I enjoyed Wolverine's Daughter by Doranna Durgin. It was a quick read with an interesting protagonist and supporting characters. It was a well written book and the author did not shirk from endowing her protagonist with flaws. ( )

Fun. Fairly typical women warrior style fantasy. good characterisation, interesting plot and magic, but nothing that special about it.

The story opens with Kelyn depending her mother's funeral pyre from raiders who've used magic to sense people who'd be more vulnerable than normal. However Kelyn, even at less than her best, still proves to be very formidable even when armed only with her late mother's ironwood staff.

WIth her house burnt and only a few necessary possessions Kelyn decides time has come to face the mysteries of her childhood, and seek out Wolverine her almost mythical (and absent) farther. And while she's doing so, explore a bit more of the world away from her native countryside. Here she meets many people, and discovers there is more to life that a bold honest straightforward approach. Indeed many of the people she meets are completely shocked that a woman could be so competent and un-devious. Gradually Kelyn comes to learnt here's more the life than just being the fastest on the draw.

Enjoyable, and well written, with good pacing - if somewhat episodic. But lacking in much of the way of supporting characters, and any worldbuilding. Places only exist for Kelyn to travel through. Motivations of all of the supporting people she encounters remain simplistic and are frequently far too easily swayed. Sadly the exact wording of the curse, it's implications, limits and cause are never explained. Maybe they're left for the sequel. ( )

I enjoyed this, but it seemed to be a bit formulaic. It takes place in an unknown pre-technological era, and we follow a warrior woman as she explores this world. She is looking for her father, known as the Wolverine. ( )

I've been a casual fan of Doranna Durgin for a long time, and I'm always suckered into interested in her books when they pop up on the LibraryThing Early Reviewer lists. I won this a long, long time ago, and it suffered from the havoc my life disintegrated into… I'm playing catchup now, sheepishly and with apologies.

Kelyn's mother dies, and while she grieves she is also freed up to go explore the world. She figures part of that exploration will be to find her legendary father, known as (duh) the Wolverine, whose permanent absence Kelyn has always resented. Armed with a staff and her perpetual clumsiness, she sets off – and almost immediately finds herself rescuing a pair of children being menaced by a slaver. Through the children she becomes involved with the Traders, who bore a strong coincidental resemblance to Robert Jordan's Tinkers, and through the Traders becomes entangled in a bloody witch hunt which seems to be a cover for some other kind of hunt…

My prevailing impression of the book was of plain and straightforward writing. I don't remember other Durgin novels very clearly (it's been a while), but whether that is simply her style or whether it was intentional for Wolverine's Daughter, it works here. Kelyn is a considered a barbarian by everyone she meets – dressed in rough clothing, barefoot when she can be, simple of speech and uncomprehending when people exercise linguistic gymnastics on her. She has no patience for metaphor and poetic reference. The narration matches this, and after some of what I've read lately it took me a little while to get used to it.

The plot was a smidgen predictable, with everything clicking into place exactly where it ought to and no tremendous surprises. No real character growth, either, now that I think of it; Kelyn leaves home with one mindset, meets new people and has new experiences and is exposed to new ideas and new ways of doing things – and meets her father, which isn't really a spoiler, because that's the whole point of the book – and yet at the end the main difference in her is that she has adapted to footwear more often than previously.

Still, all in all, it's a good, solid fantasy read, with a fairly likeable heroine and a truly nasty villain. Enjoyable.

Again, this was won from LibraryThing's Early Reviewer program for an honest review. ( )

Huh, interesting. The ebook is slightly rewritten - not much, but enough that I noticed in one scene early on (ugly turtle). Now of course I need to read the book as well, just to see... I had read it before, many years ago, and I don't recall that the story as a whole has changed much. We'll see. I do like Kelyn - her curse is nicely done. Her reaction to the "civilized" world is well done too - and when she meets Thainn is extremely amusing. I'm not sure I understand the modification of the curse - only when she (knows? she) is in danger? Sounds risky - limited, unless the magic is extremely smart. I'd love to read another book, and see Kelyn deal with the next bit - and Thainn deal with her dealing with it. I did read Emerging Legacy, which is good - a short story set well before the beginning of this book, that fleshes out young Kelyn a bit more. It's a world and characters I'd like to see more of. ( )