Epeolatry Book Review: The Daughters’ War by Christopher Buehlman

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Title: The Daughters’ War
Author: Christopher Buehlma
Genre: action and adventure fantasy
Publisher: Tor Publishing Group
Publication date: 25th June, 2024

Synopsis: Enter the fray in this luminous new adventure from Christopher Buehlman, set during the war-torn, goblin-infested years just before The Blacktongue Thief.

The goblins have killed all of our horses and most of our men.

They have enslaved our cities, burned our fields, and still they wage war.

Now, our daughters take up arms.

Galva ― Galvicha to her three brothers, two of whom the goblins will kill ― has defied her family’s wishes and joined the army’s untested new unit, the Raven Knights. They march toward a once-beautiful city overrun by the goblin horde, accompanied by scores of giant war corvids. Made with the darkest magics, these fearsome black birds may hold the key to stopping the goblins in their war to make cattle of mankind.

The road to victory is bloody, and goblins are clever and merciless. The Raven Knights can take nothing for granted ― not the bonds of family, nor the wisdom of their leaders, nor their own safety against the dangerous war birds at their side. But some hopes are worth any risk.

As an erstwhile historian of sorts, the strength of this book lay in how the story was told. And I’m not (just) talking about the old-world formality of the speech by the main character, newly enlisted Corvid Knight Galva. I’m talking about how the story read like a journal—an oral history, and this literary choice lent a sense of authenticity to the events of the goblin war as transcribed here. Because women’s history of times long past was rarely recorded; when it wasn’t passed down through oral storytelling or by way of lore and myths as told through a secondhand observer, it was primarily captured through personal letters and diary entries. More often than not, women’s history can only be gleaned through archaeological artifacts these women left behind. We as readers have been granted the opportunity to witness these events through Galva’s eyes, unfiltered and unadorned, before the mists of time and the gloss of mythological lore romanticize both the war and the deeds of the Corvid Knights.

Though it’s not explicitly defined as such, The Daughters’ War reads like a series of reflective journal entries, and this is subtly supported by the fact that Galva would have most likely been well-educated enough to both read and write, as she is the daughter of a duke. A few events are also suitably harrowing in their description, reminding the reader that this is not just any war; it’s a brutal and demanding one where the stakes are high, the sacrifices are many, and the gains are small in return. As is the case with most wars, even those with a final victorious outcome. Again, as a historian that focused on maritime history with touches of military history here and there, I appreciated Buehlman’s attention to detail in how this tale was told. While I won’t give away any spoilers, I’m still not going to lie; it’s a hard novel to read in places, and it might be even harder to read during a time when the world outside is chaotic and frightening for many. The ending, though—the ending makes up for the whole gut-punching, heart-wrenching, infuriating-at-the-folly-of-people storyline.

It’s like it says in the synopsis—there still can be a moment of hope—of peace and beauty—even in a world dominated by greed, corruption, and death. 

/5

Available from Amazon and Bookshop.

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