Random ramblings: Kushiel's Legacy

I was introduced to the three books by Jacqueline Carey that made up Kushiel's Legacy (Kushiel's Dart, Kushiel's Chosen and Kushiel's Avatar) by my sister about two years ago. I was in Michigan on a conference and she asked me to pick up the first book for her. Ironically, she never did quite get around to reading it even today.

I started reading Kushiel's Dart because I was bored. The prose felt too heavy and the subject matter made me squeamish so I stopped reading it. Fast forward a few months, I heard some friends speaking avidly about it so I gave it another shot. This time, I was hooked and it has now become one of my favourite trilogies.

I have a tendency to do that, where I didn't like a book only to return to it later to find that I loved it. James Clavell's Shogun is a good example. I've always regarded myself to be a creature of habit and consistency and this bothers me. I guess my reception to ideas these days is heavily coloured by the circumstances and attitude preceding it. I'm of two minds on this. On the one hand, I don't like that I'm dependent on semi-random wetware states to make decisions. On the other hand, I feel a lot more these days and the world is brighter and more vibrant as a result. Emotional detachment and logic does come with a cost, one where I'm not certain if it's worth paying.

Mmm...pardon? Oh, right - Kushiel's Legacy. I was listening to the audiobook of Kushiel's Avatar during a long drive out of town today and it felt like as if I'm hearing it for the first time. I've read the books many many times and I've certainly listened to this audiobook before but I'm still discovering details and layers that I had missed in the past. It's one of those stories that defy close classification. Set in an alternative reality during the mid- to late-Renaissance period, it is a tale told from a first person perspective of a courtesan marked by an angel to suffer for the sake of universal balance. Jacqueline Carey does an amazing job of filling that world with characters that feel real. There are no superheroes here, no glorious charge against all odds. The characters do take risks and a lot of them die. Even the protagonist and her consort harbour no illusions about their chances for survival in quite a few situations. They put their lives on the line for love and duty, not honour and glory. That in of itself is a very unique portrayal in fiction but it works remarkably well.

There is a strong element of...alternative lifestyles in the series, something I was unprepared for when I first read it and it took me some time to adjust to it. It does put a unique spin on things and certainly crucial to the plotline. Most authors toss in things like this to spice up their stories but Ms. Carey appears to have seamlessly built this into the heart of the tale in a very honest and human context, sometimes gut-wrenchingly so. I'm not going to focus on it but if you're squeamish about blood or have strong Puritanical religious beliefs, this is not the series for you.

Guys, this can loosely be classified as romance in some ways. If you're not into romance novels, you might not enjoy this very much. Gals, this is a series with rich descriptions of the world and a very intricate plotline. I'd recommend that you try it out but if you are put off by the first book, you won't like the rest as it will get more descriptively terrifying.