Title: Green Rider
Series: #1 Green Rider
Author: Kristen Britain
Publisher: Gollancz
ISBN: 978 0 575 09985 2
I came across this series when I picked up
the fourth book a while ago. While the
summary on the back of the book peaked my interest, the main reason I bought it
was because of the gorgeous cover. Only when I arrived home and looked the
author up on Goodreads, I learnt that is was part of a series that was not yet
completed. The fifth book is scheduled to be released in May 2014. I bought the
three preceding books and eagerly started reading the first one.
The first couple of pages made me doubt
about Green Rider. The protagonist
was a girl at the end of her teenage years. The exact age is not mentioned. I
prepared myself for another young adult fantasy book filled with love and
typical strong females. I was positively surprised. There was not much love to be
found and while Karigan was not a very original character, I really liked her.
Her motives were interesting and her spunk is admirable.
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Karigan meets quite a lot of characters on
her journey and every single one of them is interesting. They really bring the story
to life and add a great touch of realism to it, even though it still remains
fantasy. Through the secondary characters, Britain adds themes top the story
that we deal with in our lives as well. One of the minor characters leads a group
that questions monarchy. Living in a country where we still have a king,
recently a new one came to the throne; I have question it as well. It made the
story that more interesting. I hope this group, and other characters, will get
more page time in the next books
The horses in the book were wonderful.
Karigan’s horse is one of my favourite characters. Many fantasy writers do not
put enough effort in researching horses and their behaviour, Britain did a
wonderful job here. While Karrigan’s horse is a special horse, smarter than
most, he still felt very real: he showed he was afraid of certain things, he
was stubborn and could not keep going without proper food and rest at
unbelievable speed for ridiculously long distances.
What made this book stand out from all the
other fantasy books I have read were not the characters, but the skilfully crafted
plot. Everything was tied together. How the chain of events started and its
outcome, are very ironic actually. A small, seemingly unimportant event can
lead to something much bigger and more influential on a higher scale. Also
throughout the whole story, a wonderful metaphor is used to reflect on what is
happening: a board game. I absolutely
enjoyed this concept and it almost want to make me do something similar in my
writing. The board game intrigued me. It is definitely words its name, Intrigue.
The writing is fast paced and reads very
easily. I had no problem getting absorbed into the world. There was just enough
description to paint and imagine in my mind while I still had room to use my
own imagination to complete it. While
the book left me with some questions, it could easily be a standalone novel. I am
curious what will happen in the second part, but unfortunately it has not
arrived yet. I give this book a 5 out of 5 stars.
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