Green Rider
79. Kristen Britain, Green Rider
Karigan G’ladheon has just been wrongfully expelled from her university, and in her anger she has decided to go back to her father’s house without telling anyone. As she walks along a forest path, she suddenly comes upon a Green Rider with two black arrows sticking out of his back. The Green Riders are the king’s most trusted messengers, and this man has clearly been murdered for the information he carries. With his dying breath, the Green Rider implores Karigan to take his message to the king. When she agrees, she has no idea how dangerous her task will be. Her country is experiencing tremendous unrest: King Zachary is threatened by his discontented nobles, by a brother who is eager to usurp the throne, and by a magical danger much graver than anyone suspects. As Karigan struggles to fulfill her mission, which will have serious consequences for the future of her country, she also discovers some important information about her own destiny.
While this book is clearly influenced by great epic fantasy novels that have gone before, I found it a solid and entertaining fantasy debut. I was drawn into Karigan’s world, and I feel like there is still a lot more to explore in the sequels. The plot is a little unoriginal - seemingly ordinary girl goes on a quest which leads to a battle between good and evil - but I thought it was well handled, and the events of the book kept me entertained. There are certainly a lot of echoes of Tolkien, though! Karigan is one of my favorite aspects of this book. While she is competent and capable, she’s not one of those annoying protagonists who are The Best At Everything. She occasionally needs help to extricate herself from bad situations; she has some talents but no freakishly awesome gifts; and she’s not the world’s greatest swordsperson. I definitely appreciated a heroine who is a little more relatable than many women in fantasy novels! In short, I’m interested in continuing with this series, and I would recommend this book to fans of sword and sorcery.