I feel the need to give a short back-story before I
say why I didn't love this book, but I didn't hate it. This author has written nine books based in the fictional world of Terre D'Ange, which is
a parallel world similar to Europe. I absolutely LOVED the first three (Kushiel's Dart, Kushiel's Chosen, and Kushiel's Avatar). That trilogy had
everything a fantasy novel could have, political intrigue, espionage, betrayal,
war, forbidden love, unrequited love, murder, sex, swords, daggers...you get
the picture. I devoured that first series over ten years ago.
Then I bought Kushiel's Scion probably about six
years ago. I decided I would pick up where I left off. What I didn't know at
the time was that it wasn't really a continuation (i.e. it was not "Book Four" of a series), but a new trilogy where a
character who was only a child at the end of Kushiel's Avatar was now older and
he was the narrator. It was a character I didn't really even care about,
but I decided to give it a chance because maybe it would be as exciting as the
first three books. Well that was six years ago and I tried to start the
book several times over the past few years. Finally, I dove in and
decided to read it. It is 900 pages and it took me about 300 pages before
I was well vested into the story. The story was interesting, just not put-everything-down-and-read-this-book
absorbing. So I plugged along and completed three other books along the way.
The story is way too detailed to discuss here, but
basically the first trilogy is known as "Phèdre's
Trilogy" because it's mainly about Phèdre and her adventures as a
spy/courtesan. In the end of the trilogy she rescues a little boy named
Imriel from a death camp. That's not a spoiler alert because there is so
much more to the story. So the second trilogy is "Imriel's
Trilogy" because he's not a little boy anymore and now he is having his
own adventures, which mostly consist of him trying to avoid assassination
because he is actually a prince that nobody wants to see on the throne. See,
even this review is going on too long because of all the intricacies of the
story.
And that brings me to my main problem with the book.
It went on way too long. I confess I skimmed the last 200 pages and read
mostly for dialogue, opting out of the lengthy descriptions about the rocky
cobblestones or the shining vambraces. Also, the action did not interest
me. There were battles and sieges and riots and I was like 'meh' through
most of it. The redeeming quality that, in the end, kept me moderately
interested was that the author rounds the characters out so well that you do
want to know what happens to them eventually. I was legitimately sad for
one of the characters when he died. I thought in my head "Aww man,
poor ____ why him!?" So the book gets some kudos for tugging at my
heartstrings. Otherwise, I've decided that I'm not interested enough to
finish this second trilogy or begin the third. I do, however, highly
recommend the first trilogy (Kushiel's Dart, Kushiel's
Chosen, and Kushiel's Avatar).
