Kushiel's Chosen

A couple of weeks ago, I finally found time to get to grips with Kushiel's Chosen, the second in Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel's Legacy series. Set in Terre D'Ange, a fantastical version of medieval France, a year after the events of Kushiel's Dart, it begins with Phèdre nó Delaunay, now comfortably settled as Comtesse de Montrève, trying to unravel the final mystery of the first book: the disappearance of the conniving Melisande Shahrizai from her prison cell in the city of Troyes-le-Mont on the eve of her execution; something that can only have been achieved with the complicity of a member of Queen Ysandre's most trusted inner circle.

After a year of contentment in Montrève, a parcel arrives for Phèdre in the hands of a traveller from La Serenissima containing her unique sangoire cloak. Realising that the cloak can only have come from Melisande, Phèdre realises that she needs to rise to the challenge and finally resolve the mystery of her old adversary's disappearance and current whereabouts. To this end she moves her household — primarily her chevaliers and Joscelin Verreuil, her Cassiline companion and bodyguard — back to the City of Elua where she can resume her career as a courtesan, extracting information from the aristocracy about La Serenissima while her chevaliers chase down information from the guards on duty on the night of Melisande's disappearance. While the process of information gathering is reasonably successful, it worsens the estrangement between Phèdre and Joscelin, with the latter taking an increasing interest in the Yeshuite religion.

Eventually realising that the answers to her questions are almost certainly to be found in La Serenissima, Phèdre and the Queen manufacture a quarrel to explain Phèdre's abrupt departure for Caerdicca Unitas. Upon arrival in the City State, Phèdre finds the city in political uproar. Elderly Doge Cesare Stragazza has decided to stand down from his position following a prophetic warning from the goddess Asherat-of-the-Sea, leaving his sons Marco and Ricciardo scrabbling for enough votes to succeed him. Marco, the son-in-law of Prince Benedict de la Courcel of Terre D'Ange, has been somewhat disgraced and disowned by his father-in-law following his role in the poisoning of another D'Angeline, while his wife has been disinherited by her father in favour of the infant son of his second marriage. Ricciardo, meanwhile, with his strong ties to the city's guilds, has been accused of fomenting strife by encouraging the working classes to strike and riot in order to improve their wages and conditions.

Pursuing her investigations against the chaotic background of the city, Phèdre realises just to late that she has been out-played by her opponent and that not only is Melisande in the city, but she has backed Phèdre into a corner from where escape seems impossible. Obviously, given that the narrative is framed as a memoir, this isn't the end for Phèdre and she wins herself free, only to find herself in the hands of a notorious — and cursed! — pirate. There then follow a series of adventures during which Phèdre frantically tries to get word back to her Queen to try to prevent her from undertaking an official tour of Caerdicca Unitas; a tour which, with a traitor left behind in Terre D'Ange and Melisande positioned ahead in La Serenissima, can only result in a regicidal coup. The rest of the book takes the form of a headlong rush as Phèdre tries to get back to La Serenissima in time to confound Melisande's schemes.

But Kushiel's Chosen is so much more than a brief outline suggests. Carey's characters are extremely well drawn and utterly captivating. Phèdre's difficult relationship with Joscelin, which is placed under great strain by the conflict between his moral code and her position as Terre D'Ange most famous courtesan, works very well, with their very different personalities driving the increasing estrangement between them as well as providing grounds for their attraction.

Phèdre's complicated relationship with Melisande Shahrizai is also very nicely nuanced and detailed. Having been lovers and more in the first book, Phèdre still feels strongly attracted to Melisande; a complication that is partly explained by the fantastic — and BDSM — elements of the setting: Melisande is directly descended from the Kushiel, the angel appointed by God to punish sinners, while Phèdre is an anguisette, Kushiel's chosen, created to enjoy pain imposed by others. Consequently for all that Phèdre's rational self is completely aware of the depths of Melisande's guile, her more emotional side struggles to escape from the dominance of Melisande's personality and desires.

The intrigues of La Serenissima and its complicated politics, clearly modelled on those of medieval Venice complete with elections and fights between rival groups of bravos, feel authentic and mesh well with the very different, more aristocratic but no less ruthless politicking of Terre D'Ange and Melisande's long game of power. The book takes what could have been a minor, unresolved footnote in Kushiel's Dart and shows how a clever player can take what appears to be a position of ultimate disadvantage — on the run after being convicted for treason — and use sheer cleverness to turn it into something which, with a couple of ruthless strokes, will deliver a victory so complete it will seem to expiate the sins of the past in the eyes of the world at large.

Superb.