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  • Based on the fairytale, "The Seven/Six/Wild Swans" (depending on where you hear it), Daughter of the Forest is a lovely story about, amongst other things, the usual tropes of love and loyalty, and fighting for what's most important. It's also about stories, you see, and is, perhaps most movingly, ab ... Continue

    Based on the fairytale, "The Seven/Six/Wild Swans" (depending on where you hear it), Daughter of the Forest is a lovely story about, amongst other things, the usual tropes of love and loyalty, and fighting for what's most important. It's also about stories, you see, and is, perhaps most movingly, about how life isn't like stories. It's about how, despite your best intentions, life goes on. And throughout it all, there is the recurring theme of communication: namely, the ways in which characters find themselves unable or unwilling to communicate, and the ways their willingness and ability to speak twist and turn back upon themselves. The way that characters say the things they should; the way they say too much; the way they choose to stay silent when they should speak; and the times they can say more by saying nothing.

    The book isn't without its flaws: a traumatic event in Sorcha's character development feels a bit tacked on, and the villains - Lady Oonagh and Lord Richard - lack a certain amount of characterization. Oonagh is barely there, and we're never quite sure about much of anything about her: who she is, where she come from, what she wants. Perhaps these questions are answered in later books. Richard never really progresses beyond stereotypical wicked lord/wicked uncle. And of course, due to the inherent limitations of a first-person narrative, the actions and motivations of many other characters remain unexplored. Despite all that, the book remains a thoughtful, atmospheric retelling of one of my favorite fairytales.

    

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• ― Yandros said on Aug 24, 2008 about the Paperback edition| Add your feedback

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  • Fantastic Story!

  • Daughter of the Forest started out rather slowly but kept me guessing as to how each chapter in the book would fit together. By the end of the book, the story was an intriguing romance tale. I usually read books that have a bit more action in them, but this was definitely a fantastic story. The endi ... Continue

    Daughter of the Forest started out rather slowly but kept me guessing as to how each chapter in the book would fit together. By the end of the book, the story was an intriguing romance tale. I usually read books that have a bit more action in them, but this was definitely a fantastic story. The ending was not surprising but how the characters evolved to the ending was great!

    

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• ― Rayven said on Feb 2, 2008 about the Paperback edition| Add your feedback

Juliet Marillier is a rare talent, a writer who can imbue her characters and her story with such warmth, such heart, that no reader can come away from her work untouched. Daughter of the Forest is a testimony to that talent, a first novel and the beginning of a trilogy like no other: a mixture of history and fantasy, myth and magic, legend and love that only Juliet Marillier could write. Lord Colum of Sevenwaters is blessed with six sons: Liam, a natural leader; Diarmid, with his passion for adventure; twins Cormack and Conor, each with a different calling; rebellious Finbar, grown old before his time by his gift of the Sight; and the young, compassionate Padriac. But it is Sorcha, the seventh child and only daughter, who alone is destined to defend her family and protect her land from the Britons and the clan known as Northwoods. For her father has been bewitched, and her brothers bound by a spell that only Sorcha can lift. Exiled from Sevenwaters and cast out into the forest and beyond, Sorcha falls into the hands of the enemy. Now she is torn between the life she has always known and a love that comes only once. Praise for Juliet Marillier: Ms. Marilliers ability to use so well such a known legend and make it both logical and exciting is an outstanding gift. I am now, of course, eager to see what happens next. ˜ Andre Norton

• faefantasySevenwaters TrilogyHistoricalMythology/Folkloreparanormalretellingfavoritepersonal libraryread
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