What do readers think of The Daughters of Mars by Thomas Keneally? Write your own review.

I so wanted to love this book. Schlindler's List by this author is one of my favorite books of all time. This book just did not do it for me. I found the topic interesting and loved that the story focused on the lives of two nurses, but the epic events described in the book that should have pulled me in just did not pull me in at all. I thought that the author had the historical timeframe portrayed perfectly, but the writing just did not make me happy, sad, angry, etc. The book was so descriptive and long that I think it took away from my ability to feel the emotion of the story. I also did not like the uncertainty of the ending. After 500 pages there should at least be clarity of which sister lives and which sister dies. Unfortunately this book was a big disappointment for me, especially given my previous experience with this author.

My problem with this book is that I couldn't determine what it wanted to be: the story of two sisters and their difficult relationship, an insight into nursing conditions in WWI, or a summary of Australia's contributions in the war. The book would benefit from the use of quotation marks to designate conversations and chapters marked with dates and the character involved. Much of the time I couldn't determine which sister was in the action. And the ending is a real cop out. After patiently reading 500 pages, I'm not sure how it ended. This is my first book to read from Keneally, and I won't read another one. A good author owes us better construction and explanation. He assumes too much. The book would benefit from maps of Australia and the war movements. Also a timeline of the war would help. I did enjoy the parts about the nurses and what they had to endure.

I plowed through this book in order to write a review for BookBrowse; otherwise, I would have stopped reading after the first 50 pages. The writing is quite good, but nothing seemed to flow throughout the 500 pages. His character development is quite in-depth and descriptive. The plot of the story, Australian nurses serving in WWI, is unique. I would recommend this title to others with the caveat that I did not enjoy it.

There are some good things about this book--its scope, range, and detailed description of World War I from a perspective I sometimes found interesting. But on the whole I would not recommend it to friends or my book club. I found it very difficult to read because of all the exposition and lack of quotation marks for dialogue. In a five hundred page book, I found this structure a serious problem. Why create barriers for the reader? Often the book was tedious and I sometime felt the minor characters were more engaging than the sisters. I felt that the large scope had positive aspects, but for me, it was too much and should have been edited better. It took me two thirds of the novel to really get into it and then I wondered at the end whether the effort was worth it. Yes, I learned a great deal about WWI from an interesting perspective but I waded through it because I was reviewing it and not because I was enjoying the experience. And while the ending was different, I have to wonder if the lack of a clear resolution in itself was a reflection of other ambiguities in the novel.

This was not a book that I took to at all. The subject matter was very emotional and the writing difficult to adapt to. I think it is more literary type fiction than I would ever want to read, but perhaps others will find it fascinating. There is a lot for a book club to discuss though, including the war, women's roles in WWI, and family dynamics.

I'm sorry to rate this book poor, for it was a wonderful book, but it was hard to read. The sentences go on forever. I realize the purpose was to imitate private journals, but in doing so, it made reading difficult. I found myself re-reading passages in an attempt to understand what the author was saying, and the need to do that took away from the pleasure of the book. Now that said, the story was tremendous. It brought the horrors of the war into my living room. One could almost feel the pain and terror of the casualties. A story well-told, but in dire need of some structural editing.

This was a difficult book for me to read. This author has a style that puts great distance between this reader and the characters. Thus even though there are many horrible things that happen during the course of the book: the Australian experience at Gallipoli and on the French front during World War One, and deals with the nurses experiences in those catastrophic events, I found myself very distant from the sisters who are the main characters as well as the other nurses. Death, grief, terror - all are experienced by this reader as academic events that are of academic interest. I have felt this way about the other Kaneally books I have read, but thought this one would be different. Sadly, it wasn't. At the end there is a peculiar style which piqued my interest, but it was too little, too late

I had really looked forward to reading Thomas Kennelly's latest book, Daughters of Mars. It is a story about two sisters from Australia, who volunteer to become nurses during WWI. Not knowing much about WWI, it really appealed to me and I had visions of an early 20th century version of M.A.S.H. -- albeit about my grandfather's military. But it was a ponderous read and very disappointing. There were chapters that I found interesting, but without details about the war that would anchor the story, a lot of what I read just got lost in a narrative that didn't make a lot of sense. It was almost as if the writer took a bunch of "stories" and threw them together hoping readers would somehow get it. It was like trying to complete a puzzle with way too many pieces missing. When I finished the last page I just shook my head thinking – what?! It is not a book I would recommend to anyone - least of all, my book groups.