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Books 2011: Kristen Britain
Aug. 5th, 2011 04:32 pmBooks 2011: 108-111
Fair warning: this time I'm going to talk about an entire series at once, since I've just read the most recent two books and re-read the first two. (It's been long enough since the first time that my re-read should probably count as New Reading in its own right.)
108-111. Kristen Britain, Green Rider, First Rider's Call, The High King's Tomb, & Blackveil.
Britain's first novel, Green Rider, was first published in 1999. Its sequel, First Rider's Call, followed in 2003, with the next installment (The High King's Tomb) following in 2007, and the latest volume (Blackveil) this year.
Green Rider is the story of Karigan G'ladheon, a young woman who by chance encounters a fatally wounded messenger. Following his dying request, she takes up his message and sets out to deliver it to the king. A journey fraught with peril and magic culminates in treachery and battle, and Karigan is instrumental in saving the day.
Subsequent volumes take up the threat of an ancient and powerful evil being, Mornhaven the Black, and the struggles of Karigan and her fellow king's messengers to preserve the kingdom of Sacoridia in the face of danger. Disturbed ghosts, kidnapped noblewomen, haunted forests, cursed pirates, and the walking dead: what's not to like?
I'll be honest. I first encountered Green Rider the year of its publication. I was thirteen, and devouring Robert Jordan and Mercedes Lackey, Raymond E. Feist and Terry Goodkind (I never claimed to be a discerning thirteen-year-old), and I was favourably impressed with Green Rider. It's entertaining, and has the requisite amount of Cool Shit for second-world fantasy.
The things I enjoyed about it - then and now - are also the things I enjoyed about its sequels. They could also just as easily be seen as flaws. Karigan can come across as very young, emotionally, and there is occasionally a disjunct between the narrative's view of her and the impression given by her actions. The world - and the world-building - passes over the complex social and economic systems necessary for the dynamic maintenance of a semi-feudal system (logistics! won't somebody think about the logistics?!) in a silence punctuated every so often by what seem like anachronisms of thought and deed. There is a charmingly naive cast to this world, in which a king can wonder if kingship is unfair to his people and a merchant's daughter can tell off a king with impunity.
Of course, the bad guys are evil absolutists and cultists. They don't - quite - torture puppies for fun, but that might only be from lack of opportunity. Britain's prose doesn't intrude itself into the narrative: it's not lyric, but there are flashes of elegance. She does have a tendency to sidestep developments which could be interesting by allowing them to happen in the space of time in between each book: I'm thinking particularly of the gap between Green Rider and First Rider's Call, but also between Call and The High King's Tomb.
But despite their flaws, I find these books immensely entertaining. (In much the same way as I found Stargate SG:1 entertaining despite its innumerable flaws.)
The series is, on the evidence, not yet finished, although with the exception of the latest - which cliff-hangered, dammit - the books are sufficiently self-contained that this is not too much of a problem. Fortunately, considering that four years between books is a slow pace even in the famously lengthy gestation times of epic fantasy.
I expect I'll book five, when it turns up, equally entertaining.
Fair warning: this time I'm going to talk about an entire series at once, since I've just read the most recent two books and re-read the first two. (It's been long enough since the first time that my re-read should probably count as New Reading in its own right.)
108-111. Kristen Britain, Green Rider, First Rider's Call, The High King's Tomb, & Blackveil.
Britain's first novel, Green Rider, was first published in 1999. Its sequel, First Rider's Call, followed in 2003, with the next installment (The High King's Tomb) following in 2007, and the latest volume (Blackveil) this year.
Green Rider is the story of Karigan G'ladheon, a young woman who by chance encounters a fatally wounded messenger. Following his dying request, she takes up his message and sets out to deliver it to the king. A journey fraught with peril and magic culminates in treachery and battle, and Karigan is instrumental in saving the day.
Subsequent volumes take up the threat of an ancient and powerful evil being, Mornhaven the Black, and the struggles of Karigan and her fellow king's messengers to preserve the kingdom of Sacoridia in the face of danger. Disturbed ghosts, kidnapped noblewomen, haunted forests, cursed pirates, and the walking dead: what's not to like?
I'll be honest. I first encountered Green Rider the year of its publication. I was thirteen, and devouring Robert Jordan and Mercedes Lackey, Raymond E. Feist and Terry Goodkind (I never claimed to be a discerning thirteen-year-old), and I was favourably impressed with Green Rider. It's entertaining, and has the requisite amount of Cool Shit for second-world fantasy.
The things I enjoyed about it - then and now - are also the things I enjoyed about its sequels. They could also just as easily be seen as flaws. Karigan can come across as very young, emotionally, and there is occasionally a disjunct between the narrative's view of her and the impression given by her actions. The world - and the world-building - passes over the complex social and economic systems necessary for the dynamic maintenance of a semi-feudal system (logistics! won't somebody think about the logistics?!) in a silence punctuated every so often by what seem like anachronisms of thought and deed. There is a charmingly naive cast to this world, in which a king can wonder if kingship is unfair to his people and a merchant's daughter can tell off a king with impunity.
Of course, the bad guys are evil absolutists and cultists. They don't - quite - torture puppies for fun, but that might only be from lack of opportunity. Britain's prose doesn't intrude itself into the narrative: it's not lyric, but there are flashes of elegance. She does have a tendency to sidestep developments which could be interesting by allowing them to happen in the space of time in between each book: I'm thinking particularly of the gap between Green Rider and First Rider's Call, but also between Call and The High King's Tomb.
But despite their flaws, I find these books immensely entertaining. (In much the same way as I found Stargate SG:1 entertaining despite its innumerable flaws.)
The series is, on the evidence, not yet finished, although with the exception of the latest - which cliff-hangered, dammit - the books are sufficiently self-contained that this is not too much of a problem. Fortunately, considering that four years between books is a slow pace even in the famously lengthy gestation times of epic fantasy.
I expect I'll book five, when it turns up, equally entertaining.
