Moon, Elizabeth: Sheepfarmer's Daughter
Sheepfarmer's Daughter (The Deed of Paksenarrion, Book 1)
Author: Elizabeth Moon
Genre: Fantasy/Adventure
Pages: 506
Final Thoughts: Good read - I'll be keeping my eye out for the rest.
In an attempt to finish reading the books on my own shelves, I picked this one out because it looked interesting. I think I found it for $1 in a used bookstore, and picked it up because I liked the cover - a woman in black armor with long blond hair, sitting a black horse in a snowy landscape. When I realized it was about a young woman who runs away from home to be a warrior, I figured it was something I ought to read. I'm glad I did.
I liked Paks right from the start, which always helps. There's nothing worse than not making a quick connection with the main character. Moon does a great job with the "supporting cast", as well - so well that I really felt a sense of loss when some of them died in the course of the story. And of course they do die - after all, it's about being in a mercenary army. People die. I also liked that Paks wasn't injury-proof - she wakes up after almost every battle in the infirmary with some sort of wound, or multiple injuries, though only a few keep her off her feet for more than a day or two.
Elizabeth Moon's background as one of the first women in the US Marine Corps provides an extra depth of descriptive realism to the story. There's a lot that happens in the book, and I won't cover it all here. This was originally published about twenty years ago, and there are some stylistic differences between then and now - I noticed them, but didn't find it distracting at all, which is significant, I think.
I really liked that Paks felt no desire to strike up romantic relationships, to settle down and marry. It's unusual, I think, to find a story centered on a woman in which the woman really isn't secretly longing for love and a husband. Moon did this very well, and I applaud her for it.
The biggest down side, I thought, was I felt like the book ended in the middle of the story - now, since Book One is printed prominently on the front, I knew there was more story after this volume, but I still felt like this cut off in an odd place. Having poked around for the next volumes (which my library system doesn't have!) I found out that the story was originally meant to be published as one volume but was broken up due to its size. That makes me feel a lot better, except that now I have to figure out how to find the other volumes to read and finish the story.
In terms of impacting my own writing, I think I'll have to find the rest of the story, when Paks gets into more solo fighting as opposed to battling in a line of soldiers, because my fighting (as least for the first part of the story) is much more individual. Otherwise, there's some great stuff here with interactions between soldiers and teacher/mentor type relationships that I can definitely incorporate.
In the end, this is another book I definitely don't regret picking up. I just wish I had the other two volumes nearby to finish up the story! I'm sure I'll acquire them, one way or another, before too long.
Great medieval fantasy; convincing world building; real, flawed and endearing characters; forward-moving plot. Overall, a lovely story.
Book #13