REVIEW: Green Rider by Kristen Britain

Title: Green Rider (Green Rider #1)
Author: Kristen Britain
Genre: Fantasy, Adventure.
Publication Date: April 1st 2011 (first published 1998)
Publisher: Gollancz

Format: Paperback

Pages: 560

Rating: 5/5

Karigan G'ladheon, running away from school, is traveling through a deep forest when 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 magical messengers of the King. Before he dies, he makes Karigan swear to deliver the message he's carrying, and gives her his green coat, with the symbolic brooch of his office. Pursued by unknown assassins, following a path only her horse seems to know, Karigan becomes a legendary Green Rider for when given to the right person, a Rider's brooch awakens the magic inside.

Green Rider is one of those books that I usually would have marked as to-read on Goodreads and then never actually read it. Luckily for me, my lovely friend Sarah bought this book for herself during one of our many bookshop adventures together and then passed it along to me, after she read it and lost her mind over it. I’m so happy that Sarah decided to pick it up and extra happy that she let me borrow it.

I should probably mention that this is the first book I took serious notes for (at least one that wasn’t school related) so this is probably going to be a really, really, insanely long review. On that note, let’s start.

My absolute favourite thing about this book are the characters- they’re seriously amazing. I wrote something about pretty much every single character, but I’m only going to mention a few today. Let’s start with our main character- Karigan G’ladheon. Firstly, can we talk about how ridiculously badass her name is? It sounds very Welsh to me which is, of course, seriously awesome. Anyway, Karigan is a great main character- she’s only a teenager but she has this massive weight placed on her shoulders due to this mission. She makes mistakes, but she’s so kickass and incredibly stubborn. She was a lot of fun to read about it and I think she’s taken a special place in my heart.

Now onto some smaller characters- I’m doing this sort of by order of appearance, but not really. Firstly, the Berry sisters- they have a very small part but they are seriously amazing. Secondly, Torne and Jendara – So I actually hate Torne but I really like the fact that they’re a duo and that Jendara is a female (and much more awesome and fierce than Torne). Karigan’s father, Stevic, is also amazing- he’s great father but also a really interesting character. Lorilie – another seriously gorgeous name and an interesting character. Captain Mapstone and Mel are, again, amazing characters and both brilliant in their own right. Alton is just awesome and I really hope there’s more of him in the future (perhaps I’m getting a new literary crush here). King Zachary is…well, I like him but I also don’t know how I feel about him. I can’t really explain why without spoiling anything, but yeah there is definitely some confusion there for me. Next Mirwell…I don’t know how to put this other than he’s a creeeeeeeeeep. Finally, The Horse. The Horse is just amazing, and brilliant, and wonderful and every other good adjective you could use. Basically, every single character is interesting and I can’t wait to see who pops up in the rest of the books.

Now onto some things that aren’t related to characters. The writing in this book is beautiful- it really, really is. There’s something really unique about it, and I don’t know quite how to describe it other to say that it sounds really old but in a way that really suits the story. It’s also full of imagery- it’s like the words actually come out of the book and you get so immersed in the world around you. I found that I was getting completely lost in the story every time I picked up the book- hours could pass and I wouldn’t even realise. The world itself, Sacoridia, is brilliant. There are so many awesome things in the world- like the Green Riders and Intrigue which is sort of like a boardgame, chess-like thing, which I’d probably be terrible at. There are so many layers to the story and it’s a really, really intense ride (see what I did there?). It’s a really marvellous beginning to what I’m sure will turn out to be mind-blowing series.

 I can’t wait to get my hands on the rest of the books- honestly, I’d travel the North Road to get them. (More references, see you should read the book so you get them…) Thank you again to the spectacular, epic, wonderful etc. Sarah!