Light fun, but largely insubstantial

books:

	• Green Rider (Green Rider Trilogy Book 1) Kristen Britain DAW Hardcover, 1998 - 512 pages average customer review:based on 294 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Truly mesmerizing

I've never been a big reader, in fact I read very little unless forced to by school. I was given this book for Christmas several years ago and, being bored one day, simply picked it up. I never thought it would be so engaging. Right from the start Kristen Britain captures you attention and keeps it to the very last page.

With every book I have read, both for leisure and by force, this series is by far my favorite. You come to truly care for the characters as you get further and further involved in the events upon each page. And, much unlike many of the authors I have read, each book gets better and better.

I highly recommend this series to anyone who loves fantasy/action/adventure with a bit of romance mixed in. I also recommend this book to those who, like myself, have never been much of a reader and are highly picky, needing something that grasps their attention from the start and keeps it.

I have gotten a few people into this series and each has looked at it, for the first time, thinking they would not like it. But upon reading it have become just as big of a fan as I am myself.

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Great Book, Great Author

Green Rider was wonderful right from the start! I could hardly put it down! Its one of the few books that I love reading over and over again!

Karigan ran away from school after getting into a fight with a noble's spoiled son. On the road home she meets a dying Green Rider (a messenger) and agrees to take his message the rest of the way to the King. As she travels to Sacor City (the capitol) she is constantly in peril but is desperately trying to stay alive and complete a quest she is so totally unprepared for. Karigan encounters terrible foes, unlikely allies and enchanting friends. She struggles from one ordeal to the next to fulfill a promise to a dying man.

There is magic, adventure, danger, deceit, mystery and just a hint of romance. I adored the characters - even the ones with very minor roles. A well written book, an applaud-worthy debut.

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Decent Read

Personally I think the reviews this book gets are too high on the average. This is not to say that it is a bad book, but rather that I've read better and so it is difficult to justify giving it a 4 or 5 star rating.

On the whole the story is good. As far as books go it has a good plot and the writing is easy to get into. The characters are easy enough to enjoy, though I found some a bit one dimensional.

Honestly the only major complaint I had about the book was that the beginning seems to progress much too quickly. It feels rushed, as if it was compressed for editing concerns or perhaps the opening was rushed in order to get to the middle of the story more swiftly (which I found much better written and paced).

On the whole I enjoyed it even if I did find the writing to be predictable at times. I won't call it the best book I've ever read, however I will say that it was at times difficult to put down and I felt compelled to read it through to the end.

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Light fun, but largely insubstantial

"Green Rider" is entertaining, and this is why I given two of the three stars that I have. The third is for the interesting bits of potential that never developed into anything by the end of the book.

It falls short, though, in several areas.

I may differ from many people here, but I'm willing to overlook a lack of any significant plot if the writer's style is tasteful and engrossing. "Green Rider", while gifted with ample plot, is rife with inconsistencies in style. Britain waffles between using somewhat archaic turns of phrase and modern colloquialisms such as "cracking the code" and "cracking a book," many times within the same character. Those that are consistent in speech are stale characters, defined mainly by their accents. Britain's omniscient narration contains many of these idiosyncrasies, as well, which threw me completely out of the book several times.

I found that in order to finish the book, I had to "suspend" my suspension of disbelief. Thus, I couldn't get emotionally invested in the book or the characters; I was constantly making allowances for a wild and unconnected lack of authorial style.

The plot did have its interesting points, though, and though it was rather pell-mell and flew off in strange, somewhat meandering directions, it--not the characters--kept me reading. Some of the highlights were the Berry sisters (who, unfortunately, are by far the most interesting characters in the book, but have little stage time and no follow-up or deeper exploration). I think Britain's true writing potential really shines in that brief episode; the sisters are intriguing and more than meets the eye; their home is a treasury of ancient things (a testament to Britain's imagination); the entire scene is bright and lively compared to the majority of Karigan's grey and dogged journey.

There were also several noteworthy characters that had a lot of portent about them, but came to nothing; the minstrel and the fortune-teller in North are some. The Anti-Monarchy group was a consistent, thoughtful undercurrent throughout the novel, but unless they reappear in later books, they served no purpose and muddled the direction of "Green Rider" as an entity in itself.

Overall, I did enjoy this book. However, I won't read it again, and I won't continue the series. I wouldn't suggest purchasing it before you read it, but I'd say it's worth borrowing from the library and judging for yourself.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

Karigan G'ladahon has fled from school following a fight which would surely lead to her expulsion. As she makes her way through the deep forest, a galloping horse pounds up to her, its rider impaled by two black-shafted arrows. With his dying breath, he tells her he is a Green Rider, one of the legendary magical messengers of the King, and makes Karigan swear to deliver their message he's carrying, giving her his green coat, with its symbolic broach of office. This promise given to a dying man changes Karigan's life forever. Pursued by unknown assassins, following a path only her horse seems to know, she unwittingly finds herself in a world of deadly danger and complex magic, compelled by forces she cannot understand.

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