Kushiel’s Chosen
I finally finished this beautifully written book, Kushiel’s Chosen by Jacqueline Carey last night. I had not realized until I finished how time slipped by. When I closed the book with satisfaction, I checked the time only to realize it was after midnight, and I had to be at work in less then seven hours. Irregardless, I would not trade those few hours of reading this gorgeous book for more sleep.
I will apologize now if I give away anything spoils your enjoyment. I will endeavor not to, but I make no promises. Carey is a wonderful wordsmith. Her word choice transports the reader into Terre d’Ange more so than even her descriptions of the lands and countries Phedre travels through. Written in first person, the story unfolds as if one were reading Phedre’s memoirs. It is Phedre’s voice that comes through the page as if one were sitting at her knee listening to her recount her tale.
After the horrific events of Kushiel’s Dart, Phedre has now taken residence in the home she inherited from Anafiel no Delaunay de Montreve, along with her inherited title of Comtesse de Montreve. This installment begins where Kushiel’s Dart ended. Phedre has received a package containing the sangoire cloak Delaunay commissioned for her. It is a message and an opening gambit into Melisande Sharhizai’s new game. Phedre accepts the challenge and returns to Namaah’s service in order to discover the traitor who allowed Melisande to escape.
Here begins Phedre’s journey anew, nearly shredding the relationship between Phedre and Josceline. She is taken prisoner, driven to brink of insanity, rescued only to be lost again to the sea, taken hostage, betrayed, forced to face her darkest inner truth which nearly broke her once more, marked by yet another god, in order to prevent civil war and the death of her Queen.
Throughout, Phedre learns how her pride and cleverness leads to more death and suffering, nearly unmaking what she sought to protect. The story moved me to tears, anxiety, anger, and sorrow. I felt Phedre’s suffering, and knowing that it was of her own making, I hated her a little. I was not able to grieve for her fallen comrades until the end when things were finally resolved if not finitely at least momentarily.
I have only one complaint. I never want to read the phrase “well and so” again. There are very few rules to writing that apply to almost all forms of writing, I feel. One is to avoid repetition of a particular word or phrase. It might work in poetry or speech writing but not so much in prose. We all do it, and have tried to weed out the over-usage. I could let it go when I thought it was just Phedre’s way of speaking or thinking, but then everyone started using it. I wanted to be able to skip over those words, but was unable to time and time again.
I will say this, this book was nearly flawless in its scope, beauty and use of language. If you enjoyed/loved/made love to Kushiel’s Dart than I would recommend this book wholeheartedly. If you have not read Kushiel’s Dart, I suggest you do and then after a suitable grace period pick up Kushiel’s Chosen. I say to wait to read the sequel only because as beautiful as these books are, they are also emotionally exhausting. I needed to stop and breath before picking up Kushiel’s Dart and I will need another moment to catch my breath after Kushiel’s Chosen.
