[Nimea]

Two things:

Why does Joscelin remind of Caine? Apart from fighting like a god with daggers?

And why - as it sounds through some posts - might Joscelin be unrealistic?

Just curious. Had too much time to chew on these things . . .

[Eldanuumea]

I didn't find Joscelin unrealistic. What would be unrealistic about him?
He reminds me of Caine, too, but I do believe it's just the knife-fighting thing.

[Shehzad]

One, the knife-fighting thing, and two, he develops a bit of a Caine-like attitude towards the latter part of the first book. People feel his being unrealistic is related to how easily he reconciled himself with breaking his vows and how unbearably whiny he can be!

[Eldanuumea]

Funny, I never perceived him as whiney.
And he didn't reconcile himself that easily. I mean, it was quite a while between their first time during their escape and their next time, wasn't it? It's not like they just started to go at it hot and heavy all at once.

[Yobmod]

Doubt anyones still reading, so i'll just say that i agree with those that thought the writing was good and the characters / plot interesting for the first half. After that it became more and more of a chore, i doubt i'll read the sequels. Another fantasy author who needs a strict editor!

Something thats not been mentioned: Kushiel didn't just like pain and S&M, she always had an orgasm during vanilla sex even with people she didn't like. I didn't see why this was neccesary to her anguisette status (wasn't it a different godess that liked sex? Kushiel only liked pain) and it let the barbarian (forgotten his name) who kept raping her seem not that bad.

Oh, and i didn't get how Jocelyn was supposed to be one of the only true cassalines. The god / angel who started the order didn't like sex and only joined the rebels to try to convert them. Jocelyn was way too horny, and judgmental, and weak to be the perfect cassaline.

[matikin9]

I absolutely loved the trilogy! I picked the first book up on a whim at my local SF&F bookstore on my way to the airport to go home for spring break. I stayed up all night reading Kushiel's Dart, which was not a good idea since I had a morning flight to go to Paris. Well, I stayed up for the majority of the flight reading, as well as nearly the entire night and then part of the next day on the bus to Versailles. When I finished, I rushed to find an English bookstore in Paris (yay Brentano's!) that had Kushiel's Chosen. I finished that in the remainder of my trip as well as on the flight back home. When I was at the airport to go back to school, I picked up Kushiel's Avatar and thoroughly enjoyed that as well.

Something thats not been mentioned: Kushiel didn't just like pain and S&M, she always had an orgasm during vanilla sex even with people she didn't like. I didn't see why this was neccesary to her anguisette status (wasn't it a different godess that liked sex? Kushiel only liked pain) and it let the barbarian (forgotten his name) who kept raping her seem not that bad.

As an anguisette, Phedre is "chosen to forever experience pain and pleasure as one" (from the back covers), meaning she enjoys pain. That does not mean that only pain turns her on, the only necessary part to her being an anguisette is that pain excites her to the point where she can't control herself anymore (as when she's around Melisande). That does not mean that everyone else enjoys pain, and even the members of the houses of the Night Court that deal with pain/pleasure do not revel in pain to the degree that a true anguisette does. The 2nd two books explore the details more, have you read those yet?

I'm glad there's a thread here on Kushiel's Dart, even if it is kinda old. :P Reading the trilogy has got me back into the fantasy book scene...I haven't really had much time in the past few years.
I thought the SM scenes were delicious! They surprised me at first because I didn't remember reading any fantasy books that was so erotically descriptive, much less delving into BDSM. Haha, maybe I just haven't read enough recent books.

[Yobmod]

I didn't have a problem with her experiencing pain as pleasure, or even pleasure as pleasure, but experiencing tedium (ie having bad sex with someone boring) as pleasure was not neccesary to anything in the plot or character.

[U-Borat]

Digging up an old thread....

I was just wondering (having read only Kushiel's dart), what relation does Kushiel's Scion have to the 3 books in Kushiel's Legacy?

[Raule]

Digging up an old thread....

I was just wondering (having read only Kushiel's dart), what relation does Kushiel's Scion have to the 3 books in Kushiel's Legacy?

Nightsorrow,

Imriel is a character introduced in the 3rd book of the Kushiel Legacy trilogy. Kushiel's Scion is the 1st book of the Imriel series and is Imriel's coming of age story. The Imriel series focuses on the next generation of characters.