Review: Kushiel's Avatar (Kushiel's Legacy #3)

Kushiel's Avatar by Jacqueline Carey

*This is the last book in the Kushiel trilogy and the summary may have minor spoilers although I read this one before Kushiel's Chosen (book #2) and still greatly enjoyed both. Reviews of Kushiel's Dart (#1) and Kushiel's Chosen (#2)

Summary
Peace is a blessing, but for Phedre at least, peace doesn't last. Melisande's child, Imriel, is missing, and she asks Phedre to help her locate the child. Phedre reluctantly accepts, and the journey she must take to find Imriel will bring her through hell and heaven (in a sense).

Commentary
As with the previous two books, we are led through many landscapes as Phedre gets captured and flees her captors only to fall in with a different set of travelers. The imagery of these landscapes are wonderfully vivid and distinct in their flavors. Joscelin, of course, follows and protects in his ever conservative yet sexy way.

What I love about this book is how incredibly dark it gets in Dharsanga, which I will term 'hell.' This part of the book is NOT for the squeamish. You may have thought there were squeamish bits in the previous books, but the time we spend in hell trumps them all. Part of the measure of a book is how much emotion it can evoke, and this will elicit a very visceral reaction.

Another reason to love this book is how nicely it wraps up all the loose bits and character plots for the entire series of Phedre books. It's always nice to have an ending that does justice to the series so if you have started this series, definitely finish reading it!

Star Rating: 5.0/5.0

For an explanation of the Star Rating go here.