Kushiel’s Dart

By Jacqueline Carey

Strolling through the Mission on a fine San Francisco afternoon last week, I happened upon a sci fi/ fantasy bookstore on Valencia. I couldn’t help but think, “I’m on vacation, it’s basically still summer; time to pick out a trashy read.” I scanned the shelves for something involving journeys in foreign (perhaps mythical) lands, medievalish costumes, drama, intrigue, peasants, possibly dragons. My eyes came to rest on Kushiel’s Dart: a 900-page brick of pulp, its cover adored with a mostly-naked sexy girl done in colored pencil. Perfect.

I purchased the book (for a mere $7.99! ah, fantasy novels) without even reading the synopsis on the back. And, once again, my magnetism toward sexy stuff became apparent. Kushiel’s Dart is about a courtesan in medievalish fictionalized Europe, and the story is full of crazy sexy stuff. Whoo hoo!

So, the main character, Phedre, is growing up in this city where courtesans are trained very seriously in their arts, and prostitution is basically seen as a way of paying tribute to the gods. She wears a lot of fancy clothes, and learns all these cool, fancy things. Then Phedre discovers that she gets off majorly on pain mixed with pleasure. She becomes a highly paid, highly sought after, high-class whore, and her patrons are particularly fond of whipping her. Don’t worry, she digs it. Then she gets framed for some stuff, and gets sold into slavery, and treacherous journeys begin! She bangs kings, Vikings, gypsies, priests, princesses, and all sorts of interesting characters.

Ms. Carey has a pretty vivid imagination, and the story kinda makes you wonder what the writer’s real sex life is like. Basically, she’s either super repressed, and has to live out her darkest fantasies through the characters she writes, or the lady’s got a fully stocked dungeon in her basement. Either way, her writing gets you hooked cause you’re always looking forward to the next sex scene, which get progressively more kinky and crazy and dangerous.

There are several writing devices which bother the shit out of me, however. For instance, this lady has never heard of subtle foreshadowing, and constantly has the narrator saying things like, “But I was not to know how greatly it would matter until much later.” Also, there’s a lot of complicated political conspiracies, involving many characters with somewhat ancient Celtic names, and it’s hard to keep straight who is betraying who. Or to care about any of that stuff, cause really you want to skip ahead to the sexy parts.

There’s two more books in the series, and I’m not gonna lie: I plan to read them also. But I’m giving myself a frivolous reading deadline, they’ve got to be finished before my vacation’s over. And I’ve also got to get on that damn Dragon Tattoo book. But in regards to Kushiel’s Dart, I’d say go for it, if you’re into that type of thing. Don’t expect a ton of literary worth, but it’s fun for sure.