Description:
Alternative history fantasy. Spies. Gods. Courtesans. Oh, my.
My housemate warned me that they were crack, but foolishly I didn’t
listen. Opened the first one and was devoured. I’m waiting for the third
one to paperback so I can go back, reread, write some marginalia and do
some genuine chewing.
I’d have to say that the series thus far for me has been all about how
the quoted yielding doesn’t mean weak. Phedre yields. She yields. She yields.
And she is chosen, not the chooser. The gods have chosen. Pricked sinister
eye with bloody dart. She’s just their game piece. And yet, it is in yielding
that she makes her own choice.
The repetition of the word choice. Kushiel’s Chosen. Cassiel’s
choice. The choice to give up heaven for love and what is heaven. What
it means to be someone’s true companion.
Although, they aren’t books for everyone. The theology is, in a word,
interesting. And since her nature as a masochist is fairly utterly central
to the plot, well… Culturally, Leather corseted crop slapping evil Willow
sadists are seen as powerful. And, well, evil. Wrapping your brain around
a character for whom pain isn’t just pleasure, it is a religious ecstasy
is an interesting trip. How she must learn over and over to accept and
negotiate her own nature. For Joscelin to negotiate his nature. To stand
at the cross roads and choose. Over and over. Choice.
Meaty stuff.
