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anna_catherman's review against another edition
5.0
Coming to the end of the main Tales of Goldstone Wood series for the second time is...bittersweet.
Golden Daughter isn't quite a fitting end, but feels like just another Tale that should be a jumping-off point for some others. For the time being, these future stories are on hold, but I really hope they can be told someday.
Back to the book, though. At 570 pages, it's quite lengthy - a hundred or so pages longer than the next-longest Goldstone book - and it definitely shows. It feels about fifty pages too long, mostly at the beginning and middle. There were a few times I felt like I was just working my way through. But the last 120 pages once again blew me away, and I scarfed them down in a single sitting.
The hauntingly beautiful image of Hymlume grieving her children, of the Lumil Eliasul, the Song Giver, comforting and reassuring all, and of the Dragon learning his utter insignificance...so many great moments.
And, of course, Eanrin's parting speech to Sairu:
"...I have lived long enough to learn a thing or two. And one thing I have learned—though it’s not my favorite lesson, you may be certain, and I would be just as happy to forget it—is that sometimes the worst failures in our lives turn out to be for the best. Sometimes our Path leads through darkness, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t walk it. Sometimes our Path leads to loss. But that doesn’t mean we’ve gone astray.”
Golden Daughter isn't quite a fitting end, but feels like just another Tale that should be a jumping-off point for some others. For the time being, these future stories are on hold, but I really hope they can be told someday.
Back to the book, though. At 570 pages, it's quite lengthy - a hundred or so pages longer than the next-longest Goldstone book - and it definitely shows. It feels about fifty pages too long, mostly at the beginning and middle. There were a few times I felt like I was just working my way through. But the last 120 pages once again blew me away, and I scarfed them down in a single sitting.
The hauntingly beautiful image of Hymlume grieving her children, of the Lumil Eliasul, the Song Giver, comforting and reassuring all, and of the Dragon learning his utter insignificance...so many great moments.
And, of course, Eanrin's parting speech to Sairu:
"...I have lived long enough to learn a thing or two. And one thing I have learned—though it’s not my favorite lesson, you may be certain, and I would be just as happy to forget it—is that sometimes the worst failures in our lives turn out to be for the best. Sometimes our Path leads through darkness, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t walk it. Sometimes our Path leads to loss. But that doesn’t mean we’ve gone astray.”
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