Kushiel's Justice
Not only is this the best book in this series so far, I believe it's in my top three favorite books...ever.
This book covers a question that in this series, needed answering: If Elua's one precept is, "Love as thou wilt," what happens if you choose not to love? Or feel that you can't? That's the problem Imriel has when he falls in love, unexpectedly, with his cousin Sidonie, the Dauphine of Terre d'Ange. Beneath her restrained, icy exterior, she's warm, uninhibited, and Imriel feels that he can be himself with her. But of all of the people in the country he could have fallen for, this is the one person he really can't have. Being the son of two traitors, the nation would go ballistic if Imriel and Sidonie married. (Having him that close to the throne would make his mother so happy...) Both of them are well aware of the consequences, and agree that they can't be together.
And at any rate, Imriel is already engaged to Dorelei, Sidonie's dad's niece. Thanks to the matriarchal inheritance rules of Alba, that means that Imriel will be the father of the next leader of Alba, but won't rule anywhere himself. And while he's absolutely brokenhearted over losing Sidonie and moving to another country (albeit a very lovely one, that he ends up liking), he's willing to do his best to be a good husband and father and adjust to a new life, and hopefully make up for what his mother did by showing his own loyalty.
And to some degree, it works. His new wife is a lovely lady even if she's not exactly his soulmate, they conceive a child, and they make a happy life for themselves at Castle Clunberry. All would be great, except...
As it turns out, there's a fifth tribe of people on Alba that are rarely mentioned, the "Brown Bear" tribe, who have gone through a lot of hard times and generally cause trouble whenever they come around. They practice magic and have had a vision of doom upon Imriel's arrival on Alba. Unfortunately for Imriel, they neglect to exactly explain what that vision is, or why they are taking the actions that they do. Instead, they find out about Imriel's thwarted love for Sidonie, and ah...use it against him in a very personal way to bind him with his own desires. In order to combat that, the local wise man binds Imriel against their magic...which leads to Imriel mostly losing his access to his own feelings for Sidonie.
On the one hand, that's a good thing because he feels better, and he can focus on learning to love Dorelei and preparing for fatherhood. On the other hand, it's downright disturbing to not be able to feel as thou wilt...and isn't this going against Elua's precept, again? (I have to say that I love this aspect of the plot. Who hasn't wished they could get rid of their feelings towards someone inappropriate?) Unfortunately, Imriel's bindings also affect those around him. Being able to see dreams of the future runs in the royal family of Alba, and as long as Imriel is bound, those close to him (including his wife and his other cousin Alais, visiting Alba for training in dreams!) can't have those dreams. Between dealing with the bindings and the Brown Bear (I am not going to attempt to spell their Cruithne name repeatedly here, sorry) tribe doing all kinds of odd things to Imriel periodically, Imriel, Dorelei, and even Drustan (the ruler of Alba) wonder if Imriel should just go home.
And then...disaster occurs, and both Imriel and Sidonie can't help but think that their refusal to love each other openly and for good caused it. Imriel also decides to take on an arduous quest that will take him very far away and to a very lonely place...
This book is a real heart-tugger, and the journeys of the characters in it are just plain awesome, brilliant, and beautiful. My only quibble is that, much like reading Avatar, after awhile I just wanted the journey back to not be so very loooooooooong so we could get back to finding out what I was looking forward to seeing!
I cannot wait to see how things resolve in the next book. Can't. Wait. I'd give this book six stars if I could, but that's unfair.
FIVE BIG OL' SHINY STARS TO THIS ONE. Ka-WOW.
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