Sheepfarmer's Daughter is essentially a military SF story told in an adventure fantasy setting. If this sounds AWESOME, read on.

The novel's setting is the stock fantasy world of the 70s, but Moon describes it in lush, precise detail (like the best Dungeons & Dragons campaign you've ever played). Instead of following a traveling band of heroes, the book lovingly depicts the everyday slog of infantry in a mercenary company.

There is plenty of adventure and peril, but also a lot of tedium, suffering, and details of everyday life. (It's so dense with these details that you will find yourself struggling to remember place names and minor characters—don't worry; there's not a test at the end.) It's the perfect light read for those who enjoy atmosphere and worldbuilding rather than nonstop action. As with any book that follows a tight-knit community, there's a coziness to the narrative that reminds me of school stories as well as military SF (which explains why the two genres are so easily combined, as in Ender's Game).

Paksenarrion is a wonderful, understated character—bold yet unsure of herself and fun to root for as she grows from a country bumpkin to a confident warrior. The book does intimate that she may have a heroic future, but she isn't a princess or a wizard or the Chosen One, and I like her the more for it. She's also apparently asexual, and it's depicted as totally okay and means that her emotional life doesn't center around sexuality (which, you know, is true of the rest of humanity as well, but don't tell writers that. I say that as a writer who loves her romance subplots).

I felt the book dealt with two touchy subjects very well—military service and the role of women. The novel doesn't glorify war, but it does sensitively depict why young people in an agrarian society would decide to enlist and the sense of community and loyalty that binds them together.

Gender is dealt with in a refreshing way as well—Paks' world is much more egalitarian than many faux-medieval fantasy worlds, but there is still cultural variation in the treatment of women and extremely powerful depictions of sexual harassment and violence in a military context. Since Moon isn't going for historic realism, she takes her inspiration from the modern, rather than medieval, experience of women in the military. This means that we get lots of female characters who both kick ass and speak convincingly to her readers' lived experiences.

At the end of the day, it's a fluffy rather than literary work of fantasy literature, but a totally delightful one that doesn't repeat the same old tropes of court intrigue, runaway princesses, artifact quests, and end of the world scenarios. Highly recommended. ( )

Realistic tale of a woman who joins up with lots of nitty gritty detail of life in the ranks. Liked it but not enough to keep. ( )

I gave it about 100 pages, but I just can't do it. There was too much description, too little characterization and the dialogue was used too often as a way to explain the world.

I'm not saying it won't get better. By the number of high ratings, it probably does. I'm just not willing to spend any more time on it when I've read this far and I'm still not feeling it. ( )

Summary: Fun and more-ish. Story of a young girl who runs away to join a mercenary company in a fantasy world and does a lot of growing up along the way.

Things I liked:

Dialogue: the author tells versus shows most of the time. You get to discover the characters by their actions and things they say versus overarching narration or exposition.

Training sequences: I found the descriptions of training and medieval fighting very evocative of the training I do at my judo club. It was immersive and pragmatic. Made a nice change from the usual farm boy takes up his magic sword and defeats the dark lord sort of stuff.

Things I thought could be improved:

Some of the fantasy elements like dwarves seem like the inserted just to make the fantasy world genre.

Lots of characters at first are hard to track. I'm not sure if the answer is to have less characters or make them more distinct.

Highlight: When Paks is accused of attacking the corporal. I liked this whole sequence. It was like CSI meets fantasy novel meets Private Benjamin the movie ( )

Great start to another excellent Elizabeth Moon Series. Paks runs away from an unwanted marriage and joins Duke Phelan’s mercenary company. Her learning curve is very steep but she perseveres. Friends die and wounds and injuries are common but she does the work and may truly have the gifts to become a paladin. ( )