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First book. Kushiel's Dart, by Jaqueline Carey.

I found that the other day looking for something to read, and so far, I'm quite impressed. Basically; it's set in a kingdom that's inhabited by a race called D'Angeline. They are allegedly descendants of Angels, and thus, exceedingly beautiful, and worship beauty in all its kinds, but especially their own bodies. To that end, their belief includes that you service their god by having sex, which means that instead of having monasteries, their various orders train their disciples in the art of pleasuring, each in a different way, and then rent them out to rich citizens, so that they can serve their god.

A little flippant, they are basically holy ho's, which is just about the most awesome concept I've ever heard of.

The main character here is one such disciple, a girl called Phèdre, who is special in that way that she is marked by Kushiel, one of the Angels, meaning, basically, that she's born to like it rough and gets off on pain. She's sold to Delauney, a retired poet and influential politician, who takes her as his student and trains her to be a courtesan and use her talents to spy for him on her lovers.



Now that sounds like an incredibly cheap porn but in all seriousness, it totally isn't. Whatever sex and SM stuff is there (and it is there) is done quite tastefully; the very opposite of crude smut. And for that matter, the focus isn't at all on the sex, but on the happenings in the kingdom; the current king is old and without heir, and many different parties are secretly fighting for the throne. It hasn't much actual action, but it's full of intrigues and schemes and plots, which is superbly done and I totally love. Phèdre soon gets tangled up in the plans in her role as a spy, and eventually gets into danger herself because she knows too much.

The book does take its time and is hardly fast-paced, the events pick up between the first third the book's midpoint, but I didn't mind, because the fantasy world is fantastic, and the language and writing style of the book is excellent as well. I've seen it compared to Martin's Song of Ice and Fire, but as I've never read it, I can't say whether or not that's true -- regardless though, if you like political intrigues and want something like mature fantasy, and at the same time can push through a very slow beginning and go without epic-sized battles, give it a try. I'm currently missing my uni assignments to read it :|

If you don't believe me, here's another review (and much better than mine). For that matter, has anyone beside me already read it?