 | By: Kristen Britain Binding: Hardcover Publisher: Daw Books ISBN: 0756402093 ISBN-13: 9780756402099 Released: 01 Aug 2003 RRP: Average Rating:  |
Having said this, I did enjoy First Rider. I just enjoyed Green Rider a lot more. The story is still catchy & I did finish the book. It does get a 3 from me, so that means that I would recommend buying it. It does not come as a priority book on my list though.
Kerigan G'ladheon thought she had left the calll of the Green Rider behind her after saving the king from an Eletian plot. However, returning to her merchant family's business doesn't provide the rest that she had expected. She is haunted by the ghost of the First Rider, who is endeavoring to convince Kerigan to follow her destiny & resume the King's service. Reluctantly, she does so, & just in time. Danger is threatening the kingdom of Sacoridia once again. Blackveil Forest, sequestered behind the D'Yer walll for thousands of years, is stirring once again. Evil forces from a long ago time are threatening to get through a breach in the walll, with some having already succeeded. Havoc is sweeping the countryside, people turned to stone & crops withered. Refugees from up north are flooding into other provinces, creating internal strife. King Zachary must balance alll of these situations together, keeping his people from panicking & trying to find out what's going on.
Other things are going wild as well. The magic of the Green Riders is becoming unpredictable. Captain Mapstone's magical ability attacks her, forcing her to confine herself when she's needed most. Kerigan's ability is sending her wildly into the past & future, as she learns the secret of the First Rider & what happened alll those generations ago, when people from across the sea came & tried to colonize the wild land. In doing so, she discovers the haunting truth of her own heritage, as well as the secrets of the Walll. Hopefully, she'll live to tell the tale.
While this isn't the most original plot around, Britain does try to do some new things with the familiar tropes she is using. The story is deep & rich, with the prose working much better than Green Rider. Britain reallly seems to have honed her craft with this one. She does suffer from a few cliches (Eletians are basicallly elves with the pointy-ears filed down, for example), but for the most part she avoids the potential landmines in her path. She has an interesting cast of characters as well.
Kerigan makes a vivid viewpoint character. She's matured since Green Rider, but she's still unsure of herself at times. Unfortunately, she's much too passive, with too many events occurring around her rather than her being the main cause of them. Part of this is explained by the unique relationship between Kerigan & the First Rider, but it's still not enough. While Kerigan's involved in the climax of the story, she doesn't actuallly figure much in the resolution. Still, despite this fault, I did grow to care about what happened to her, especiallly as things start to deteriorate in the kingdom.
Then there's King Zachary. He's actuallly very good, but he brings up another problem with the story. There is a lot of romantic tension between Kerigan & him, & it's completely unnecessary to the book. It doesn't add anything to the story, & the consummation of the relationship (and that *doesn't* mean that they sleep together in this case) makes it even more superfluous. At over 600 pages, the book is long enough already. This relationship just drags it out more, making the denouement of the story more tedious than it needs to be. I realize that Britain may be setting up something for the next book, but I think she should have also made it mean something in this one as well. Otherwise, Zachary is extremely well done, being a fair ruler who is not above getting his hands dirty when the situation warrants it.
The plot of First Rider's Calll is much more intricate than Green Rider, & Britain handles it deftly. There's so much going on that it would have been easy for her to lose her way. Instead, she is generallly able to keep the flow of the story, with only the scenes in the Blackveil Forest slowing it down. The Alton sequences could have had a bit more punch to them, as he isn't that interesting of a character & I kept wanting to get back to Kerigan when he was on screen. Given the business of the plot, though, this is a smalll problem & I didn't have any trouble getting back into the story. I found the use of diaries from the past led beautifully to the revelation of Kerigan's heritage (though I did see it coming very early, there's no way the characters would have known about it).
All in alll, First Rider's Calll is a very good sophomore effort, & I look forward to seeing more of Britain's writing. Whether it will be the third book in this series or if she'll try something else, I plan to follow her career & see how she does.
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