Kushiel’s Avatar by Jacqueline Carey, readalong week No.3
25 October 2015
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Jacqueline Carey, Kushiel's Avatar, Readalong Week No.3
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elcome to week three of our readalong of Jacqueline Carey’s Kushiel series. Kushiel’s Avatar is the third in the series and I am loving it so far. All free to join in, if you’ve already read this then please join in with the comments. The full schedule is here and this week Emily at Emma Wolf is our lovely host. Before moving on: a word of warning – there will be spoilers lurking below.
So, moving swiftly on:
1. If I recall correctly, this is the first book (and this is the first portion of the book) that takes us outside of (what is now) Europe and into (what is now) the Arab world. What are your thoughts?
I love all the travelling and more to the point the attention to detail that Carey brings in describing a place and bringing it off the page. She always pays attention to the food and clothing and local traditions.
2. We see the Pharaoh laughing at Phedre, saying that if she had only trusted him, it would have saved them a lot of time. We saw this sort of thing play out before with Kazan and Bariquel. Do you think Phedre should be more trusting or do you think she is right to be so cautious?
I think that Phedre can be quite cautious but in this instance I think she was right to be so. This is a Pharaoh – you don’t want to go wading in with your big feet and upsetting him do you – anything could happen. Plus, I don’t think her extra caution caused any real delay to be honest. And, it definitely gave the Pharaoh a laugh out loud moment and that can’t be a bad thing after all and it served to relieve the tension a little.
3. More of the story of Imriel and the two other kidnapped children unfold. What do you think now? Was Imriel chosen randomly? Is this the gods punishing Melisande or D’Angelines generally?
I really don’t think Imriel was chosen at random, there are simply too many coincidences for me to feel it was just purely accidental. Plus – if we are to believe that this is part of a punishment from one of the Gods then it definitely can’t be random can it? Course, I’m happy to be wrong – which is just as well as I frequently am!
4. More on Imriel: we haven’t met him yet, but we’ve heard a lot about him and how he acted in different situations. So far, what do you think of him?
He’s definitely got a little bit of derring-do in him hasn’t he! Considering the terrifying series of events that have taken place he still has the guts to stick up for himself. I was very impressed with him and wherever he happens to be right now I hope he’s managing to hold himself together.
5. What are your thoughts on the skotophagotis? Superstition and coincidence or real power?
I’m loving this element to the story. I think it could be just again a case of coincidence where people’s real fear or terror of the situation causes almost a self fullfilling prophecy type situation. These skotophasgotis are certainly scary critters though. It’s like they’ve created a sort of mass hysteria amongst the people. I guess if one of those stepped in your path you probably would fall over and hurt yourself afterwards because you would be so concerned about something bad happening that you wouldn’t be paying proper attention.
I love the scenes with Joscelin and Phedre – they’re so sort of chilled with each other at the moment. It made me laugh when Phedre said something like – and I’m not quoting – that she would probably be dead if it wasn’t for Joscelin – and he said yes, if he wasn’t around she’d probably die from melodrama – okay, I’m not getting the quote right at all but it made me laugh.
The other participants:
- Susan at Dab of Darkness
- Allie at Tethyan Books
- Lisa at Over the Effing Rainbow
- Me at Lynn’s Book Blog
- Emily at Emma Wolf
No.24 Skeleton #Drawlloween
Today is day 24 of Drawlloween – a fun event that I found out about here on the lovely ‘Not Yet Read’. Today is Skelton. With this in mind I thought I’d draw a t-rex – inspiration for this was ‘Sue’ from Jim Butcher’s Dresden books – it would have been rather cool. and in keeping with Halloween, if I could have drawn a magician Harry Dresden riding atop this dinosaur – but I just couldn’t!
One lovely blog award
I received two of these recently so thought I’d join in. The first rule of ‘one lovely blog award’ is that NOBODY talks about one lovely blog award. That is all. Goodbye.
Okay, maybe not. The idea is you give a shout out to the blogger who nominated you – so thanks to Leona at Leona’s Blog of Shadows and also Lucia at Making Days Better. You also list the rules – so ‘ere they be and be making sure you stick to ’em:
The Rules:
- You must thank the person who nominated you and include a link to their blog.
- You must list the rules and display the award.
- You must add 7 facts about yourself.
- You must nominate 15 other bloggers and comment on one of their posts to let them know they have been nominated.
To the facts:
- I love sleep. I think I could happily slob around in bed all day – in fact, when I was a baby my mum had to wake me up to feed me. Yes, that’s right. Now all you people out there with little babies – think about that for just one moment!
- I have a book boyfriend – strictly speaking this isn’t a secret as I use every opportunity available to talk about him – Jean Tannen is his name and I will forever love (not in a bunny-boiler-stalker-way) Scott Lynch for creating him!
- I eat far too quickly – I basically hate to eat food that has gone cold. I like eating cold food. I just don’t enjoy eating food that was supposed to be warm but is now cold. So, if I go out for a meal with somebody, they turn around momentarily, distracted, or start using the condiments and when they look up my plate is probably empty – okay, I exaggerate, but only slightly. Anyway, this means I can talk while they eat! It’s almost like I have a plan.
- I enjoy cooking. I’m not saying I’m good at it, but there’s something definitely restful about preparing a meal and (hopefully) others enjoying it. Plus, even though I wolf my food down – sitting around enjoying a meal with your family and friends is something to enjoy.
- I love to go to events where my favourite authors are present – but, I turn into a nervous wreck and can’t say anything to them. This is a great source of amusement to my buddy Jenny who suffers no such anxiety about talking to authors – or publishers for that matter – because I also can’t speak to publishers. In fact I usually try to skulk around at the back of the room just to avoid notice. Which is so unlike me – I’m really not a shy person.
- A little ghosty-type story. When I was younger, about 20, I woke up one morning and was convinced somebody was in the bedroom with me. I was so terrified that I literally couldn’t move as I didn’t want to alert whoever it was to the fact that I was awake. So, I was lying, face down in bed (in fact I was probably stuck to the pillow) when suddenly something sat on my back and giggled. Yep, scared me to death. Then it was all gone, the weight was lifted and I literally dived out of bed and got out of the house sharpish. Now obviously, as the years have passed I’ve convinced myself that I was in that strange moment between sleep and waking – but who knows? Do you have any creepy tales. One thing for absolute sure – maybe I was dreaming, but even so I ran out of that house!
- My favourite time of the year is autumn/winter. I think it’s because I’m a winter baby. I like the dark nights, the colour of the leaves, in fact the atmosphere even seems to smell different to me – I know that’s an odd thing to say but I can’t describe it any other way. I’m just comfortable at this time of year.
So, In terms of nominees – well, I like to break the rules so I’m not picking 15, I figure I’ll pick as many sites as I have written facts above. Here are my magnificent seven and they’re nearly all fairly new(ish) to me bloggers who I want to find out some more about (because No. 8 – I’m nosey) – no pressure at all to take part – we’re all busy and these things are very time consuming:
- DJ at My Life My Books My Escape
- Books by Proxy
- Maddalena at Space and Sorcery
- Steph from at Bookishswint
- Carmen from Carmen’s Books and Movie Reviews
- Jenclair from Bayouquilts – this isn’t a new blog to me but it is so lovely that I wanted to include it
- SCFlynn – because, SC Flynn has interviewed millions of bloggers and authors and all sorts of other people! Check out the site – I thought maybe this could be like, well, no, not an interview, but come on – 7 facts! Enquiring minds need to know.
That is all for me. If you want to play along and you’re not on the list then do so. If you’re on the list and don’t want to play along – don’t. Simples 😀
If you do take part feel free to share the link as I’d like to stop by. 😀
No.23 Gore #Drawlloween
Today is day 23 of Drawlloween – a fun event that I found out about here on the lovely ‘Not Yet Read’. Today is Gore. This was also a tough one for me – happily, I think some of the next ones might be a little easier – but we’ll see. Yeah, check my ‘Gore’ entry out at your own peril! You were warned. A large mess of gore (or strawberry shoelaces??):
And in case you missed the hidden face within:
No.22 Candy #Drawlloween
Today is day 22 of Drawlloween – a fun event that I found out about here on the lovely ‘Not Yet Read’. Today is an Candy. Mmm, think this was a bit tough for me! I’ve done pretty miserably I drew the first and didn’t like it so tried the second. And didn’t like that either!
