Naamah's Curse [Hardcover]

When Jacqueline Carey released "Kushiel's Scion," the first of the Imriel trilogy, I admit to being a little worried. I wasn't sure she could pull off the shift away from Phedre no Delaunay de Montreve, the inimitable and incomparable heroine of the first trilogy of the Kushiel's Legacy series. Well, I was wrong, and Imriel's trilogy turned out to be brilliant. Then she started a third trilogy, and once again I was apprehensive. After "Naamah's Kiss," I wasn't entirely reassured, but I still held onto hope for Moirin's story.

After "Naamah's Curse," that hope is crushed.

I can't put my finger on the exact moment when I realized that everything had gone horribly, horribly wrong, but I do know that every time I picked up this book, the spark of anticipation was weaker, and every time I set it down the disappointment was stronger. I kept waiting for it to pull me in, to entice me, seduce me, to just make me care about these characters. It never did.

By far the greatest sin in "Naamah's Curse", greater than the ridiculous plot contrivances and deus ex machinas, greater than the senseless bouncing around from location to location, greater than the little editorial errors that signal a rush to print, is that the characters here are unbelievable, flat, and one-dimensional. Now, I was never a fan of Bao - my last review described him as a poor man's Joscelin. Well, after this book, I take that back - it's offensive to both Joscelin and poor men. The various minor characters are your basic stock archetypes - the evil religious fanatic, the wide-eyed naïf, the enlightened ruler.

And Moirin? Moirin, who could have been the most unique and fascinating D'Angeline protagonist to date? Moirin, alas, has become the most dreaded and disappointing character of all: the Mary Sue. The girl raised in isolation in the wild who is suddenly an expert on haggling, languages, and trade. The girl whose sexual innocence was so endearing who has suddenly turned into a worldly version of the hooker-with-a-heart-of-gold. The girl who is beautiful and smart and resourceful and popular and strong and has magic powers and whom everyone - except the reader - seems to adore. Gag me.

What about the plot? Well, the strongest section of the book is set in Vralia, which when last we left it had begun the transition to martial Yeshuite power. In the intervening centuries, we are told that a schism has arisen between the followers of a gentler faith, led by Rebbe Avraham ben David and influenced by the martyrdom of the Maghuin Donne shapeshifter Berlik, and a harsher, proselytizing creed obsessed with rooting out sin and purging the world of witchcraft and heathenism. Now, my view has always been that in Carey's alternate history, the two points of departure which had the greatest effect on creating a better world than ours were, respectively, the presence of Elua and the absence of St. Paul. In Pyotr, the Patriarch of Riva, Carey has given us her universe's St. Paul, Augustine of Hippo, and the Spanish Inquisition (bet you didn't expect that!) all in one. He manages to get his hands on Moirin, and, well, you can imagine. This is the only part of "Naamah's Curse" which had any sense of historical relevancy, moral quandary, personal culpability, or any suggestion at all that a major character might be in very real danger. Parts of it were painful to read and had me really worried for Moirin - in many ways, it was like the Darsanga episode in "Kushiel's Avatar."

Sadly, we are gone far too soon from Vralia as Moirin sets out - again - to find Bao, this time across the Himalayas and into Bhodistan. Which development, rather than filling me with awe at her determination and the power of their true love, merely left me shaking my head and sighing "Honey, I hate to break it to you, but Bao is Just Not That Into You." Has any Carey pairing resulted in so little chemistry as these two? I have more enthusiastic reunions with my cat after a day at work than Moirin and Bao can manage after months apart. Seriously, I would rather have seen Phedre hook up with Barquiel L'Envers than watch Moirin follow Bao around for one more minute. Imriel and Claudia Fulvia made a better couple than these two. Moirin, DTMFA.

And the sex? Well, it turns out Lady Gaga had it right after all: "Baby when it's love if it's not rough it isn't fun." The eroticism here is distinctly of the tame Harlequin variety, with plenty of heaving and throbbing but none of the originality or naughty playfulness of either Phedre or Imriel's amorous encounters. Moirin seems to view sex as a fun pastime - which is, of course, perfectly fine, but it lacks, shall we say, any poetry. Sex scenes in the previous books were always either hot, emotionally charged, or (best of all) both. Sex scenes in this book are, well, predictable. Vanilla. And the relationships involved are strictly of the friends-with-benefits variety, which in real life is all well and good, but who wants to read about what amounts to a series of pity-lays?

In short, "Naamah's Curse" was a horrible disappointment. I hate writing these reviews of Jacqueline Carey books, I really do. I thought she had gotten all her hack writing out with "Banewreaker," but it appears there was still some left. This is hideously depressing to me. I simply can't understand how this book went so wrong, and I honestly don't see how the series is going to turn around again. "Curse," indeed.

Like a few other reviewers, I had high hopes for this book. Moirin, while not my favorite narrator, felt like she had some spark to her, some reason to struggle, to fight, to grow, and to be alive. Unfortunately, the revival of Bao at the end of the first book meant the death of Moirin in the second.

I understand, or at least I like to think I understand, what Carey was going for. She'd already created a ground-breaking character in the form of Phedre, and completely enchanted me with Imriel's tale (despite a rocky start in the likability polls). For the third series, she needed to shake things up a bit. Back to writing a woman? Great, she's had time to mature as a writer and bring it all together. Phedre and the others left in the annals of history? Excellent, removes the temptation to bring them into a story they would overwhelm. Resist the Mary-Sue temptation to make her a direct descendant? Eeeengh, not quite; although she's not directly related to the Delaunay clan, it's close enough to make me wonder if there's a draft out there with her as a great-great-granddaughter.

So Moirin's different enough to quiet the fans... or is she? In the first book Carey did a decent job giving Moirin her own life, but the moment sex entered the tale it all went down hill. Globe-trotting Moirin just can't help herself, hopping into bed with just about everyone in the first book, a trend that continued into the second. If anything Moirin's tales should be called "Eiseth's Travels", because damn if Moirin doesn't manage to come up with an excuse for every single liason. Half D'Angeline boy who's terrified of sex? A little coitus'll fix that right up. Woman with evil stone got Moirin's panties in a twist? The nearest queen will do. It got to the point where I started evaluating new characters as either "will do" "won't do" or "might do", and trust me when I say that's not a good sign.

As if her sexual escapades weren't mundane enough, throughout the book I discovered reference after reference to Phedre. "If only I were as good at languages as her", "but I can't possibly be diplomatic enough like she was"... Carey couldn't make up her mind whether or not she wanted to actually tell Moirin's story or convince herself she wasn't just copying Phedre as much as she could. It reminded me (and I shudder to think it) of Twilight, with Bella's insistence throughout that she's just not as cool, or beautiful, or elegant, or clever as the other girls.

While it was wonderful to return to the world of the D'Angelines and to do a little world exploring, Moirin is sadly trailing off into obscurity. While Carey may yet be able to salvage her as a character, I fear it is too late to rescue this damsel from her distressing fate.

Curse is a disappointing, but not unreadable, continuation of Carey's Moirin trilogy. The language is as rich and enjoyable as ever, and this alone is worth reading the book. The world building continues to be interesting, with an intriguingly familiar alternate world.

Unfortunately, the story itself was rather dismal.

Moirin began the series with so much promise that it's quite a disappointment to me. A child of the wild, innocent, ruled by passions and too honest for her own good, fighting for her independence...unfortunately, she has been thoroughly tamed beyond recognition. Forced plot contrivances, deus ex machina, flat characters and a complete inability to suspend growing disbelief plague the novel.

Similar to Kiss, Curse is divisible into two very distinct novellas following the initial introduction. Also like Kiss, these have very little - nearly nothing - to do with one another.

The plots themselves are fine, but it's the docile meandering of the characters through them that's painful to read. Kidnapped and held captive, Moirin does nothing to aid herself: never lifts a hand in defense or struggles to form a plan other than attempting to win over a rescuer, doesn't even really try to resist much, too cowed by threats. It seems like a pitiful low for a high spirited forest sprite to come to, and even after her escape (which mostly involved sitting around waiting, rather than fighting for survival) I felt a large part of her had died.

The second half was slightly better - Moirin at least seems to show some bravery - but the situations were so forced that it was hard to enjoy. I finished Kiss with a vague dislike for Bao, and annoyance at the lack of chemistry between them (it really would have been a better, more poignant novel if he'd stayed dead) but shortly after Curse began that switched into full fledged loathing as he proved himself an obtuse, uncaring, incompetent boob. Every claim to his strength of character and dedication is dismissed when he sinks into depression and drugs at the first hint of tragedy, and any potential to learn from it vanishes with his easy recovery.

The supporting cast are terrifyingly stereotypical and one dimensional. There's a clear line between the Good and Bad characters, with only one (the Spider Queen) edging towards a hint of grey. Many of the good characters - particularly the nice ones in the second half of the book - are so trite as to be painful.

Moirin herself seems completely changed. Despite her amazingly intriguing roots, it feels like Carey got bored or disheartened with her character and gave her up in preference of trying to resurrect Phedre, failing completely. Gone is the love of the wild - she does everything she can to avoid the out of doors and spend every night in an inn or palace - the innocence - she's become an expert haggler, intuitive conversationalist, and somehow seems to have even picked up knowledge of battle tactics - and most of all, the fiesty indomitability.

The deus ex machina is particularly hard to swallow. None of the characters seem to do much other than wait around for the gods to take care of things (I mean this literally; waiting cluelessly for a divine sign does not make for titillating reading). Moirin is constantly rescued from her own incompetence or lack of willpower: by a disheartened priest, a forgiving competitor, several handy guides and merchants, and an annoyingly saintly queen.

That said, there are some good moments and clever lines - such as when she asks if the yeshuite god needs her to save him. They just don't carry the book in the face of so many fundamental issues.

Ultimately, this is a continuation of a series and worth reading for that alone. It's a weak immitation of Phedre in Darsanga (without most of the horror, emotional crisis, or motivation) but if you've read Kushiels and finished Naamah's Kiss, there's really no reason not to continue with this one. However, lots of reason to hope Carey recovers the spark she seems to be losing.

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 60 reviews  3.6 out of 5 stars