Not only did E.C. Greaves undertake a huge risk writing a coming-of-age story from a female perspective, he also twisted the common conception that females are naturally caring, soft and harmless by default by making the Vulkari, the savage raiders, the ruling gender of the Vulkari, females. Vulkari come off the page as dog-like beings. Scraggy, shaggy kind of mutts who are rowdy, loud, murderous and cruel. Females are the ones that go raiding, the ones that live on the road, covered in dirt. This was a clever idea by Greaves. It challenges how we generally tend to see the female sex and their role in society at large.

Zyntael Fairwinter is a young girl at the start of the story, and she gets taken by the very Vulkari. At the start of her capture, she suffers from terrible abuse from the Vulkari leader and slowly, Zyntael finds that she is becoming one of them, one of the sisters, fighting and raiding with them, living their life with the traditions they hold. This could be reaching, unbelievable, hard to accept. But, when I think back to how Zyntael herself was portrayed to act towards her childhood friend, a boy, I think she had a bit of a mean streak in her all her life. A tiny mean streak. But every spark can be turned into an inferno when given the right amount of oxygen. I wonder if her tiny mean streak helped her adapt to the life on the road with the Vulkari, to overcome the ill-treatment, to live like them, to become a warrior. Or, it’s possible the motivations behind our main character actions are more psychological, in which case an additional layer of depth can be applied to the novel.

The plot of Daughter of the Beast is a good introduction, a solid start to a trilogy. It has set the scene, it has firmly solidified the various pieces in the game and sets up the reader to expect big things from the sequel. That said, there was also something big enough happening in this volume – because the Vulkari leader also had a vision, and Zyntael found herself a pawn in the midst. I am very curious to find out how this trilogy continues.

Greaves writes impressive descriptions. But I expected nothing less, because people who are talented with art, can somehow transfer their creativity with words, too. In that sense, I found the book enjoyable to read. In summary, Daughter of the Beast is a rather unique tale and it had plenty of action to keep me engaged. Most importantly, I think the story will only keep getting stronger and I intend to continue with the trilogy.