Carey, Jacqueline. Kushiel's Dart: A Novel of Passion, Magic, and Betrayal.

Kushiel's Dart refers to the scarlet mote in one of the sable eyes of Carey's main protagonist, Phedre. The red mote signifies that she is a disciple of the god, Kushiel, and as his dart will destroy someone in some way for him. That's the simplistic version of this exquisitely-written and multi-layered plot. Terre D'Ange is a country which believes that they have the blood of angels in their veins which makes them beautiful in face, form, and feeling. Their main religion revolves around the celebration of sex as a sacrament. Again, this is a simplified explanation, and will truly entrall you with its complexity. Phedre's gift to ecstacy is through her receipt of pain. So this is not a novel for the faint-hearted or the prudish. That being said, the author gives the reader just enough detail to make you understand the specifics and never dwells on the seamier details of the sexual or physical.

Carey has constructed a world that is reminiscent in many ways of the Renaissance and later Middle ages with its intrigue and political upheaval. And she gives us a heroine that is a rare jewel to behold. Phedre is bonded to a master at ten and taught to listen well and analyze what she hears. Anafiel Delauney is only one of the many intrigueing characters this story features but he is pivotal to who Phedre becomes. She is a spy, but one who serves Naamah, through sexual pleasure. Exacting ethics surround the practice of this religion and contracts signed by those who participate. The imagined world of this Fantasy holds its shape and glistens with colorful characters, a well-paced plot, and a quest worthy of an epic's heroine.

This book works as a Fantasy because it has a great plot device (saving a throne and a homeland from barbarians) and more than one character who the reader must care about. The invented history of this country and the surrounding lands hint just enough of real European events to entice comparisons. The pride of each race, their needs, their wants, traditions, and poetry comes across as very real and very individual.

There is betrayal, magic, and passion, indeed.

Leane M. Ellis, August 20, 2001.