Publisher: Gollancz (Hardcover – 25 June 2024)
Series: Blacktongue series – Book 0
Length: 389 pages
My Rating: 4.5 out 5 stars
Prepare for the most brutal of wars with the intense and impressive fantasy prequel from Christopher Buehlman, The Daughter’s War, an intriguing read that dives into the early life of one of the author’s more complex characters.
Most fantasy fans will be aware of author Christopher Buehlman, who has been very popular since 2021 when he released the acclaimed novel The Blacktongue Thief. An elaborate dark fantasy adventure story set in a series of human nations recovering from a devastating total war against goblins, The Blacktongue Thief was an exceptional read that very much lives up to the hype around it. I had the pleasure of finally reading The Blacktongue Thief earlier this year, and after finishing it I attempted to find a copy of the 2024 prequel novel, The Daughter’s War. After a long search through many second-hand bookshops in Australia, I was eventually able to find a wonderful hardcover copy of The Daughter’s War at the tail end of a road trip (thank you Wyrdbooks in Wentworth Falls), and I just got the chance to read it. A brutal war novel, The Daughter’s War was a great read that provides some additional history around a fantastic character from the first book in the series.
Plot Synopsis:
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.
Buehlman brings the carnage in this compelling prequel novel. The Daughter’s War was an interesting and action-packed addition to this cool fantasy series that tells a powerful character-driven narrative, while also cleverly expanding on the lore his unique fantasy universe. A wonderfully dark and addictive novel, The Daughter’s War was an outstanding read you’ll have a hard time pulling away from.
I very much enjoyed the prequel narrative that Buehlman set for The Daughter’s War, especially as the author sets out a gritty war story rather than the classic adventure narrative in The Blacktongue Thief. Set several years before the events of The Blacktongue Thief, The Daughter’s War follows young noblewoman Galva dom Braga, the striking character from the first book who was introduced as a scarred war veteran and death worshipper. However, in this prequel Galva is a more innocent and hopeful figure who has volunteered to fight in the Daughter’s War against the goblins, so called because most of the new soldiers are women after most of the men died in the previous goblin wars. A member of the experimental Corvid Knights unit, an all-female band of warriors who fight alongside giant, magically mutated ravens, Galva travels to the goblin occupied nation of Gallardia, and fights in some of the most brutal battles of this latest war.
Told in a chronicle format primarily from Galva’s perspective, The Daughter’s War starts off with an effective reintroduction to Galva and starts to showcase the various complexities of her early life that you never saw in The Blacktongue Thief. This includes familial responsibilities and drama when she is reunited with her three brothers, each of whom is participating in the war in different ways. Buehlman soon embarks on the full intensity of his war story as Galva and her companions head towards the inevitable battles and tragedy to come. There is a good pace to this story, as the author expands the setting while slowly introducing both the protagonist and the reader to the horrors of war and the goblin enemies. After several smaller battles, and the build-up of several additional problems around Galva, you soon get your taste of the first true combat, which also introduces readers to even more complexity for the protagonist as she meets her love interest from The Blacktongue Thief for the first time.
After a more emotionally charged centre to the story, the second half of The Daughter’s War is defined by true brutality, as the protagonist and her comrades encounter the wrath of the goblins. Buehlman is in his dark fantasy element when it comes to this second half of the book, and he excels at highlight the horrors of the war through Galva’s constantly hardening eyes. After an escalating series of tragedies, there is a major battle sequence that was a highlight of the book, and which sets the protagonist down a darker path. This change in characterisation is showcased in the book’s climatic sequence, where Galva asserts herself in all the best ways, and becomes the figure we knew from The Blacktongue Thief. Throw in some intriguing wrap up which helps to bridge the gap between this book and The Blacktongue Thief, and this ended up being an outstanding prequel narrative, guaranteed to keep you hooked to the end.
I enjoyed how Buehlman utilised a different writing style for The Daughter’s War, which helped it stand out as its own novel. Rather than utilising the active first-person style of The Blacktongue Thief, this novel is told in a chronicle format, as Galva recounts her memories of the war to an unseen character (the protagonist of the first book). Primarily told from Galva’s immediate perspective, Buehlman also utilises several in-universe documents and letters, as well as other inclusions and rogue memories to paint a wider picture of events and help to recount the larger war. This chronicle style highlighted that The Daughter’s War was very much a prequel novel, and the author did an amazing job emulating the feel of a veteran recounting their most personal war story. This includes working in a sense of regret and sadness from the very first page, as the protagonist/writer lays down hints about the tragedies to come. This focus on the past ensures that The Daughter’s War works well as a prequel to The Blacktongue Thief, and readers have a choice of either enjoying this book after The Blacktongue Thief to see how the protagonist got the way she did, or by reading it first and then exploring the aftermath of the war with the original book in the series (with some potential spoilers). I will admit that, thanks to its unique style and narrative structure, The Daughter’s War might not be for every fantasy reader out there, especially those who enjoyed the more straightforward and humour-laden style of The Blacktongue Thief. However, for those looking for an intense and darker character-focused read with some epic and brutal battle sequences, The Daughter’s War has a lot to offer.
One of my favourite things about the original book in this series was the elaborate and dark fantasy world that Buehlman invented as the background for The Blacktongue Thief’s story. The various human nations still diminished and feeling the impact of the goblin wars made for a striking and bleak setting, and I loved following the protagonists on the map as they made their way across the continent. This setting was also a highlight of this prequel, especially as the author uses The Daughter’s War to provide an extended look at new parts of the world, while also showcasing some of the dark history mentioned in The Blacktongue Thief. Readers follow the sprawling campaign through the invaded kingdom of Gallardia and get to appreciate the dark impacts war has had on it. Multiple other kingdoms from the larger continent setting of the series are also represented in other ways, primarily from their soldiers fighting in the war, and the author’s portrayals of the different combat styles of these nations was very compelling. Additional details about the protagonist’s home country of Ispanthia, which was talked about but not seen in The Blacktongue Thief, were also mentioned here, and this context helps to expand on the character’s origins.
While the focus on the human participants in the war is excellent, Buehlman’s portrayal of the goblin antagonists is particularly awesome. Already shown as deadly and malicious creatures when nominally at peace in The Blacktongue Thief, the author does not hold back showcasing their true nature in this prequel as you see the goblins at their full war savagery. The scenes showing them fighting against human soldiers are so damn brutal, and their varying tactics, weapons and counters to traditional warfare add some major impact to the impressive battle sequences. However, it is the examination of how they treat humans, especially humans they have captured or conquered, that really showcases how terrifying the goblins are, with the goblins essentially considering them to be cattle that they can drug, mutilate, eat and find various uses for (human skin sails and mutated human warriors are a striking inclusion). This portrayal of the goblin ruthlessness really ups the stakes of The Daughter’s War, and it was very fun to have an antagonist group that is so irredeemably evil. These outstanding elements of the setting were perfectly utilised in Buehlman’s darker fantasy narrative, and I really appreciated this look at the war that caused all the scars in the original novel.
In addition to cool setting and dark fantasy features, another great highlight of The Daughter’s War was the author’s excellent character work, especially around protagonist Galva dom Braga, who enters the war as a hopeful Corvid Knight, leading two magically enhanced ravens into battle alongside her sister knights. Buehlman does an excellent job showcasing the young noblewoman in a very different light than when you see her in The Blacktongue Thief, as through her own telling, she was a somewhat naïve and uncertain figure with no experience of war. Thanks to the horrors of battle, interactions with several supporting characters, and various tragedies involving her three brothers, Galva is slowly turned into the experienced and death-worshipping figure that we encountered in the original novel, and I really appreciated the gradual and understandable transition that the author worked in. The use of Galva as both the main character and the narrator recounting her most brutal memories allows for some powerful storytelling and she ended up being an excellent centre for this book. Throw in some outstanding, if somewhat doomed, supporting characters, including comrades, rivals, cheeky talking ravens, an insane wizard, the princess Galva falls in love with, and her three brothers, each of whom has their own complex narrative in this book, and the cast of The Daughter’s War is extremely impressive and adds a lot to the overall story. I’m extremely glad that Buehlman decided to provide all of Galva’s story in this prequel, and I cannot wait to see what happens with this eventually brooding warrior next.
Christopher Buehlman continues to showcase his skill for dark fantasy fiction in this impressive novel. The Daughter’s War was an outstanding prequel to Buehlman’s The Blacktongue Thief, and I really appreciated the exploration of the past of his complex setting and one iconic scarred character. Shocking, intense and filled with inevitable tragedy, The Daughter’s War comes highly recommended, and I am very glad I finally got the chance to read this book. I cannot wait to see what happens in the upcoming third book in the series, The Thrice-Bound Fool, and I’m hoping to get that very soon.
