If you asked me to name my favourite author ten years ago, my answer would’ve been Juliet Marillier. Best known for the Sevenwaters Saga, a Celtic fantasy series set in Medieval Ireland as Christianity sweeps across the island. In one of the last vestiges where the Fair Folk live alongside people in the vast forest known as Sevenwaters and where the old ways of the druids are still practiced.
I outgrew the fantasy genre years ago, but I always knew there was something special about this series. Something that I just didn’t grasp the first time. So, a decade after I first read the books, I set out to read them all again and find out if my thoughts had changed. Let’s find out, shall we?
Daughter of the Forest
The Sevenwaters Saga follows several generation of the Sevenwaters clan, traditional custodians of a land where the otherworldly folk—the Tuatha de Danaan—live side by side with their human counterpart. The first book, Daughter of the Forest, is a retelling of the Grimm Brothers’ fairytale The Six Swans. In it, a sister must weave six shirts of a spindly plant in order to free her brothers from a sorceress’s curse.
I had a hard time with Daughter of the Forest the first time I read this series. I got this book for my fifteenth birthday because I begged and pleaded for it, but I would not reccomend this book to a fifteen-year-old. It’s dark, bordering on cruel, and a lot for a teenager to digest. But rereading it after all this time, it’s now my favourite book in the series. I do adore fairytale retellings and Juliet Marillier is wonderful at spinning a yarn based on a tale as old as time. Daughter of the Forest captured the essence of Sorcha’s struggle, her love for her brothers and the cruel task set by the Fair Folk that almost cost her her life. It’s a book full of hope, bravery and sacrifice—all things I once had a hard time grasping.
Son of the Shadows
When I was fifteen years old, Son of the Shadows was my favourite book, and I’ve still got a sketchbook full of pencil drawings of Bran the Painted Man to prove it. Daughter of the Forest got off to a very slow start with Sorcha running amok in the wilderness, trailing after her brothers. In Son of the Shadows, Sorcha’s headstrong daughter, Liadan, wastes no time deciding that she is the master of her own fate.
There’s also a new threat to Sevenwaters, a band of mercenaries known as the Painted Men. As a teenager, I found them beguiling, brooding and sexy. But as an adult, I take issue with the way Liadan bonds with Bran. So where does this sequel win points? Well, Son of the Shadows is an original story that moves away from the Grimm Brothers and into the realm of Gaelic folklore. Liadan is a wonderful storyteller who tells tales of Cú Chulainn and the Voyage of Bran fireside. The prophecy that a child who is neither of Erin, nor of Britain, but at the same time of both, will reclaim the islands that were lost many generations ago, is also set in motion.
Child of the Prophecy
I had a hard time slogging through Child of the Prophecy ten years ago. So much so that I almost didn’t care to read it again and planned to skip straight to the fourth book. Within the first couple of pages, however, I already knew that I was going to enjoy the central love story in Child of the Prophecy more than the previous two books.
Fainne is a lonesome child raised by the sorcerer Ciarán on the coast in Kerry. Darragh is a tamer of wild horses, a travelling man with a coat of many colours, and Fainne’s best friend since childhood. In Daughter of the Forest, Red kidnapped Sorcha and took her away from the forest to Britain because he wanted her story though she could not speak. In Son of the Shadows, Bran kidnapped Liadan for her healing skills. He was an awful brood, a misogynist, and the perfect challenge for a skilled healer like Liadan to try to break through his tough hide. Darragh’s and Fainne’s relationship was a slow, slow burn, but so sweet to witness, which is why this book went from being a difficult read to one of my favourites.
In Child of the Prophecy, the sorceress who nearly destroyed the lives of six brothers takes advantage of her granddaughter Fainne’s gifts, and sends her to her kin at Sevenwaters with a mission to destroy the household as they prepare to take back the islands, or face her wrath. Having grown up on the coast, through Fainne you witness the enchantment of the forest through the eyes of a newcomer. Her’s is a tormenting story. As time to fulfill the prophecy runs out, Fainne struggles to choose between doing what is right, and what she is bidden.
Heir to Sevenwaters
Heir to Sevenwaters used to be one of my favourites along with Son of the Shadows. A few years after the events of Child of the Prophecy, Lord Sean and his wife, Aisling, prepare to welcome a new child. He has six daughters already, and his nephew, Johnny, is to become the next chieftain after him. Aisling gives birth to a healthy boy, but when the heir is taken from his room and a changelling left in his place by the Tuatha de Danaan, Clodagh—Sean’s third daughter—must venture into the otherworld and confront the prince of the Fair Folk, accompanied by a shadowy warrior who is neither of her world nor the other.
The key difference between the first and second trilogies lies in the characters’ interactions with the otherworld. In the first trilogy, the Fair Folk live in a sort of peaceful coexistence with the Sevenwaters clan. But after the prophecy was fulfilled, the Lady of the Forest and the rest of her kind have faded, and a new, darker force now inhabits the otherworld. The fey prince, Mac Dara, now plays with the folk at Sevenwaters, and he is far more keen to stir the pot.
At this point, I was beginning to realize that I ate up the brooding warrior trope when I was a teenager, because that’s exactly what Cathal—Clodagh’s companion—was. Ugh. But I still love this one. Heir to Sevenwaters was the most passionate and blush-worthy out of all of the books, so if you’re into an enemies-to-lovers romance, coupled with a quest set for them by otherworldly creatures and a cunning Lord of the Oak to outwit, this is the one for you.
Seer of Sevenwaters
Like Fainne growing up in Kerry, Seer of Sevenwaters takes us away from the forest again, this time to Inis Eala, the rocky island Johnny uses as a training ground for his elite warriors. Sibeal, the seer of the family, is about to take her final pledge and become a druid when a ship wrecks off the coast of Inis Eala and a young norseman named Felix washes ashore, forever altering the course of her life.
I was a captive audience the second time around because Juliet Marillier has a way with words that will keep you spellbound, no matter how slowly the story progresses, but I’ll admit I struggled with this penultimate book again even after all these years. At least half of it is Felix regaining his health, his strength, and eventually his memories from before the shipwreck while Sibeal presides bedside. I just didn’t understand the love between these two. She’s like the little mermaid who fished her prince out of the sea and instantly fell in love with him.
This book is also a departure from the Sevenwaters forest and the Gaelic lore that held the household together. You may like that, you may not. Personally, I enjoyed the setting on a rocky outpost battered by storms and the introduction of Norse lore, but I felt that it belonged in a different series.
Flame of Sevenwaters
It’s time for a confession. I never finished Flame of Sevenwaters before now. The sixth and final chapter in the Sevenwaters Saga wraps up the destinies of Lord Sean’s daughters, but I began to lose faith in Juliet Marillier’s storytelling about halfway through when it looked like Maeve was about to abandon her quest halfway in. This time, I persevered.
This final book brings the family saga around in a full circle. When Sorcha began the tale in Daughter of the Forest, her hands were her salvation and her shame. She wove six shirts of spindlebush to save her brothers, but the prickly plant maimed her hands. Maeve, the badly burned daughter of Lord Sean, returns home after ten years of living in Harrowfield with her aunt Liadan, and she bears the legacy of fire in her crippled hands. Meanwhile, Mac Dara has caused a party of innocent travellers on the forest’s edge to lose their way, and turn up dead one by one, bringing Sevenwaters to the brink of an armed conflict with the Uí Néill. Maeve and her brother Finbar venture into the otherworld to bring about the end of Mac Dara’s reign.
I can’t tell you about Maeve’s love story without spoiling the entire novel, so I won’t. But it is there, and quite cleverly written. It’s such a pity that I didn’t finish this book all those years ago, because now I’m going to have to read it again to see if I can pick up on the subtle hints that were dropped throughout. Well played, Juliet Marillier, well played…
What did you think? Did you also read and love the Sevenwaters Saga?