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Epona #3
White Mare's Daughter
In a time before history, in a land of legend, where wild horsemen wage endless war across a sea of grass, the last descendant of the White Mare's servants follows a sacred vision beyond the edge of the world. There she finds a land ruled by women, whose people have no word for war. But the horsemen are coming. The White Mare's daughter must try to stop them, and both save and change the world.
496 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 1, 1998
26 people are currently reading
422 people want to read
About the author
Judith Tarr
112 books422 followersAKA Caitlin Brennan, Kathleen Bryan.
Judith Tarr (born 1955) is an American author, best known for her fantasy books. She received her B.A. in Latin and English from Mount Holyoke College in 1976, and has an M.A. in Classics from Cambridge University, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Medieval Studies from Yale University. She taught Latin and writing at Wesleyan University from 1988-1992, and taught at the Clarion science-fiction-writing workshops in 1996 and 1999.
She raises and trains Lipizzan horses at Dancing Horse Farm, her home in Vail, Arizona. The romantic fantasies that she writes under the name Caitlin Brennan feature dancing horses modeled on those that she raises.
Judith Tarr (born 1955) is an American author, best known for her fantasy books. She received her B.A. in Latin and English from Mount Holyoke College in 1976, and has an M.A. in Classics from Cambridge University, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Medieval Studies from Yale University. She taught Latin and writing at Wesleyan University from 1988-1992, and taught at the Clarion science-fiction-writing workshops in 1996 and 1999.
She raises and trains Lipizzan horses at Dancing Horse Farm, her home in Vail, Arizona. The romantic fantasies that she writes under the name Caitlin Brennan feature dancing horses modeled on those that she raises.
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
June 4, 2016
Sarama is the servant of the White Mare, the Lady of the Horses. Her mother died giving birth to her and her twin brother Agni. Agni is the heir of the king of the White Horse tribe; Sarama is heir to an older tradition, from before their mother's people became a part of the male-ruled tribes.
The old woman who was the White Mare's servant before her told Sarama that she will be the last one. There's no one else of the pure bloodline. When stories reach the tribe of a wealthy land far to the west, a land ruled by women, Sarama take the Mare and a pack pony, and heads west to find this land where maybe the Lady is still worshiped.
Before she goes, she asks Agni to promise not to lead the White Horse tribe west.
But the climate is changing; life on the steppes is getting harder. The tribes in most distant eastern lands are pushing west, seeking better prospects, and pushing everyone west of them further west.
Sarama finds her western land, and a wealthy and peaceful people who worship the Lady and are ruled by women. She finds peace and love. Also resistance and hostility. Some among the Lady's people think she's a spy for the tribes to the east, that she will lead them to this peaceful and and bring war.
And the tribes are coming. The pressure from the east isn't letting up, and the trives near the western edge of the steppe are starting to move.
Meanwhile, Agni is having his own problems. Their father the king is aging, and their older half-brother, Yama, is ambitious. When Yama's treachery leads to him being cast out of the tribe rather than elevated to the kingship, Agni takes his possessions and those who chose to follow him into exile and goes...where? What choices does he have, with no land on the steppes that he and his tiny band can take?
It's a reach to call this historical fiction; we don't know anything like this much about this period of pre-history. What it is, is plausible. Something like this had to happen, as nomadic tribes under climate pressure and population pressure encountered the earliest settled agricultural communities, with the food and the leisure to develop more art and technology than the nomads could support, but perhaps didn't initially have the same military capacity, because their relative prosperity left them without the need to raid each other.
As the horsemen moved west, the settled people would have needed a defense they didn't initially have any idea how to provide for themselves.
This is a very interesting take on this highly speculative period of history. Tarr doesn't glorify or sentimentalize either the agriculturalists or the nomads; there's good and bad, as well as strenghts and weaknesses, on both sides. And while I believe Tarr did a good deal of research on what was known at the time, this book is almost twenty years old and likely out of date in ways that might irritate someone who is more up to date on what we currently think we know about the period. But that's all fine. She's not presenting this as a history lesson. It's a story, an interesting, fun one with characters I came to really care about.
Recommended.
I received a free copy of this audiobook from Audible, in exchange for an honest review.
The old woman who was the White Mare's servant before her told Sarama that she will be the last one. There's no one else of the pure bloodline. When stories reach the tribe of a wealthy land far to the west, a land ruled by women, Sarama take the Mare and a pack pony, and heads west to find this land where maybe the Lady is still worshiped.
Before she goes, she asks Agni to promise not to lead the White Horse tribe west.
But the climate is changing; life on the steppes is getting harder. The tribes in most distant eastern lands are pushing west, seeking better prospects, and pushing everyone west of them further west.
Sarama finds her western land, and a wealthy and peaceful people who worship the Lady and are ruled by women. She finds peace and love. Also resistance and hostility. Some among the Lady's people think she's a spy for the tribes to the east, that she will lead them to this peaceful and and bring war.
And the tribes are coming. The pressure from the east isn't letting up, and the trives near the western edge of the steppe are starting to move.
Meanwhile, Agni is having his own problems. Their father the king is aging, and their older half-brother, Yama, is ambitious. When Yama's treachery leads to him being cast out of the tribe rather than elevated to the kingship, Agni takes his possessions and those who chose to follow him into exile and goes...where? What choices does he have, with no land on the steppes that he and his tiny band can take?
It's a reach to call this historical fiction; we don't know anything like this much about this period of pre-history. What it is, is plausible. Something like this had to happen, as nomadic tribes under climate pressure and population pressure encountered the earliest settled agricultural communities, with the food and the leisure to develop more art and technology than the nomads could support, but perhaps didn't initially have the same military capacity, because their relative prosperity left them without the need to raid each other.
As the horsemen moved west, the settled people would have needed a defense they didn't initially have any idea how to provide for themselves.
This is a very interesting take on this highly speculative period of history. Tarr doesn't glorify or sentimentalize either the agriculturalists or the nomads; there's good and bad, as well as strenghts and weaknesses, on both sides. And while I believe Tarr did a good deal of research on what was known at the time, this book is almost twenty years old and likely out of date in ways that might irritate someone who is more up to date on what we currently think we know about the period. But that's all fine. She's not presenting this as a history lesson. It's a story, an interesting, fun one with characters I came to really care about.
Recommended.
I received a free copy of this audiobook from Audible, in exchange for an honest review.
June 8, 2017
White Mare's Daughter is technically a historical novel, but I find it hard to classify it as such. This takes place way back in prehistory, around 4500 BCE or so, featuring a pair of cultures that it is impossible to know much about. Moreover, Tarr uses a contentious interpretation, and then takes a fair amount of artistic license to build her societies. Moreover, the world is drawn in broad enough strokes that it is hard to get a grasp on, and I never got more than the vaguest notions of the landscape and geography.
So, it took me a while to get into the book. It started slow, and trades between three viewpoint characters, which helped keep the action slow as they all got established. Ironically, Danu was the one who really started to get the book moving for me, and his viewpoint nearly disappears late in the book. Once going, however, it drew me in and kept me going with a very well structured plot.
The central piece of the novel is the Goddess-worshiping culture of the settled cities, with it's entirely female-dominated society. Much of the book revolves around the culture shock of them meeting the entirely patriarchal steppe nomads, and demonstrating the differences between them (and giving us an anchor into this society). Much of it is fine, and the archaeological record does show that they seemed to have no knowledge of war, it is presented as too much of a utopia to fully hang together. Violence is nearly unknown (though not completely), though there are still some personal conflicts; the presentation would not be off as how a society views itself (...which it effectively is at first).
As appropriate for an early period, there is a lot of spiritualism inherent in the characters, which reminds me strongly of how Mary Renault depicted Theseus' inner workings in The King Must Die. It's very well done, and in conjunction with the overriding 'end of an era' theme of the book, really lends a mythic feel to what is otherwise a fairly straightforward plot.
This also is a source of my resistance to classifying it just as a historical novel, though I have no real reason not to. I also classify it as a very good one, though again, it does take a while to get started.
So, it took me a while to get into the book. It started slow, and trades between three viewpoint characters, which helped keep the action slow as they all got established. Ironically, Danu was the one who really started to get the book moving for me, and his viewpoint nearly disappears late in the book. Once going, however, it drew me in and kept me going with a very well structured plot.
The central piece of the novel is the Goddess-worshiping culture of the settled cities, with it's entirely female-dominated society. Much of the book revolves around the culture shock of them meeting the entirely patriarchal steppe nomads, and demonstrating the differences between them (and giving us an anchor into this society). Much of it is fine, and the archaeological record does show that they seemed to have no knowledge of war, it is presented as too much of a utopia to fully hang together. Violence is nearly unknown (though not completely), though there are still some personal conflicts; the presentation would not be off as how a society views itself (...which it effectively is at first).
As appropriate for an early period, there is a lot of spiritualism inherent in the characters, which reminds me strongly of how Mary Renault depicted Theseus' inner workings in The King Must Die. It's very well done, and in conjunction with the overriding 'end of an era' theme of the book, really lends a mythic feel to what is otherwise a fairly straightforward plot.
This also is a source of my resistance to classifying it just as a historical novel, though I have no real reason not to. I also classify it as a very good one, though again, it does take a while to get started.
August 9, 2016
One of the most feminist fantasy novels I've ever read. The patriarchal society of the horsemen of the steppe clashes with the matriarchal farming society of the western cities, and both societies learn. (Admittedly, the horsemen learn a lot more from the farmers than the other way around.)
Upshot: super-feminist book, with subverted gender roles done cleverly and with reason. Strong female characters, who are not "strong female characters" because they do men's things, like hunting and fighting, but because they have their own agency and are fully realized characters. Tilia and the Mother show how women are as leaders, Taditi demonstrates a woman's power in a patriarchal society, and Sarama is a bit of a combination of both.
The story centers on a pair of twins, Sarama and Agni. Sarama is the chosen Mare's Daughter, a representative of the goddess. Agni is in line to be king of his tribe. Sarama's goddess calls her on a journey to the west, and she and the Mare have a harrowing trek through the steppe, the dark wood, and through other tribes of horsemen. It's better than any car chase.
When Sarama meets the people of the west, there is a significant culture clash. Sarama is used to having little agency as a woman; the western society holds women in the highest regard. Women choose their men, women lead, women run the society. However, it's not just a gender swap. Yes, men do the housework and take care of children, but so do the women. The women choose their men and are not monogamous, but the men have the right to refuse, and there is mutual respect and admiration. Sarama is constantly confused by this society, but her caretaker Danu, a beautiful man who has a way with cooking and sewing, eases her by degrees into a better understanding of it. (Danu's sister, Tilia, also shows the way to Sarama.)
Agni has his own struggles with the White Horse tribe. He is in line to be king, but his brother Yama plots against him. SPOILERS FROM HERE ON OUT:
Through a series of events, Agni is driven out of the tribe as an exile. However, as he's fairly popular, he has several followers, including his badass aunt Taditi. He and his new tribe travel west, following Sarama's path, and eventually reach the cities. Agni is determined to be king. The women indulge and tolerate him, and laugh at him when he doesn't get his way. He has a steep learning curve, but eventually realizes that maybe the horsemen's way isn't the quite the right way. (Tilia, Danu's aforementioned sister, plays a big part in this. Her amusement at Agni's expense was quite entertaining.)
Upshot: super-feminist book, with subverted gender roles done cleverly and with reason. Strong female characters, who are not "strong female characters" because they do men's things, like hunting and fighting, but because they have their own agency and are fully realized characters. Tilia and the Mother show how women are as leaders, Taditi demonstrates a woman's power in a patriarchal society, and Sarama is a bit of a combination of both.
The story centers on a pair of twins, Sarama and Agni. Sarama is the chosen Mare's Daughter, a representative of the goddess. Agni is in line to be king of his tribe. Sarama's goddess calls her on a journey to the west, and she and the Mare have a harrowing trek through the steppe, the dark wood, and through other tribes of horsemen. It's better than any car chase.
When Sarama meets the people of the west, there is a significant culture clash. Sarama is used to having little agency as a woman; the western society holds women in the highest regard. Women choose their men, women lead, women run the society. However, it's not just a gender swap. Yes, men do the housework and take care of children, but so do the women. The women choose their men and are not monogamous, but the men have the right to refuse, and there is mutual respect and admiration. Sarama is constantly confused by this society, but her caretaker Danu, a beautiful man who has a way with cooking and sewing, eases her by degrees into a better understanding of it. (Danu's sister, Tilia, also shows the way to Sarama.)
Agni has his own struggles with the White Horse tribe. He is in line to be king, but his brother Yama plots against him. SPOILERS FROM HERE ON OUT:
Through a series of events, Agni is driven out of the tribe as an exile. However, as he's fairly popular, he has several followers, including his badass aunt Taditi. He and his new tribe travel west, following Sarama's path, and eventually reach the cities. Agni is determined to be king. The women indulge and tolerate him, and laugh at him when he doesn't get his way. He has a steep learning curve, but eventually realizes that maybe the horsemen's way isn't the quite the right way. (Tilia, Danu's aforementioned sister, plays a big part in this. Her amusement at Agni's expense was quite entertaining.)
October 29, 2017
This book reads as a completely fantasy novel about the meeting of a war-like nomadic patriarchal culture and a pacifistic agricultural matriarchal culture. It was a fascinating, lovely, long book with good characters. Some of the plot twists you could see coming, and some you couldn't. (Unless, apparently, you are my mother.) Some of the plot was a little bit far-fetched, but it was still an engaging read with good characters.
What made this book for me was the author's note at the back that details some of the archeological hypotheses that may mean this book isn't quite as fantasy as I thought. Regardless of the veracity of these claims, which require a lot more research and evidence, the thought experiment of the novel was well-executed and well-written. It was more like a science fiction book than a historical fantasy in that way. I'd like to read a lot more books written in this world.
What made this book for me was the author's note at the back that details some of the archeological hypotheses that may mean this book isn't quite as fantasy as I thought. Regardless of the veracity of these claims, which require a lot more research and evidence, the thought experiment of the novel was well-executed and well-written. It was more like a science fiction book than a historical fantasy in that way. I'd like to read a lot more books written in this world.
July 4, 2023
I kept waiting for something to happen and luckily at the very end of the book it did.
This book had great reviews and I love prehistoric fiction but I felt like this really felt flat. The whole book I was waiting for something to happen (and waiting and waiting and waiting) and finally at the end something did. There was a plot hole in the beginning of the book that kind of killed it for me where they were talking about how one culture had copper knives that were such a technological advancement that a second culture would just be amazed by them but they kept referencing the swords that the second culture had. What were these swords made out of? If it was steel that's far beyond copper and I'm not quite sure what else swords would be made out of. Stone? Wood? It seemed like it was just a cheap trick to show that they were more warrior-like but it just really sat funny.
This book had great reviews and I love prehistoric fiction but I felt like this really felt flat. The whole book I was waiting for something to happen (and waiting and waiting and waiting) and finally at the end something did. There was a plot hole in the beginning of the book that kind of killed it for me where they were talking about how one culture had copper knives that were such a technological advancement that a second culture would just be amazed by them but they kept referencing the swords that the second culture had. What were these swords made out of? If it was steel that's far beyond copper and I'm not quite sure what else swords would be made out of. Stone? Wood? It seemed like it was just a cheap trick to show that they were more warrior-like but it just really sat funny.
May 11, 2018
I might try again on day, with an ebook, but the audio doesn't work for me.
April 2, 2023
I used to enjoy Judith Tarr's work so much, but her downhill slide just gains more titles....
In White Mare's Daughter, once again, much of the plotting seems to only take place so she can get to her favorite part of getting the couple together so that they may have mystical and satisfying (for them, at least) sex. The man and woman are both strong-minded and kind of equal and "banter" in a declaiming way that suggests Chris Claremont's X-Men at his worst. This time she has two such couples.
The gender politics are suspect, as is her idea of what an ideal society appears to be. (The Goddess worshippers do not mistreat their men anywhere near as badly as the horse people mistreat their women, so let's not pretend, okay? Agni has one unsatisfying sexual experience amongst them, so that means they badly abuse their men?)
I didn't like a single character in the story either, since they're all kind of moronic. Even the scheming women--and most of the women here are schemers--are fairly pathetic. The thing with Caitin and Rudira near the end was pure WTF.
::shakes head:: This is the same author who wrote A Fall of Princes, which I loved, and other books I've enjoyed, though I can see the seeds for this crap in those books.
In White Mare's Daughter, once again, much of the plotting seems to only take place so she can get to her favorite part of getting the couple together so that they may have mystical and satisfying (for them, at least) sex. The man and woman are both strong-minded and kind of equal and "banter" in a declaiming way that suggests Chris Claremont's X-Men at his worst. This time she has two such couples.
The gender politics are suspect, as is her idea of what an ideal society appears to be. (The Goddess worshippers do not mistreat their men anywhere near as badly as the horse people mistreat their women, so let's not pretend, okay? Agni has one unsatisfying sexual experience amongst them, so that means they badly abuse their men?)
I didn't like a single character in the story either, since they're all kind of moronic. Even the scheming women--and most of the women here are schemers--are fairly pathetic. The thing with Caitin and Rudira near the end was pure WTF.
::shakes head:: This is the same author who wrote A Fall of Princes, which I loved, and other books I've enjoyed, though I can see the seeds for this crap in those books.
November 26, 2012
As far as the prehistoric fiction genera is concerned, Elizabeth Marshall Thomas is my gold standard, with Morgan Llywelyn close on her heels, with herThe Horse Goddess earning the silver, and Jean Auel, bronze. Judith Tarr doesn't quite measure up to Auel's level of story-telling. However, she does know her horses and any passages about them make the narrative thoroughly enjoyable. I also like the fact that Marija Gimbutas' theory about women-centered egalitarian cultures informed Tarr's story-telling. All in all, though, the plot was predictable, and the soft-core sex scenes--a pet peeve of mine about Auel's story-telling--got in the way of a rousing tale (no pun intended).
February 7, 2017
This is actually one of my favorite books. Judith Tarr writes very interesting books, of which I have read several. She knows her history and writes with detail. White Mare's Daughter is in the line of The Clan of the Cave Bear , but focusing on a horse culture vs a Mother (female) culture. It is believable feminist fantasy,
January 27, 2011
I loved it. The matriarchal society blending with the nomadic patriarchal society was beautifully written and extremely exciting. It was full of passion, love, and spirituality. I can't wait to read the sequal.
November 19, 2013
Wonderfully told. Turns gender ideology on its head even for someone used to questioning preconceived gender/ sex roles. And to put it in a beautifully told & well researched historical novel with strong female characters that feel rich & whole is a all out lovely read.
August 21, 2012
I found this book fascinating with its gender reversal. The story was richly told, and the characers were well written. I love when I can imagine exactly what someone in the story should look and act. I will continue to read the next books in this series with pleasure.
November 6, 2008
This was just a fun book to read. The characters were interesting, the time period was intriguing, and the horses were beautiful. I enjoyed it. :)
March 17, 2011
Prehistoric epic, steppe nomads bring war to goddess's cities
December 25, 2020
One of my favorite books of all time.
June 20, 2015
One of my favorite books!
May 6, 2016
Fantasy with a plot around a matriarchy ruled by the Horse Goddess ... but a great read nonetheless.
December 26, 2016
I enjoyed Judith Tarr ~ White Mare's Daughter. But it left me going DAHhh. Soooo. It all seemed too tidy. 3.2 stars.
October 3, 2015
Entertaining.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews