Customer Reviews

Warrior Daughter

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I wanted to like this because I enjoyed Paisley's "White Rose Rebel" so much. Also, the concept of a tribe of warrior women that lived 2000 years ago and ruled over men really intrigues me. I found this slightly lacking tho. First, I want to say it has great historical details. The problem for me is the historical details are about rituals, druids, and costume parties. There is more dressing up as goddesses and doing ceremonies than there is fighting. I want more detail about war, less about who is dressing up as the Carlin for the winter ceremony or who is going to be Telsha for spring. The only thing I really enjoyed about it was the amazing power women held. There being no religion setting boundaries enables the women to be sexually free and have multiple husbands, casting them aside when they do not please. What a lovely idea!! However, this is more for readers of the fantasy or Celtic genre, less for the historical fiction crowd.

This is based on a real life woman named Scathach and it follows Skaaha's childhood, loss of her mother, training, first love, and her trials to attain her rightful queenship.

There is some sex and it is a bit graphic, but I found it preferrable to mushy romance book sex. At least the sex in this book is realistic. Not bodice ripping, innocent panting virgin stuff.

I was excited to start this book. But it was some what of a let down. It started out slow. The "kind of love story" that was told through the book was lame and a let down. The story itself is just ok. But it was very barbaric and everyone was sleeping with everyone. Which I believe was the author's purpose for it to be barbaric but it was just lame and a want to be porno. Wouldn't recommend it.

After reading Janet Paisley's White Rose Rebel I was eagerly awaiting her next novel. Warrior Daughter more than fulfilled my expectations. It's a fascinating, exciting story about Skaaha, a real woman who lived on the Isle of Skye during the Iron Age. Contrary to the custom of the time Skaaha and her younger sister Eefay were raised by their natural mother, the warrior queen Kerrigen.

Skaaha is 11 years old when her mother dies and the foundation of her life is ripped apart. With the new warrior queen hostile to them, the sisters have to leave all they are familiar with. Skaaha rejects Eefay's suggestion that they both live with her father and become warriors, choosing instead to go with her own father and become a blacksmith. Numerous difficulties follow but, accompanied by her aunt, Jiya, and guided by the druid, Ruan, she eventually settles in, makes friends and begins to build a new life. It is a life that will not remain peaceful and undisturbed for long.

Foreign raids begin to threaten the population, robbers invade homes, and on what should be a happy day, when she comes of age, Skaaha experiences a brutal attack, followed by the realisation that she has a hidden enemy. Her life changes again, and that drives the story, through several dramatic twists and turns, to its gripping finale.

Skaaha lived in a culture that is unfamiliar to us, during a period of religious change. Life was brutal but no more so than nowadays. Everyone had a contribution to make, people were valued, no one went hungry or homeless. Janet Paisley creates an authentic society, intelligently constructed from the limited information available. Her writing is thought-provoking, enthralling and emotive. Warrior Daughter is a superb novel by a highly original author. I can't wait for the follow-up.