Posts Tagged ‘epic fantasy’

Starting a piece of writing can sometimes be one of the hardest parts of writing it, even for a book review, and especially for this one. I’ve been reading Jacqueline Carey’s adventures in Terre d’Ange for years now, starting with Kushiel’s Dart and just recently wrapping up Naamah’s Blessing. And I can honestly say that the nine books that comprise these three trilogies are among the best fantasy available today as well as nine of my all-time favorite books I’ve ever read. Ask me a question about some aspect of them and I can start rambling for an hour, but how do you pick a spot to begin at with this much to talk about?

Kushiel's Legacy Covers

The first two-thirds of the awesome.

I’ve been meaning to review the Kushiel and Naamah books since I started this blog, but covering just one book on its own is no good – by now, they’ve all melted into one massive and epic storyline in my head spanning multiple generations of characters. Also, it’s been a while since I finished Kushiel’s Dart, and like most series, you have to start at the beginning to fully appreciate what comes afterward.

So instead of talking about a single book in the series or each one individually, I’ve decided instead to write one big ass review to cover my thoughts on the series as a whole. Call it a bittersweet celebration for my finally having finished the last book, a going away party as I finally leave Terre d’Ange behind. Also, seeing as how Ms. Carey herself recently sounded off on the feasibility of the whole shebang being adapted for screen, it’s almost timely.

Read as thou wilt

Very few fantasy fans can get away with admitting that they aren’t all that big into sweeping, high epic fantasy à la Lord of the Rings or the Pern stories or everything that Terry Brooks writes. Many non-fantasy fans, however, can point to these tales as examples of why they aren’t into fantasy. Like it or not, it’s hard not to see the latter group’s point, as a lot of high fantasy is riddled with confusing terminology, rehashed stories, and genre clichés. This is not to say that these stories are bad, per sé, just that they can easily turn off readers who aren’t in the right kind of crowd.

Banewreaker by Jacqueline CareyBanewreaker, the first book in Jacqueline Carey’s two-part volume The Sundering, will probably not change any opinions in this respect, then, as it’s sweeping high fantasy to the core. This, as it turns out, is both its greatest strength and its greatest weakness.

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