Heads-up to all fantasy fans – we’re planning another Wyrd and Wonder read-along! Jacqueline Carey came in for much love during this year’s event, so this autumn we’ll be (re)visiting Terre d’Ange to read her epic debut Kushiel’s Dart.

For those who aren’t familiar with it, Kushiel’s Dart is the tale of Phèdre nó Delaunay, blessed – or cursed – to experience pain and pleasure as one. Raised amongst courtesans, trained as a spy, Phèdre will put herself at the mercy of cruel men and women to learn their secrets and subvert their terrible plots.

That which yields is not always weak

Expect a coming of age story full of poetry and friendship, courage and passion, submission and a lot of kinky shagging. Not remotely safe for work. TW: BDSM, dubious consent, self-harm, mention of suicide

For those of you scratching your head and thinking ‘huh, this doesn’t sound like the sort of thing imyril usually enjoys’ you’d be absolutely right. But it’s also cheerfully queer as well as being a monster of purple prose and lush alt historical world-building, which I just can’t resist.

Proposed Schedule

A Wyrd and Wonder read-along is a casual buddy read with the best fantasy community I know. We set a target to read each week, with weekly discussion prompts to blog about and/or chat in the comments of the weekly host blog. If you want to zoom ahead, that’s fine (just no spoilers for advance chapters in your blog posts or chat comments, please); if you fall behind, you can be sure we’ll still be happy to chat later when you catch up.

Discussions will start the first week of September with a chapter breakdown as follows:

• Week One | Beginning through end Chapter Sixteen
• Week Two | Chapter Seventeen – Thirty-one
• Week Three| Chapter Thirty-two – Forty-seven
• Week Four | Chapter Forty-eight – Sixty-one
• Week Five | Chapter Sixty-two – Seventy-nine
• Week Six | Chapter Eighty through the end

Kushiel’s Dart is a door-stop, so this schedule represents ca. 150 pages a week (in my ancient Aussie paperback edition) rather than the 100-120 pages we usually use. If that page count feels too high, please yell – I’ve got time to look at other options and revise our goals.

Please indicate your interest in the comments on this post and/or on the Goodreads group (where we’ll finalise details like posting day for discussion in due course, confirm the host for each week and eventually post questions); and you can expect a reminder post here in late August to kick things off.