Re: My impression of _Paladin of Souls_

On Fri, 29 Feb 2008 12:15:35 -0800, Elf M. Sternberg
<elf@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
David T. Bilek <davidbilek@xxxxxxx> writes:

It goes on for another couple paragraphs while the both climax, but we
get the idea. So I believe that can be taken as rather direct
evidence that these scenes are not related second hand but presented
directly to the read.

I'm still creeped out that this is the page I opened to randomly.
But it's clear that this stuff doesn't occur offstage.

Fair enough; I remembered it not at all, which shows how much
interest I had in the scene. I suspect I may have skipped it
entirely, skimming just enough to understand what Carey was saying.

And I will say that I found her work not at all arousing; her
impressions of kink and the actual workings of modern kink society do
not mesh very well at all. It's nice reading, but it is pure
fantasy.


Is there any reason to think that she intended it to reflect or even
shed light upon anything to do with modern kink society? The whole
point, I think, is that Elua's "Love as thou wilt shall be the whole
of the law" idea has permeated Terra d'Ange to such an extent that we
can't directly compare our own rather sex-negative history with it.

I think that's why I liked the fifth book best so far; the
second half has no sex in it that I can recall, being an adventure
story, one man's quest to bring his wife's murderer to justice, and
her depiction of the vast, open and empty forests of Siberia is a
wonderful companion to the vast, emptiness in Imriel's heart.


Yes, the Kushiel books make an interesting counterpoint to the Anita
Blake books. In the latter series the amount of graphic sex increased
over time while the quality rapidly declined. The the former the
amount of graphic sex has, generally, decreased (with the exception of
the bit in the third book in the Markharwhatever's harem) over time
while the quality has slowly increased.

The first Kushiel books were quite good - in spite rather than because
of the sex - but the last two have been truly excellent.

I agree about the scenes set Russia (Vralia?).

-David

-David
.

Relevant Pages

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