Kushiel's Dart

By: Jacqueline Carey

Narrated by: Anne Flosnik

Length: 31 hrs and 5 mins

Publisher's summary

The land of Terre d'Ange is a place of unsurpassing beauty and grace. It is said that angels found the land and saw it was good...and the ensuing race that rose from the seed of angels and men live by one simple rule: Love as thou wilt.

Phèdre nó Delaunay is a young woman who was born with a scarlet mote in her left eye. Sold into indentured servitude as a child, her bond is purchased by Anafiel Delaunay, a nobleman with very a special mission...and the first one to recognize who and what she is: one pricked by Kushiel's Dart, chosen to forever experience pain and pleasure as one. Phèdre is trained equally in the courtly arts and the talents of the bedchamber but, above all, the ability to observe, remember, and analyze. Almost as talented a spy as she is courtesan, Phèdre stumbles upon a plot that threatens the very foundations of her homeland. Treachery sets her on her path; love and honor goad her further. And in the doing, it will take her to the edge of despair...and beyond.

Hateful friend, loving enemy, beloved assassin; they can all wear the same glittering mask in this world, and Phèdre will get but one chance to save all that she holds dear.Set in a world of cunning poets, deadly courtiers, heroic traitors, and a truly Machiavellian villainess, this is a novel of grandeur, luxuriance, sacrifice, betrayal, and deeply laid conspiracies. Not since Dune has there been an epic on the scale of Kushiel's Dart - a massive tale about the violent death of an old age and the birth of a new.

©2008 Jacqueline Carey (P)2009 Tantor

Critic reviews

"This brilliant and daring debut catapults Carey immediately into the top rank of fantasy novelists." ( Publishers Weekly)
"A very sophisticated fantasy, intricately plotted and a fascinating audiobook." (Robert Jordan, author of the Wheel of Time series)

this narrator nearly destroyed this story.

Mispronunciation, poor vernacular, bad use of sentance6 structure. A French accent would have been more fitting. This narrator was a proficiant narrator but an exceedingly poor voice Actor. So much that the voice acting nearly destroyed the story for me.

I liked reading it but...

I liked reading the book, but listening to it was a bit painful. Perhaps it was because I stopped driving so much. I am still planning to get the next book. If that one doesn't go any better I don't think I will continue with the series.

Just bored

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

If you want world building followed by BDSM, then this could work for you.

How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?

Move the pace faster.

What three words best describe Anne Flosnik’s voice?

quiet and slow

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

no

Brilliant book, wonderfully read

The story is epic and exiting, the narrator really shows of the charaters to their advantage.
Strong female main character and interresting advesaries and bicharaters.

(Would not recomend this to someone not prepared for some graphic sex and violence in certain scenes.)

Fantastic epic

I love this first Trilogy by Carey. Great world building and elegant writing. Her characters have depth and don't follow the shallow lines of good and evil which many stories use.

Seriously hit that buy button now

Without a doubt it is a fantastically spun tale of love, intrigue, politics, adventure, and loss. The beautifully woven words of majestic lands and secret assignations matched perfectly by the narrators performance. For truly this audiobook could be dubbed as nothing less. A flawless performance that sinks you deep into a story that refuses to let you go even as the last words sound through the speakers.

interesting

there is a lot going on in this story. The author does a decent job of tying things together, but a lot is left unsaid. I enjoyed the read. I will give the second book a try.

Can you say BORING?

I gave 5 and a half hours of this book, trying to give it a chance. There were 30 minute blocks I had to relisten to because I literally faded off. I read some reviews that likened it to Dune. Really? I've read the Dune series and this couldn't hold a leaf to it. I suppose if you like hearing a constant droning, on how a girl gets off on pain and can't wait to be raped, then get the book. In 5 and a half hours there was nothing of the summary, "Hateful friend, loving enemy, beloved assassin."
The one highlight was the Anne Flosnik. She at least made you feel she wanted the story to work.

My favorite book

This is the book I recommend to my friends! There's nothing I can say to do it justice except to read this book.
This epic fantasy world created by Carey has a strong female lead with an interwoven plot that makes me come back to reread it every few years. This book has given me some of my favorite quotes and leaves me comparing all others to this world.

Great Story, Somewhat Awkward Reader

I've read the physical copy of this book several times, so I knew I would love the story. For me, the reader was somewhat awkward to listen to at first. I don't know how I would have felt about this story if I didn't know the story so intimately because the reader threw me off a lot in the beginning. It sounds as though she's pausing at commas and such instead of reading naturally. I think when the reader does the main character's voice is when she's most awkward. I think her voicing of the other characters is really well-done. The difference in performance confused me, but I love this story, and listening to it read made me emotional, so the reader is not too bad.