Review: Kushiel's Justice

[elfs]

I finished Kushiel's Justice, the fifth book in Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel series, and the second in the Imriel saga, yesterday and I've been digesting what I read. This isn't a book that can be reviewed strongly without spoilers; we learn too much about Imriel with every chapter, and every moment is important.

The book has its weaknesses: the beginning of Justice has the same problem that opened Scion, the first book in the Imriel series: in order to set up the long, arduous, and wonderful payoff of the last third of the book, Carey has to get all of her set pieces into place, all of her strings set to be plucked, and there's an awful lot of hithering and thithering, of characters running around here and there and everywhere, to assemble the cast that will either support or betray Imriel by the time he launches on the terrific pursuit that is the bulk of his tale toward maturity.

Carey's authorial voice is stronger than ever. She's become a great writer, at least when she's in a place where her feet are on the ground. Imriel is a strong, romantic character who manages to be exciting without the artifice of secrets; he tells people what he believes directly, works hard to avoid misunderstandings, and still gets into heaps of trouble. It's a big relief from the usual Robert Jordan mashup. Her worldbuilding is solid and believable, and she gets away with the slightly skewed fantasy Terre she's built. Oh, and there's more sex in the Imriel series than there is in the Phedre trilogy. Really.

All in all, highly recommended.

Comments

[blackcoat.livejournal.com]

Did you read 'Banewreaker/Godslayer'?

I think it would be interesting to talk to someone who has only read the Kushiel books, and so missed that interesting sorbet between them.

[phoenix14159.livejournal.com]

I really like Justice as well, but I'm not at all sure there's more sex in the Imriel saga than in Phedre's story.

"Vanilla" versus "BDSM"

[cadetstar.livejournal.com]

I think the main difference (from what I remember, now I have to read it again) that Imriel has more explicitly written sex more often, whereas Phedre had a lot of "and I visited her multiple times...". Even Melisande's first evening with Phedre is kind of glossed over until the end (not that I disagree with how it was done, it's just not as explicit as Imri's). Also, Phedre's first story takes longer to occur, the first third of the book takes place over 12 years and the next third over another four or five, IIRC.

Finally, Imri usually has more "vanilla" sex (spiced with Kushiel's side) than Phedre, who usually starts with Kushiel's side and move into intercourse later.

Now I need to see when the sixth book comes out.

-Michael