Kristen Britain - Green Rider and First Rider's Call

    First Rider's Call by Kristen Britain is the second book in the Green Rider fantasy series.  I read the first book, Green Rider, in July 2011, but did not review it.  I'm not sure why, I think it is because I was not in a writing mood at the time.  I wish I had, as ever since, I've been recommending Green Rider to everyone I know who reads fantasy and hasn't read this series yet. I am really enjoying this series. So, to make up for this oversight, here is my review of Green Rider, and following, First Rider's Call.
                                 

The world of Green Rider is developed well, set in the land of Sacoridia. Karigan G'ladheon is the heroine, a merchant's daughter, who is expelled from her school, and on her way home, discovers a man dying on the road.  He has been shot with two black arrows, and begs her to deliver the message he carries in his messenger back, to the king, for him.  She agrees, and he dies, and off she goes.  That is not the end of him, however, as the black arrows are poisoning his spirit, and drawing him to the evil that lurks over the wall dividing the land from where ancient evil resides.

   Karigan is young, and some readers might be put off by this, but this is not a young adult fantasy.  There are adult themes in this series, and Karigan has to grow up in a hurry.  Karigan hears the call of the Horn, that calls people from all over Sacoridia to answer, to come be a Green Rider and carry messages for the King to the provinces and their leaders, all over the land. She has a horse, Condor, and discovers that she has her own talents as well. It's a thrilling ride, with ghosts, evil spirits, and a background of war from a thousand years ago, and Karigan discovers that the legacy of that war lives on in the world around her, in a continuing fight of good vs evil.  The other Riders are all different ages and from different nationalities, there are different provinces under the king, that have very different origins.

Unfortunately, I have lent my copy of Green Rider to a friend so she could try the series, so I can't refer to the book for my review. I remember how much I enjoyed it, and wondered why it had taken me so long to read it.   Here is a link to the Amazon.ca book reviews.   I know that after I read it, I went out and bought the second one shortly after.
                                                       
 This past weekend, I picked up my copy of  First Rider's Call,  and I read it in 2 days.  I just could not put it down.  I stayed up late, and read until my eyes were blurry the next day and I had to take a break.  There is something about her writing and the pacing of this series that makes it hard to put down. There is a breathless quality that is wonderful and refreshing.  I enjoyed the adventures, the different storylines, and the exploration of the magical gift or talent that each rider gets when they accept to be a rider.   We get to know more about some of the characters around Karigan as well. First Rider's Call opens a year after the events in Green Rider.  Karigan has gone home, rejecting her role of Green Rider, but the Riders aren't finished with her yet. When she returns to court at long last, she finds that the riders are feeling weakened and diminished, as is her own magical talent - something is changing how the magic works for the Green Riders. And at the wall that divides Sacoridia from the Black Forest, something is stirring when the wall breaks at one point.  An old evil, from back in Sacoridia's history.  One that threatens the land if it breaks free.

The title also refers to the legendary creator of the Green Riders, Lil Ambriodhe, the First Rider, who plays a fairly large role as a ghost  in this book, still trying to round up her Riders for the fight to come.  Karigan has a link with her through the brooch she wears,which turns out to have been Lil's brooch when she was a Rider. Each brooch is handed down, choosing the rider each time, and then when the rider dies or leaves the Green Riders, the brooch goes back into a chest until the next rider for it comes along.  There are a few hundred brooches, so it's not like Karigan only had a few to choose from.  The magic of the brooches is one of the fantasy elements I enjoy in this series.

     It's a delightful series, and I am really enjoying it.  It's solid high fantasy, with a well-developed world and history, with all kinds of fun stuff in it.  And deadly danger.  In both books I ended up crying because someone died.  Being a Green Rider is a serious business, and dangerous as well.  I highly recommend this for anyone who is looking for pure escapist fun fantasy to read.  It has an engaging style and a fast pace, and I do like Karigan very much.  She is an interesting heroine.

So fun that when I received my mother's Day gift card for books, I promptly went out and bought book three, The High King's Tomb, with it.   I am now happily reading it tonight.  Book 4, The Black Veil,  is also  in my birthday box I am busy filling for my birthday next week.

I read First Rider's Call for Once Upon A Time 7.  And The High King's Tomb will be, too.

New Books in the house update:  

Yes, the spending spree continues!  I am making up for the read your own books challenge, most certainly.   I have been buying books for my birthday, though I will save those for next week when I can officially open the box.  In the meantime, I received a lovely Mother's Day book giftcard from my family, and I have spent it already:
High King's Tomb - Kristen Britain (reading already!)
The Last Policeman - Ben Winters (amazon linked)  - I am really excited to find The Last Policeman.  I had heard about it last year.   It's an end of the world dystopian fiction. If the world was going to end in 6 months, what would you do?  What's the point of solving murders if we are all going to die?  Hank Palace is the only cop who cares......


and just because I've been wanting to re-read it for some time now, I bought tonight:
Salem's Lot - Stephen King  - I can hardly wait to re-read this one.  Certain scenes in here are powerful and haunting for me, and lots of vampire deaths.

Other reviews of Green Rider:
Read-Warbler
Errant Dreams

First Rider's Call:
Errant Dreams
SF Site

and here is an interview with Kristen Britain from 2007, just before Book 3, The High King's Tomb was released, over at Fantasy Book Critic.

If you have reviewed either novel, let me know and I'll link to it.

Book Reviews......

I have so many books from my reading this year to review.  I have read some wonderful fantasy books for Once Upon a Time, and some excellent mysteries through the year so far.  I will be doing these as I can, as I do want to get back into at least putting my thoughts on what I've been reading, down here.

folk tale from Firth of Clyde - for Once Upon a Time

                                                          

As it's late, and after celebrating a birthday this weekend (the Husband turned 42 to his dismay), and setting up Netflix for the kids, I suddenly find it's almost the end of the weekend and I haven't posted yet.  So in lieu of anything clever to say,
                                     


 here is a delightful folk-tale from the Firth of Clyde, from my The Lore of Scotland book I am reading from for Once Upon A Time VII Challenge. My first post was done here, on some fairy lore.

                 Firth of Clyde,  Renfrewshire

 "Once when a girl who lived in Port Glasgow died of consumption, her funeral procession was halted by a mermaid in the Firth of Clyde, who appeared from the waves and cried:
          If they wad drink nettles in March
                And eat muggans in May
         Sae mony braw maidens
                  Wadna gang to the clay.

Nettle tea was a country remedy for consumption, as was 'muggans' or mugwort, mentioned also in the song of the Mermaid of Galloway whose favourite haunt was Dalbeattie Burn (Dumfries and Galloway).
        Mugwort, muggins, and muggans are all coutnry names for Artemisia vulgaris, a member of the daisy family which grows in waste places all over Britain.  It was believed to ease period pains, and perhaps the idea that it stemmed blood-flow led to its use in cases of tuberculosis where blood was coughed up.  As its Latin name suggests, the plant was associated with Artemis or Diana, virgin goddess of the moon who also had power over lunar cycles, hence menstruation, and childbirth.  She was sometimes represented in half-fish form, and considered to care for lakes and rivers, lending particular interest to the fact that it is a mermaid who recommends the use of mugwort in these Scottish stories."   p 182
         
     I hope you had a wonderful weekend, and signs of spring are arriving in your area.

For Once Upon a Time: a bit of fairy lore

                                                       

  The Lore of Scotland, by Jennifer Westwood and  Sophia Kingshill, is a collection which I am reading in bits and pieces for the Once Upon a Time Challenge, for fairy tales and folk tales sections of the challenge. This book is so interesting - it has all kinds of Scottish legends, myths, fairy tales, and folk tales, collected from all over Scotland.
                                                          

For your folk tale and fairy reading pleasure on this late Sunday night, here is a folk tale about a brownie:

Boghall Farm, Near Dollar, Clackmannanshire

The Brownie was very like a man in shape.  His entire body was covered with brown hairs, hence his name. He slept all day and worked all night, when the whole farmhhouse was hushed in slumber. Although possessed of great strength he was harmless, and had more of a forgiving than a revengeful turn of mind. His food was sowans (oats steeped in water) and sweet milk, while his bed consisted of straw made up in some cosy corner of the barn.  To the farm of Boghall, near Dollar, Brownie rendered essential services; but it happened one very severe winter, when the snow lay deep upon the ground, and the frost was so intense as to freeze every running stream and well,that the woman of the house, afraid that her friendly Brownie would die, laid down some warm blankets on his heap of straw.  Seeing this, he immediately left the place saying:
    To leave my old haunts, oh! my heart is
         sair,
   But the wife gave me blankets - she'll see
     me nae mair;
  I've worked in her barn, frae evening till
     day,
  My curse on the blankets that drove me
    away.
   All the boon that I asked were my
     sowans and strae,
  But success to Bhoga' although
     Brownie's away.

Although he wished well to his former home, Boghall was never the same again.  'At the present day, it is little better than a wilderness', ends this account of the Boghall Brownie printed in The Scottish Journal of Topography in 1848.
                                      p56-57

Diana Wynne Jones - Charmed Life and Archer's Goon

          I am coming in under the wire, just, for Diana Wynne Jones reading month.  During this month I read two of her children's fantasy novels:  Charmed Life, and Archer's Goon.
                                                               

Charmed Life is the story of Gwendolen Chant and her younger brother Eric, known as Cat.  Gwendolen is a strong witch.  Cat has none.  Their parents are dead and they are living with the kind strangers in their home village,  and come across some letter from Chrestomanci Chant to their father, while looking for something to pay for magic lessons for Gwendolen.  Chrestomanci is a famous powerful wizard, it turns out.  And a relative of theirs.  Chrestomaci is contacted by Gwendolen and her creepy wizard friends, and the next thing, Gwendolen and Cat are taken to Chrestomanci's home to live.  They are both given magic lessons (as well as ordinary school lessons), and while Gwendolen is convinced she is going to be a powerful sorceress one day, Cat is showing no signs of magic at all.   He does however, seem to have a charmed life, which through the story is slowly revealed to be much more than anyone thought.  Alternate universes, other selves, all play a part in this fun, and funny, story about how Cat learns who he is.

Charmed Life was a re-read for me, and it has been many years since I read it first.  My 24 year old son was around 10 when I read it, before I gave it to him to read then.  I was trying to interest him in reading something.  He was obsessed with dinosaurs and Star Wars then.  It was difficult to find a children's fantasy book for his age, from 8-12, at that time.  And it had to be fantasy, he wasn't going to read anything else.  To my surprise, he liked it, and he read the others in the Chrestomanci series.  He went on to read more in the fantasy world, and I credit Charmed Life for being the door that opened reading for him.  He had a reading disability, which all of my children have also, in varying degrees.  As the other two grow older, they too will have Charmed Life put into their hands.

Diana Wynne Jones is that kind of writer, some one who makes her characters real, and the family situations are always funny and very realistic, and the magic is of the kind that everyone wishes they had,when they are young.  A perfect book for every child, I think.
                           
                                                              
Archer's Goon is set in the real world also - I think this is part of the real charm of Jones's novels.  Her children's books (other than the Dale Quartet) are set in the modern world, and magic exists without extra explanation.  It simply is.  Archer's Goon is set in England, though it is hard to know if it is a real town.  It opens with a large man appearing at the Sykes household, demanding payment of words written by Howard's father.  The words were payment to a man named Archer, and the Goon was there to get the payment as it had gone missing. Why is Mr Sykes writing payment?  For what?  Who is Archer?  Who is the Goon?  Howard's world is about to be turned upside down as he discovers that nothing in this world is as it appears, especially people.  Time is important in this novel, the past and the future, as Howard discovers that  Archer is part of  a group who control the town, and want to rule the world. This was the first time I read Archer's Goon, and I really enjoyed it.  Howard's family made me laugh, and the situations they find themselves in as they try to find who is in control - and how Mr Syke's words are the key - is fun and unconventional.  This was nominated for the Best Novel 1985 World Fantasy Award, and rightly so.  It is a fantasy full of wonderful inventiveness, and never loses track of the meaning of family, and love.  I thoroughly enjoyed this novel.

Diana Wynne Jones month:


I am glad that I finally was able to participate in Diana Wynne Jones month, held by Kristen at We Be Reading for the second year. All month Kristen has posted about Diana, her books, and has had several guest posts from bloggers about their favourite Diana Wynne Jones books, or memories.  Here is a link to several of the books Kristen read in March.  This is an excellent resource for finding more about Diana Wynne Jones, and the wonderful legacy she has left us all.  Thanks to Kristen for hosting this challenge again.

I have read some books by Diana Wynne Jones:  Howl's Moving Castle and Witch Week are  among my favourites;   Fire and Hemlock is very good, as is Time of  the Ghost.  I have Hexwood, and Pinhoe's Egg, The Merlin Conspiracy, and Enchanted Glass on my shelf, to read.  One I want to get is The Dark Lord of Derkholm, reviewed here by Gavin at Page 247.

The breadth and width of Wynne Jones writing is breathtaking.  She wrote mostly fantasy, and changed children's literature forever.  If you haven't read her, then she is perfect for the Once Upon a Time Challenge currently taking place over at Stainless Steel Droppings.  If you have read her, then you will know that fantasy lost a wonderful writer when she died two years ago. She is sadly missed.  There are many wonderful writers now in children's fantasy, as well as young adult, and many of them owe a debt to the trail blazed by Diana Wynne Jones.

This is not to say she is or was the only good writer in children's fantasy books back in the 1970's and 80's.  Susan Cooper was writing the Dark is Rising series, Alan Garner had written his Weirdstone series, Ursula K. LeGuin had written the Earthsea  trilogy, there was the Pern series  by Anne McCaffrey, and Madeleine L'Engle had Wind in the Door.  After that, there was little.  So the fantasy world for children has really changed since then.  All of these writers laid the way for the current richness of children's fantasy literature that we are currently enjoying.  But there is something in each of these for me that makes each of them each stand out for me, a tone in their writing that always makes it original, fresh, and a work that I can return to again and again.  I think Diana Wynne Jones will be among these in children's books for me.

 Whether you want to read something new in fantasy, or reread something delightful, charming and very often moving, pick up one of her books, and get ready for a treat.

Once Upon a Time VII

It's finally here!  This the 7th year of Carl at Stainless Steel Droppings' annual spring challenge. Once Upon a Time.....the chance to read all the fairy tales, myths, fantasy books, and folk tales that we collect, to read 'one day'.  One day is here.  I love how he describes it: 

"Over the voice of wind and cold I can still here that voice telling us that it is indeed time to once more “come away”.
It is that voice that beckons us to Middle-earth and Newford, that calls out from the gap in the village of Wall and from the world of London Below. It is the voice that packs so much promise into four little words…

“Once upon a time…”

Perhaps you too have heard that voice whispering on the spring wind, or perhaps Old Man Winter continues to drown out the sound; either way that time has come: Once Upon a Time is here!"

                                                    

I am doing my usual, signing up for everything! I can't resist.  Just pulling books from my shelves, books I've wanted and/or been saving for this challenge, I have too many to read in the next 3 months.  Part of the fun is selecting books, and then seeing what I do get read.  I am doing Quest the Third, which is to
   "Fulfill the requirements for The Journey or Quest the First or Quest the Second AND top it off with a June reading of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream OR a viewing of one of the many theatrical versions of the play. Love the story, love the films, love the idea of that magical night of the year and so this is my chance to promote the enjoyment of this farcical love story."
       I am planning to complete the Quest the Second, which is: 
     "Read at least one book from each of the four categories. In this quest you will be reading 4 books total: one fantasy, one folklore, one fairy tale, and one mythology. This proves to be one of the more difficult quests each year merely because of the need to classify each read and determine which books fit into which category. I am not a stickler, fear not, but I am endlessly fascinated watching how folks work to find books for each category."

Here are some of the books I think I might read over the next four months:

Fairy Tales
- Some Kind of Fairy Tale - Graham Joyce
- Beauty - Robin McKinley
 - The Uncertain Places - LIsa Goldstein
 - Of Blood and Honey - Stina Leicht
 - Fairy and Folk Tales of Ireland - WB Yeats

Fantasy:
- First Rider's Call - Kristen Britain
 - A Midsummer Tempest - Poul Anderson
 - Ship of Magic - Robin Hobb
 - The Bards of Bone Plain - Patricia McKillip
- The Hobbit - J.R.R Tolkien

Myth:
- The Kingdom of Gods - N.K. Jemison
- A Monster Calls - Patrick Ness
 - Hide Me Among the Graves - Tim Powers

Folk Tales 
 - Fairy and Folk Tales of Ireland - W.B. Yeats
 - Songs of the Earth - Elspeth Cooper
- The Lore of Scotland - Jennifer Westwood and Sophia Kingshill (**added as soon as I wandered over the  folk and fairy tale shelf to see what I forgot.  I bought this last year, this looks like a fascinating compendium of Scottish lore and legends.)

Carl also has a Short story section to the challenge, where he encourages us to seek out short stories: "This quest involves the reading of one or more short stories that fit within at least one of the four genres during the course of any weekend, or weekends, during the challenge."




Short stories:
 - something from The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter (this would be a re-read for me, but I feel her collection calling to me, and until I can get my hands on her fairy tale book, this will be just as good)
 - something from Wizards ed by Martin Greenberg
 - Muse and Reverie - Charles de Lint
 - some ghost stories from various anthologies
- something from the Terri Windling and Ellen Datlow fairy tale anthologies (I always think I will read the whole anthology and get distracted, so it's easier to read a short story or two or three....)

And finally, there is fantasy on film and tv:

 

"Stories are not just limited to the printed page. Many entertaining, moving, profound or simply fun stories are told in the realm of television and film. To participate in this quest simply let us know about the films and/or television shows that you feel fit into the definitions of fantasy, fairy tales, folklore or mythology that you are enjoying during the challenge."

Screen:
- The Hobbit ***watched last night, for Earth Hour (and beyond).  Reviewed already here.  Love this movie as much the second time around.  The dragon is still impressive even on my tiny tv screen.  My daughter is so anxious to see more of the dragon!!  We all enjoyed it, even the 8 year old who has difficulty sitting through longer movies.  I think this will become a regular movie viewing for my family.
- I am planning to see a version of A Midsummer Night's Dream, during these three months.
 - we have various Narnia movies, Golden Compass, Penelope, Enchanted, possibly some Grimm or Once Upon a Time, The Company of Wolves.........many more too.
 - I also have Game of Thrones from season 1 to finish, then S2 to catch up on.

Just remember:  This is only a partial "these look interesting today" list.  I'm hoping to add a few more, and leave this open for new books to find their way in. I am really excited that this is here.  I really wish I could find a copy of Boneland by Alan Garner over here.  That would fit in beautifully with this challenge.

Short Story Special event:
A special treat: Neil Gaiman has a short story published on the Guardian site this weekend. "Down To a Sunless Sea". Click on the link to go to it.  It's a wonderful sad and creepy short story.  The perfect way to begin Once Upon a Time!