 3 or 4 times Much than a mere fantasy novel, these books explore human nature, passion, deceit, politics, and of course, love Set in medieval pseudo Europe specifically France, aka in the book Terre D Ange , this book is rich in detail, full of different cultures and languages, and has VERY vivid characters I ve given it to numerous people with one warning, it DOES contain some explicit scenes as the [...]

After 1st Re Read In many ways this is the hardest for me to re read because I find the first half just a bit tedious with all the stregazza politics, but the 2nd half than makes up for it Original Review I read this in a day And it leaves me wondering how in the world I thought her first book was average I am already a few hundred pages into 3, and am very glad that she writes very long books, and that there are 4 awaiting me.

did i start a reread of the series solely because i was in venice a couple weeks ago and i wanted to visit fantasy venice again don t me

4 Stars To me this is the weakest book in the series, but when it comes to Kushiel that means it s still exellent It s just a little slow paced than its counterparts Still this series is my favorite fantasy series sharing the spot with Harry Potter and possibly A Song of Ice and Fire It has everything you need to make you come back again and again and again It has rich language and beautiful prose Characterisation is probably Carey s strongest suit and it makes you care enough to come back for [...]

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Why is there ever this perverse cruelty in humankind, that makes us hurt most those we love best Is the world so cruel then, that that is all that is required to move a man to risk his life Kindness This series has already become one of my all time favourites.