The release date for the English version of 'Kushiel's Dart' by
Jacqueline Carey is Sep 2003. If you enjoy this novel, it is available for buy as a paperback from Barnes & Noble or Indigo, as an ebook on the Amazon Kindle store, or as an audiobook on Audible.
Terre d'Ange is a region of unparalleled elegance and beauty. Angels are claimed to have discovered the area and judged it to be good. The subsequent race descended from angels and mankind is thought to follow one basic law: love one another as one would.
The young lady Phèdre nó Delaunay was born with a scarlet mote in her left eye. She was sold into child labor and her bond acquired by Anafiel Delaunay, a nobleman on a very important mission who is also the first to realize that she is the one who has been struck by Kushiel's dart and has been selected to share both agony and pleasure for eternity.
Phèdre is equally skilled in the arts of the court and the bedchamber, but her most valuable training is in observation, memory, and analysis. Phèdre, who is almost as skilled as a spy as a courtesan, discovers a conspiracy that puts her country's foundations in jeopardy. Her course is established by treachery, and she is pushed farther by love and honor. And in the process, it will push her beyond the brink of hopelessness. You may wear the same sparkling mask as a loving adversary, a hateful friend, or a cherished assassin in this world, and Phèdre only has one opportunity to rescue all that matters to her.
This is a story of grandeur and luxuriance, sacrifice and treachery and deeply ingrained plots, set in a world of lethal courtiers, crafty poets, heroic traitors, and a really Machiavellian villainess. An epic the size of Kushiel's Dart—a grand narrative about the terrible demise of an era and the dawning of a new one—hasn't been seen since Dune.