Book Review: Green Rider

What a satisfying debut novel! I enjoyed this book more than I thought I would and I’m looking forward to reading the next instalment of this series.

Readers who love classic fantasy will enjoy Green Rider. The Tolkien inspiration is hard to miss in this book but Britain also managed to make it her own.

I liked how the protagonist, Karigan, wasn’t particularly a ‘chosen one’. How she came to go on her quest was mainly by chance and it was so refreshing that she wasn’t a stereotypical cut-out of a strong female character that naturally had incredible fighting skills. Karigan goes through many obstacles in her journey but she struggles to overcome them. She also had a lot of help which I thought was more realistic than her just magically gaining abilities. There IS magic yes, but I liked how Kari was as clueless and confused by it when she found out it existed. I also thought Britain did a great job in writing Kari’s character development. I love that her decisions made sense for who she was (specially at the end!) and I could only attribute that to how real she felt to me.

I also appreciated how there was no romance! There were hints at possibilities but the lack of insta-love was so gratifying.

Green Rider definitely served its purpose as a first book in the series. It did spend quite some time with world building and while I felt the beginning dragged at times, I found it hard to stop reading once it picked up. This book was a good set up for what’s to come and I’m glad to say that I’m not only interested in Kari’s journey but of the other characters I’ve become fond of.

[star rating=”4″]