Reviews with content warning for Murder - Daughter of Redwinter

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Daughter of Redwinter by Ed McDonald

5 reviews

alainral's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

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behindpaperbacks's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Thanks to Orion and Netgalley for the eARC for an honest review.

"The stories of this age begin and end with blood, and mine is no exception."

Daughter of Redwinter is a mysterious High Fantasy book, perfect for fans of The Witcher 3 and the works of Joe Abercrombie.

When 17-year-old Raine helps an injured woman in the snow, her life is plunged into chaos. The woman, Hazia, hails from the monastery-fortress Redwinter. Its occupants, magic-wielding warriors called Draoihn, are searching for her and an artifact she stole. Raine, meanwhile, has problems of her own. She fled home at a young age to travel with a cult and she can see ghosts. A secret that, if found out, could get her killed.

After a catastrophe and a perilious journey, Raine soon finds herself in Redwinter, looking to solve the mysteries around Hazia's theft. When warring clans grapple for control over magic, and someone seeks to harm Redwinter, Raine must use all the powers at her disposal to save her new friends.

The beginning of this book was explosive. You were immediately thrown into the action, and the descriptions were vivid and powerful. For the first quarter of the book, I was unable to put it down. The action scenes were formidable, albeit very brutal. In the middle parts, the plot slowed down in and focused more on Raine's character, as well as the connections she makes in Redwinter. Since I liked Raine as a protagonist, I didn't mind this. The mystery aspect of the book got a bit lost here, though. I would have preferred it to be prominent throughout the story. Moreover, I agree with other reviewers that the third quarter of the book should have been shorter. There was too much introspection and not enough action. Many scenes could have either been cut or drastically shortened. The last quarter, however, was exciting again. I genuinely did not see some of the twists and turns coming.

"'Honestly,' I said. 'I'm tired of old men telling me what I've done wrong.'"

I instantly took a liking to the protagonist, Raine. From the first scene where she -albeit reluctantly- saves Hazia, I knew she would be one of my favorite female protagonists. Her narration was very distinct, and her dry observations made the book for me. Moreover, her tenacious nature and will to determine her future made her a great protagonist. Raine fights, fails, and gets back up.

The book is quite character-focused. For a 17-year-old, Raine has seen a lot of horrors and you couldn't help but feel for her. We learn she had a very complicated past with her mother. At the start of the book, she was also in an abusive relationship with an older man. As a result, she has quite low self-esteem and is distant to others. Because of her experiences in the beginning of the book, she also struggles to feel empathy and doesn't know who she can trust. Seeing her come into her own and form meaningful, healthy relationships, was really great.

Raine undergoes great development in the book, mainly coming to terms with being mistreated in her life. There were also discussions about privilege here, which I approved of. More often than not, heroes in fantasy are from the higher classes or at least rise to them. Having Raine be decidedly lower-class was a great layer to her character.

Other authors would have written Raine to be Not Like Other Girls and had her look down on other women. Not Ed McDonald. Raine shows nothing but respect and admiration for the women around her. We see women in positions of great power here, be it in the actual plot or the lore of the world. Raine also forms very close attachments to two female apprentices of Redwinter. I loved that. We need more female friendships in fantasy. A sapphic romance also got teased, which I didn't expect but was delighted by!

As for the side characters, I enjoyed them a lot, especially the apprentices of Redwinter: Sanvaunt, Esher and Liara. Although I would have liked Esher and Liara to be in more scenes, I'm excited to see more of them in the sequel. There was also the fantasy version of a girls' night out in this book and damn, I loved it so much. Again, more female friendships in fantasy, please!

Another aspect I loved is how McDonald wrote a dude with a Nice Guy Complex. As in, he was not nice at all and quite annoying. Ovitus, the heir of Redwinter, is a self-entitled prick who sees the women around him as stand-ins for his romantic fantasies. Nevermind their actual wants or personalities. On top of that, he is self-pitying to no end. He was basically like Samwell Tarly from GoT. Except here he doesn't get the girl and THANK GOD for that. Every scene he was in I wanted to punch something. You wouldn't necessarily expect a male author to write a plot like that so props to Ed McDonald.

"Men will wax philosophical about whether good and evil truly exist [...] Evil was the complete absence of empathy, of care for any other living thing. The will to exploit, to own, to dominate, and to take whatever was desired, for whatever price needed to be paid."

The book also tackles a lot of heavy themes, like abusive relationships, domestic violence, grief, trauma, and depression. Despite that, the book was not as dark as you would think. The darker elements were well-balanced with humorous parts and Raine's witty narration.

"The Crown is our life; all else is dust."

The worldbuilding was expansive and imaginative. I will say a lot of the Scottish inspiration went over my head, apart from the clans. I'm sure the initiated will appreciate them. You could tell that McDonald put a lot of effort into crafting the history and lore of his world without it being overbearing. We learned just enough about it to keep the story interesting. For the forgetful, like me, there is a glossary at the back of the book. The magic system was well-crafted. Without spoiling, it reminded me a little of the magic system in Malazan. The setting also reminded me a lot of The Witcher 3 game, which is one of the highest compliments I can give.

All in all, Daughter of Redwinter was a terrific beginning to the series, and I gave it 4/5 stars. Fans of The Witcher or John Gwynne's Malice need to pick this up!

Content Warnings

readundancies's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.25

I’m having a lot of difficulty trying to put into words how I feel about this fantasy tale as a whole, and I think it’s because my rating could change based on the sequels.

What I liked:

Gorgeous cover. Just stunning. Je l’adore.
Solid first sentence: The stories of this age begin and end with blood, and mine is no exception.
It’s fairly plot driven, and yet still kind of slower paced but I’m enjoying the worldbuilding and the magic so far as well.
I really loved how lost Raine is a character. She can’t help but keep her head above water and just survive but it’s completely at odds with how much rage and distance she employs to keep her power hidden. She’s not stupid and her intelligence and wariness of other people is compelling. I love a closed off character with purpose and even if Raine doesn’t know what her purpose is, there’s this drive to her that I can’t help but admire.I didn’t always agree with her, and she could be a bit all over the place, but she’s also got the beginnings of a stellar villain origin story if her grave-sight ability allows her to do what I think it does. Is that vague? Yes. But I don’t want to spoil anything with my suppositions this early in the series.
The adventure vibes were strong and I wholeheartedly enjoyed the journey the characters were on to get to Redwinter.
I really liked the narrative. It was highly political in nature, but there was still a focus on the action and adventure, and the worldbuilding was reminiscent of Skyrim to me for some reason and that is not a complaint.

What I didn’t:

Ovitus = nice guy. Over it. He’s basically moon-eyed Mr. Collins and I can’t unsee it, it’s horrible.
In fact Braithe, his presence as short lived as it was, was also a male character I despised, and that was before the domestic abuse became prevalent. It’s evident that the role women are expected to have in this world is intentional but it’s also infuriating as hell.
At 100 pages in my only complaint was that I needed a bloody map but I was fresh outta them.
Maybe I’m just not a horse person, but I was was not really sure what to do with the moon horses.
This book doesn’t really know what demographic it wants to cater to. It has strong flashes of both YA and adult tones and that may even be intentional but it also irks me. The writing style gets into all the little peeve shaped holes scattered in my armour and irritation runs rampant. It’s like a muscle cramp that you don’t immediately stifle. It bothers, ya know? And at times, it bothers greatly.
Not sure about the romance. I liked the bi-rep in Raine but her relationship with Esher seemed too easy with how much they connected and how much Esher trusted Raine despite that trust not being a two-way street. I much preferred whatever was going on between Sanvaunt and Raine because the tension was REAL.
The relationship dynamics were all over the place. Raine worked really well with some characters (see: Sanvaunt, Laira, Ulovar, etc.) and not with others (see: Queen of Feathers, Ovitus, Hess, etc.) this happened between other characters as well (see: Sanvaunt-Ovitus, actually Ovitus and pretty much everyone else).

This is not going to be a novel that works for everyone. Between the finicky storytelling, the fluctuating pace from slow to warp-speed in the last third of the novel, and the worldbuilding that is incredibly fascinating but also leaves you with the feeling that is rather incomplete, it doesn’t feel like a standard fantasy novel, and I kind of love it for that but can totally see others hating it for the same reason.

Because this truly is not the best writing that I’ve come across, but the story quality is there.

And despite my conflicting feelings over this tale, I think I can say with almost complete certainty that I’ll be continuing on with this series, which is not something I tend to determine with ease, so this is new for me.

Content Warnings

tessa_b's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? N/A
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.0

Content Warnings

words_and_dreams's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

*Fantasy adventure mystery featuring the 'chosen one' trope.*

Things I liked:

The worldbuilding was rich and detailed and gave you a feeling of scope and history of the culture. Within the worldbuilding, I enjoyed the magic system and how it worked, it felt different to things I had read before. The sorcerors/magicians are able to access different abilities/powers through different gates. Only a handful have the power to use several of them.
The story was written in a style that I liked with some beautiful prose.

Things I didn't like:

Raine as a main character didn't work for me. She is described as strong etc but things just sort of happen to her and around her. She doesn't have alot of agency until nearer the end of book and even then I was not 100% convinced that she was doing what she wanted to do. She just falls into different groups and goes along with what their mission or culture is. She states near the start of the book that she is going to forge her own path...but then...doesn't.

Whilst the action and intrigue starts pretty much immediately, it took me ages to get into the story. The story involves a series of mysteries, some of which are resolved and some I assume will be revealed in further installments. However I found that I didn't care that much about what happened, maybe because I was not attached to the main character.

Not a bad book and had lots going for it but just didn't quite work for me.

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