Kushiel's Dart, Kushiel's Chosen, Kushiel's Avatar

[Morrighan]

You're probably right about the movie, Slave Ruthie, but it's always so tempting to imagine, isn't it? I couldn't even think of actors that could do this justice, and there is a lot of questionable material that wouldn't go over well in America. Most importantly, as Carey herself said, "an openly masochistic heroine is controversial, but it's such an important part of her character that it could not possibly be done without." Or something to that affect.

Were you at all disappointed in Kushiel's Avatar? I wasn't, but I've heard that complaint from others, and not just in this forum. My feeling was that there are only so many times that Ysandre's throne could be threatened, and Phedre saves the country, before it would be repetitive. Religious quest--yes, on some levels, but how else could Carey have freed Hyacinthe? And it introduced Imriel's character beautifully, I thought. It would have been disappointing to simply run across him somewhere in Terre d'Ange and frog-march him off to the Queen.

There's a book that Carey used for research: A Dictionary of Angels, which is absolutely FASCINATING. I read some of it, and I never knew there were so many or that they were so different.

And another book that Carey wrote, which is out of print, which is the equivalent of the D'Angeline Bible: the story of Elua and his Companions. I've seen a picture of this book, but they only made so many copies and they're all sold out. I'm hoping against hope that they reprint. That book would be nice to have simply for beauty's sake. We ought to start a petition.

Morrighan

P.S. From Carey's own website, an excerpt from her blog (sort of):

So, I'm entering the final stretch on Book One of the Imriel Trilogy -- and no, I haven't chosen a title yet. Of course, with big books like these that means I still have a couple hundred pages to go. But it's at a point where I've got lots of things in motion, and I find myself laying awake in the middle of the night, plotting and strategizing. In the grand scheme of things, I know what happens, but there are always spots where there are a few different ways it could play out. I have to play them over and over in my mind to decide which one truly feels right.

dated this May. God, I can't wait!

[Curtis]

Okay, now going officially off-topic.

I have "A Dictionary of Angels", and it IS fascinating, but it's also frustrating, for two reasons: First, so much of it contradicts itself (the order of precedence of the angels, which ones serve which functions, which ones are 'really' demons or fallen angels, etc.); Second, a lot of the information comes from relatively modern fiction rather than from 'ancient' or 'scholarly' sources. Just because Shakespeare invents an angel, or invents a personality for one, doesn't make it so. He couldn't get his history right, so why would he be an authority on the divine?

I have the same problem with my three Arthurian encyclopaedias. Each draws from different source material, but all of them are 'contaminated' by references to T.H. White, Tennyson and other 'modern' writers. I don't think anything written after maybe 1300 (or possibly 1400) should be considered for inclusion.

One interesting thing you learn from "A Dictionary of Angels" is that there are vanishingly few female angels (according to some authorities, none). Another is that people don't become angels after they die; that happened only two or three times in 'history', and was remarkable when it did. A third would be that angels and humans interbreed. In fact, the human race as it exists today is primarily descended from the interbreeding of angels with the daughters of Adam (unless those were the humans who were wiped out by the flood). There's also an entry for Adam's first wife, Lilith. A very useful book.

Sorry for the diversion.

[slave ruthie]

i was thinking about waht you said, Morrighan...and i was very satisfied with the third book because it completes the pattern set out particularly in Kushiel's Chosen without repeating it. perhaps it is a bit more mystical but i didn't feel like we were going over old ground. in fact, i found the last book of the trilogy much deeper and darker than the first two and the ending was so bittersweet that i found myself smiling with tears tricking down my cheeks just hugging the book when it was all doen (and yes, i AM very romantic and it might be unfashionable but that's how i am lol)

i don't want to be soppy here but for me, there was such an overwhelming presence of LOVE in the books - maybe i connected with them because i know that a BDSM lifestyle doesn't contradict the presence of Love in a D/s relationship and here is a writer who can truly express it. i struggle and fumble in my attempts to portray this in my stories...how can i not be moved and awed by Jacqueline Carey's skill? She has raised up to the highest stature a humble "whore's unwanted get" and shown how there is strength and beauty in the lowliest of us. Repeatedly, she takes weak and vulnerable people and brings them to glory. Her craft lies in making her stories uplifting without being too moral or cloyingly sweet. The characters are flawed, filled with doubts, they make mistakes, they stumble...they are so human.

So yes, the third book is worthy of the first two and if ppl don't bother to read it i think they will have missed the point of Phèdre nó Delaunay's life...

with love & respect

ruthie
XXXXXX
www.slaveregister.com/763339

p.s. sorry for spelling your name incorrectly, Morrighan!

[kittenfemme]

I just got a note from Amazon. Thankfully it didn't go into my spam junk box. It seems that Banewreaker is available.

[vistana]

I absolutely love this series...I'm actually on my third copy of Kushiel's Dart.
Her characterizations are vivid, as is her portrayal of a several very interesting societies, and every book just got...bigger...

Kushiels Avatar was the most epic, the characters were more frightening, and more real...it made me cry, laugh, wince, chew my fingernails...

Joscelin, quite possibly the most gorgeous man I've ever read...Carey is very very good at conveying beauty...and the scene in Avatar, after the fish... I cried because of how beautiful it was.

And Melisande was just marvellous...she disapointed me in the third book, Melisande without several layers of plot surrounding her just isn't the Melisande I had grown to love & hate.

I'm really looking forward to the Imriel trilogy...life in that household I predict will be very interesting... Imriel being who he is, and Phedre being who she is... I sense teenage rebellion x10.

*runs off to re-read the series*

[slave ruthie]

...and i wept anew

ohh for just the tiniest fraction of Jacqueline Carey's writing skill!

love & respect

ruthie[Phil]
XXXXXX
www.slaveregister.com/763339