Book um I’m not sure, Naamah’s Curse by Jacqueline Carey

30Jun10

I can say with confidence at this point that Jacqueline Carey is one of my favorite authors. It’s the detail, I think. It gets me every time. The characters don’t hurt, either.

This is the second book featuring Moirinn, who’s half D’Angeline and half Alban (I’d spell the tribe, but that would require me to go look it up and that isn’t going to happen right now, sorry). Not only that, but she’s a favorite of the gods from both halves of her ancestry. The Great Bear of her tribe has Chosen her as Her own, and both Naamah and Anael of the D’Angeline pantheon have given her gifts as well.

I think one of the things that I’ve always loved about Carey’s books and her world in general is the prevalence of magic. It’s always there, and though it’s not entirely common, it’s accepted as a real thing. For us, it’s fantasy, but for these characters it’s as real as their gods. Not only that, but the view and worship of the gods is a very real thing, and though these characters are obviously extraordinary people and I don’t know that regular D’Angelines ever feel the blessing of their gods, these Chosen ones do. I like that.

There’s some major and scary religious fanaticism in this book. And though Moirinn doesn’t feel like it, I think she’s as involved in major events of her day through no real doing of her own as Phedre was in her time. Though I know that Moirinn is destined for Great Things as the reader, she never feels like she’s an overtly extraordinary girl. Sure, she’s clearly special, but she makes mistakes and she has flaws and she does stupid shit sometimes. She feels like a real, fairly normal person.

Anyway, if you’ve read any of my previous reviews of Carey’s novels, you know I wholeheartedly recommend all of her books. Don’t start with this one, though. Start back at the beginning with Kushiel’s Dart (I think that’s the first one) and prepare to be entirely immersed for eight books.

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Tags: books, cannonball read 2.0, jacqueline carey, kushiel, moirinn, naamah's curse, reading, review