Naamah's Curse
Naamah's Curse book cover

Naamah's Curse

Hardcover – Bargain Price, June 14, 2010

Price
$59.40
Format
Hardcover
Pages
576
Publisher
Grand Central Publishing
Publication Date
Dimensions
6.5 x 1.75 x 9.25 inches
Weight
1.85 pounds

Description

From Publishers Weekly In this sequel to 2009's Naamah's Kiss , Moirin, the devoted servant of a sex goddess, journeys across half of a fantasy version of Asia in search of her soulmate, Bao. In Tatar territory, she finds Bao... and his wife. His father-in-law, the Great Khan, is willing to go to great extremes to keep Bao and Moirin apart. Captured by the fanatic Patriarch of Riva, Moirin escapes to find that Bao has vanished again, this time headed toward the distant lair of the Spider Queen and her army of assassins. The romantic tale is marred by Moirin's narcissistic awareness that she is destined for a glorious fate that lesser mortals like Bao's jealous wife may only envy. Carey's storytelling ability is top-notch, however, and readers will applaud her willingness to resolve major plot threads in the middle book of a trilogy. (June) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From Booklist Still chasing her destiny in the sequel to Naamah's Kiss (2009), Moirin follows the urging of her diadh-anam across Tatar territory, looking for Bao, her Ch'in lover, who holds the other half of her divine soul-spark. She finds him married to the Great Khan's daughter, and their plans to smooth this wrinkle go disastrously wrong when the Great Khan arranges to have Moirin kidnapped by fanatical, pious Vralians, while Bao is led into the lands of the Spider Queen. Though this book is packed with new people, new lands, and new gods, the pacing is slow and the tone reflective. Carey's involving depictions of several religions also grow rather pointed. While Bao is never present long enough to gain depth, Moirin grows in strength and compassion, confronting several interesting crossroads in her faith and her way of life. Despite a “middle book” feel, series fans will love it, and an ominous warning about Raphael de Merliot, whom Moirin must “reckon with,” gives us something to look forward to in the next book. --Krista Hutley Jacqueline Carey's previous publications include various short stories, essays, a nonfiction book, Angels: Celestial Spirits in Legend and Art , as well as the nationally bestselling series Kushiel's Legacy. Read more

Features & Highlights

  • Jacqueline Carey,
  • New York Times
  • bestselling author of the Kushiel's Legacy series, delivers book two in her new lushly imagined trilogy featuring daughter of Alba, Moirin.NAAMAH'S CURSEFar from the land of her birth, Moirin sets out across Tatar territory to find Bao, the proud and virile Ch'in fighter who holds the missing half of her
  • diadh-anam,
  • the divine soul-spark of her mother's people. After a long ordeal, she not only succeeds, but surrenders to a passion the likes of which she's never known. But the lovers' happiness is short lived, for Bao is entangled in a complication that soon leads to their betrayal.

Customer Reviews

Rating Breakdown

★★★★★
60%
(483)
★★★★
25%
(201)
★★★
15%
(121)
★★
7%
(56)
-7%
(-56)

Most Helpful Reviews

✓ Verified Purchase

Get it!

If you are a fan of the Kushiel's books then you absolutely need to read Carey's Naamah series. They stand on their own and are worth the read.
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Enjoyable Read

I enjoyed the second book in the series as much as the first. I find this series has been an extremely enjoyable light read -- from time to time I was so enthralled by the series that I would carve out extra time for reading during my day because because I wanted to know what would happen next.
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Only worth reading to get to the third book.

This book was my least favorite of Naamah's Trilogy. I enjoyed it, but it wasn't the most thrilling of tales.

I blazed through the first part of the book trying to get to something interesting. I felt like she spent way too much time setting up the story so and making sure the later parts fit in with it. When we finally arrive at Vralia portion of the tale, it felt like I was receiving a subtle lecture on morals and getting the author's opinion of religion moreso than I was reading a story. Then you get to the last part, which feels like a history lesson on India with a little drama thrown in on the side, which is too quickly resolved and anticlimactic. It might as well have been skipped all together. Basically, the only reason it's worth reading is so that you can understand the developing relationship between Moirin and Bao, and to set you up for the third book in the trilogy.

One of my least favorite books from Carey... but a cute love story, I suppose.
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Second book in a Trilogy.

This is the second book in a trilogy and sadly it shows. For all of the movement of the characters as Moiron and Bao travel from the world's China, to Mongolia, to Russia and finally to India there is little actual movement of the plot. Characters introduced in this story are there only for a few scenes and then vanish, never to be seen again. Many aren't even mentioned after that and some plot threads are left to twist in the wind forever.

And as others have noted while Jacqueline spins beautiful and sometimes exciting pictures with words in this story she struggles to provide any motivation that doesn't have some element of "deus ex machina" about it. Enemies just happen to be in the perfect place to stage a kidnapping of Moiron and they even have special chains designed to block her magic, which work despite the maker not knowing about how her magic works. Bao just happens to believe a man who had no reason to tell him the truth about where Moiron was and travels miles in the wrong direction and ends up captivated by another woman and her magic. Even when the couple is reunited its helped because Moiron happened to befriend a widow who is immune to the desire magic and is able to break the spell on others.

It's still a fun book and I like the characters but you could get away with only reading this book in the trilogy because it doesn't really tie in directly into the others. You'd miss a lot of the backstory, but it has little effect on the plot here.
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Wonderful

I finished this book in 4 days. It was so good that I couldn't put it down. Highly recommend reading it.