Reviews

Kushiel’s Justice
by Jacqueline Carey
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If Kushiel’s Scion was a coming of age novel, then the middle book in the Kushiel’s Legacy series is very much a novel of revenge, for in it, author Jacqueline Carey sees our lead character, Prince Imriel no Montreve de la Courcel (Imri to his friends), fall in love with someone he can’t marry, commit to a state marriage with a woman he does not love truly, and end up losing her to a horrible death, all within the first third of the book.

That’s when the revenge comes in, for Imriel not only blames himself for the death of his wife, Dorelei, and their unborn son, but he also vows to avenge them both, and the latter two thirds of the novel tell the tale of his bitter journey, at first accompanied by Alban men at arms, among them a man named Urist, the local equivalent of the captain of the guard, and eventually Imriel’s very good friend.

All of our old friends from previous tales of Carey’s alterna-Earth, Terre d’Ange (and its neighboring countries) are back, including Sidonie de la Courcel, Dauphine of Terre d’Ange (and Imriel’s forbidden love), her younger sister Alais, Phedre and Joscelin, and of course Mavris, who keeps showing up at surprising moments, first as a foe, but later as a reluctant friend.

All of this, of course, is set against the epic landscape Ms. Carey has created, a version of Earth just familiar enough that we can recognize the countries she has renamed, but different enough that magic, of a sort, really does exist, and true love can conquer most anything.

What keeps me coming back to these novels is as much the detail in Carey’s world-building as the fact that her characters are complex and three dimensional. Imriel may be our hero, but he is conflicted about his choices, and up-front about his flaws. Princess Sidonie may seem cool and aloof, but there’s a vulnerable young woman behind the “sun princess” mantel she wears, and even the villains, in this case representatives of the race that ruled Alba before the Albans, have somewhat sympathetic tales, killing not for the sake of murder, but because they believe it to be in the world’s best interest.

Of course, a Kushiel book wouldn’t be complete without Carey’s infamous explicit sex scenes, and in this novel we see both Imriel’s passionate affair with Princess Sidonie, and his more tender relationship with is Alban bride, and only this author manages to make us love and pity not only both of these women, but also Imriel himself.

The third and final book in the Kushiel’s Legacy trilogy comes out next month, but I have to say, even though I went into Kushiel’s Justice knowing it was the middle of the series, I never felt as though it was just a bridge (the way I did feel about the second book in Tolkien’s trilogy), and while I’m glad that the story continues, this novel was very much a story in its own right.

Originally published in hardcover last year, Kushiel’s Justice was released in mass-market paperback on April 29th, 2008, by Hachette.

Melissa A. Bartell left her heart in San Francisco, because her books took up too much room in her luggage. She is a freelance writer living and working in the Dallas, TX metroplex, and generally reads 2-3 books a week. She is the Senior Editor here at All Things Girl. Find out more about her on our About Page. You can find her at her blog as well as other places here and there.

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