Friday, 6 January 2012

Green Rider, by Kristen Britain

Green Rider is a fantasy adventure novel, telling the story of Kharigan G'ladheon, an young woman who has just been thrown out of school.  Chancing upon a dying messenger (a Green Rider), she takes his message and his horse, and embarks on a journey to deliver the message to the king.

It has been a few months since I actually read this book, but I still look back on it fondly.  Even from the start, while the plot is roughly the generic tale of a harrowing journey, the book manages to avoid too many cliches and provides an interesting and entertaining story.  The world is new and different, although still retains a familiar fantasty feel.  The characters are good and the plot makes sense; sometimes sorely lacking in other stories in the same genre!

There are a few things I particularly liked.  Mostly this is related to the fact that the main character in this book is not a heroic warrior or a powerful wizard; she's just a fairly normal person who's put into some difficult situations.  I like this, it made me feel like I could empathise well with her, especially when things become difficult.

I also liked that this book doesn't end with some far fetched situation - there was no marriage to the king or something like that, the main character doesn't suddenly end up running the Green Riders; this isn't that sort of book, it's (as far as any book with magic and wizards in can be) realistic, and has a sense of proportion.  The book was tied up nicely with no loose ends, although I can very much imagine a sequel!

So all in all I think this is a great book.  It manages to mix a decent plot, a believable world and a good set of characters together, and I enjoyed reading it a great deal.  I definitely look forward to finding more of her work!

Buy Green Rider at Amazon.com

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