Adrienne Martini Reviews The Daughters’ War by Christopher Buehlman
The Daughters’ War, Christopher Buehlman (Tor 978-1-25088-767-2, $28.99, 416pp, hc) June 2024.
Christopher Buehlman’s The Daughters’ War is the rare prequel that makes you want to pick up the first book – The Blacktongue Thief, in this case – again so that you can read it with all that you now know about this world and one of its characters. It helps, too, that both books are damn good (and ripe for a Games of Thrones-style prestige series).
The Daughters’ War, however, has a weight that the lighter The Blacktongue Thief did not, if only because of the subject. Buehlman puts us in the brutal end of the goblin wars, and it’s not looking great for humankind. We see through the eyes of Galva, who we met in The Blacktongue Thief, and learn how she came to be one of death’s handmaidens. Before this brutal phase of the goblin war began, Galva was a daughter of privilege whose three brothers were destined for greatness. Instead, they are all in the fight, for better or worse.
Galva is in the corvid corps, which is, as you’d intuit, made up of giant crow-like birds, and is the latest experiment to beat back the Horde. Both the corvids and their handlers are unproven – but they will be tested soon enough. And that’s where the story begins.
It’s a story of loss and horror and inexplicable beauty as written by Buehlman. There are times when the heaviness of the war nearly crushes the reader, which is a testament to how strong the writer is. Buehlman also knows when to sprinkle in moments of light, enough so that both you and Galva are able to keep moving forward into the next grim moment. While the plot involves goblins and magic, the heart of the story could not be more grounded in reality and a very human experience.
Adrienne Martini has been reading or writing about science fiction for decades and has had two non-fiction, non-genre books published by Simon and Schuster. She lives in Upstate New York with one husband, two kids, and one corgi. She also runs a lot.
This review and more like it in the July 2024 issue of Locus.
While you are here, please take a moment to support Locus with a one-time or recurring donation. We rely on reader donations to keep the magazine and site going, and would like to keep the site paywall free, but WE NEED YOUR FINANCIAL SUPPORT to continue quality coverage of the science fiction and fantasy field.
©Locus Magazine. Copyrighted material may not be republished without permission of LSFF.
