So I bought Kushiel's Dart by Jaqueline Carey, because so many people had said it was good, and the cover blurbs claimed it would appeal to me me me (as a Dunnett and McKillip fan).
Except...
I'm bored. It's slow, it's boring, the parade of characters is endless, nothing happens, and it's boring. Did I mention it's boring?
Also I'm a whitebread vanilla middle-American who doesn't deserve to be a Buffista, because I'm squicked and discomfited by the sex. Particularly the anguisette factor. Particularly the rape factor. Even if it's technically not.
So yeah. I got to the point where Phedre has her first official customer, and put it down.
... Anybody want it?
I'm bored. It's slow, it's boring, the parade of characters is endless, nothing happens, and it's boring. Did I mention it's boring?
Oh, good. It's not just me. McKillip could take nothing much happening and make it exciting through the sheer sensuality of her language, but Carey reminds me of nothing so much as some of the duller, technically proficient fic I've read. Except longer, and less interesting.
I didn't think the book was remotely sensual (and now I realise it probably should be, huh?), but enjoyed the courtly intrigue up to but not including the
vanity/Mary Sueness
of the central character.
Bored. So very bored. How could I be bored by a novel with such excellent clothes values and worldbuilding?
I will brave the scorn of the Buffistae to say: Yes! Send me free book! I am mildly fond of it and don't have a copy.
Like I said I enjoyed Kushiels Dart for what it said about the potential of the author than for the book itself. As a speed reader, I'm not so easily bored - I get through the boring parts quickly. And I enjoyed the philisophical base. And I really think in the last books (which contains some stuff that I think will squick even the very strong stomached0 she gains more control of her materials - a bit too late for this series. But I'm really curious to see what she does in her second work, in a new universe unconstrained by mistakes she made in this one. I also have a feeling that her gift may be for shorter works, one volume,not multi-volume novels - that she is one of those artists who does better on a smaller canvas.
(Plonks self down in the Vanilla Buffista area next to Consuela. Eyes others suspiciously for signs of inappropriate romantic behavior.)
Thank you Buffistas for validating me! Even Micole, since you said you are mildly fond of it, which is better (for me) than saying it's the best thing since the invention of creme brulee, or something. Since you have such good taste in things I'd hate to really dislike something you loved.
And I'll try to send it off, just, um, you know me and shipping things, right? It may take a while.
It'll be a very late birthday gift. Speaking of which, Happy Belated Birthday!!
t begins casting flirtatious looks at Consuela in order to confuse Katerina
Carey's next project is the "Banewalker duology" and the one after that is the "Imriel trilogy" (set in the same world as the Kushiel books). I don't think she's planning to do standalone novels anytime soon, and I don't think it would actually benefit her artistically to do so -- she's clearly interested in a broad canvas. I just think she needs to get better at depth of world-building to match the expanse of her rather picaresque epic plotting.
And thank you, Suela! No rush.
