en-US Wed, 01 Jan 2025 08:52:51 -0800 60 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg Friend1411825847 Wed, 01 Jan 2025 08:52:51 -0800 Review6262329717 Thu, 27 Jun 2024 08:32:35 -0700 /review/show/6262329717 H. gave 5 stars to The Daughters' War (Blacktongue, #0) by Christopher Buehlman
bookshelves: modern-sf
I am pretty well over prequels. They almost never match the original story. The mine a limited story vein. They are mostly pointless, even if really good (Rogue One comes to mind, here). But I am not over The Daughters� War.

I loved The Blacktongue Thief. It was probably my favorite book of 2021 (and back then I still read a decent number of books in a year). I have been nigh inconsolable that Buehlman didn’t immediately produce a sequel. (I haven’t been broken by GRRM and Patrick Rothfuss and Scott Lynch. I am old enough to remember us gnashing our teeth over having to two years(!) for a new Wheel of Time book.) Did I let the fact that The Daughters� War was a prequel stop me from immediately jumping on an ARC? Absolutely not. Smart call.

I loved The Daughters� War so much I went back and reread The Blacktongue Thief afterward. (I’ve had my ARC of The Daughters� War for months and finished it in early March. Coincidentally I finished my reread of The Blacktongue Thief last night. Reading a book, reading its prequel a few years later, then rereading the original naturally encourages comparison. The Daughters� War is the grimmer, more serious book, lacking snarky Galt main characters. It also lacks thieves and a heavy role for the Takers guild, if that is a big draw for you. On the other hand, it has much more Galva (who get somewhat short shrift in The Blacktongue Thief), much war, and far more goblins, who are a major driver of the world Buehlman has created (although it seems like the Takers are the bigger driver of the story). As the slightly lighter story, The Blacktongue Thief suffers somewhat from being read second. And the allusions it makes to the goblin wars prove very fertile ground for The Daughters� War.

My standard advice is to always read in publication order, not chronological story order, and that sage advice holds here.

The Daughters� War tells the backstory of Galva and, well, the Daughters� War. A few minor characters appear as well. We learn about her three brothers and their own tragic stories. We learn how she came to worship Death. We learn more about just how awful and horrific the goblins are. It is, all and all, an exceedingly well told war story and high-to-epic fantasy.

Plus it has even more stag-sized battle ravens. ]]> Review5781843128 Thu, 12 Oct 2023 11:20:24 -0700 /review/show/5781843128 H. gave 5 stars to The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (Chronicles of Narnia, #3) by C.S. Lewis
bookshelves: vintage-sf
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