Kristen Britain - Green Rider

On her long journey home from school after a fight which will surely lead to her expulsion, Karigan G'ladheon ponders her future as she trudges through the immense forest called Green Cloak. But her thoughts are interrupted by the clattering of hooves as a galloping horse bursts from the woods, the rider slumped over his mount's neck, impaled by two black-shafted arrows. As the young man lies dying on the road, he tells Karigan that he is a Green Rider, one of the legendary messengers of the king, and that he bears a "life and death" message for King Zachary. He begs Karigan to carry his message, warning her not to read it, and when she reluctantly agrees, he makes her swear on his sword to complete his mission "for love of country." As he bestows upon her the golden winged-horse brooch which is the symbol of his office, he whispers on his dying breath, "Beware the shadow man..."
Karigan's promise changes her life forever. Pursued by unknown assassins, following a path only her horse seems to know, and accompanied by the silent specter of the original messenger, she herself becomes a legendary Green Rider. Caught up in a world of deadly danger and complex magic, compelled by forces she cannot understand, Karigan is hounded by dark beings bent on seeing that the message, and its reluctant carrier, never reach their destination.

Comment: Here is yet another book I had in the pile for years, which I had added very likely because it would feature a fantasy adventure and the silly part of me who enjoyed the romance genre envisioned a romance possibly developing at some point too.

In this story we meet Karigan, a young woman who was suspend from her school over wrong accusations. She is on her way back home when suddenly, a Green Rider shows up on a horse, near death, and on his final breaths asks Karigan to help him take an important message to the king. Not really knowing what she is agreeing to, Karigan swears she will do it and after some magical impressions she can't explain, the Rider dies and, suddenly, she can sometimes glimpse his ghost.

Karigan, then, starts off her adventure, for the road until the royal city is filled with dangers and, on top of that, those who are responsible for the Rider's death are certainly not going to wait for her to arrive safely there, which means one more worry for her on her journey...

I have enjoyed fantasy novels in the past and keep on doing so, but these days I like them better with certain details, namely with positive scenes. With this I mean, I like the stories more if the goal isn't to put the characters on a road of despair or something similar, I like it more when the goal of the story is more focused on the world building, the set up, the characterization of the characters and their dynamics, rather than an evil plan unfolding and people suffering until the good guys save the day.

Therefore, while at first I was a little confused about the specific "rules" of this world, they soon became more interesting, but it is also true we are aware the goal was to warn off the king of some evil plans, especially since we get to have chapters from the bad guys' POV. I will say I was quite adept in ignoring these parts and focusing on Karigan's adventure instead, until it got to a point where things god muddled and people died and bad things happened and it felt as if the good guys would suffer a lot to reach their necessary goals of salvation and such.

Karigan is someone caught in a complicated situation, but in fantasy stories things like juvenile responsibility and maturity don't seem to matter as much, after all Karigan was suspend, could leave the school premises and no one cared, and then she could accept the Rider's demand and start off on a solo journey (with a horse) towards the big city, on her own... which is all fine, part of the allure, but at the same time I kept wondering how could this not be that obvious to the bad guys, even though she could travel alone for a long time.

On her way, she meets several other characters, who give advice or help her in her "self discovery" journey too, or who challenge her, allowing her to "grow up" or to "learn a lesson". Of course this feels very much predictable and along the lines of countless others coming of age fantasy novels from the same decade. It's not a bad thing, but it makes things familiar, and I'm certain many readers would recognize the hints easily. That said, I did like some aspects of this world and the Green Riders being messengers who take their role to heart, in defending the kingdom and honoring their work.

There are magical elements in the story, and to some characters this is good, to others is not so good, which is also to be expected if there is suspicion of what having magic could entail. I suppose this will be further explored in following books (there are six more full length books in the series), but what we saw here was intriguing enough, I would not have minded if more attention had been given to magical content or, for instance, Karigan learning of it, instead of the battles and the opposing forces making plans and the all scenes on politics and betrayals I didn't care for.

I think there were compelling elements in the story and I think the main structure wasn't too bad, but some plot choices were not to my interest/taste. I would have liked more character development beyond the obvious or the basic, and I would have preferred more interaction between characters were substantial information were to be shared, things to make sense for general knowledge. 

Regarding romance, none happened but I would still keep up with the series for the expectation of it, if the other elements were to be more appealing to me. As it is, I feel satisfied enough to stop here.

Grade: 6/10