The High King's Tomb (Green Rider, Book 3) [Hardcover]

Kristen Britain (Author)

Book Description

Series: Green Rider, Book 3 | Publication Date: November 1, 2007

For Karigan G'ladheon, the call of magic in her blood is too strong to resist. Karigan returns to the Green Riders, the magical messengers of the king, to find she's badly needed. Rider magic has become unstable, many Riders have been lost, and the Rider corps is seriously threatened. The timing couldn't be worse. An ancient evil, long dormant, has reawakened, and the world is in peril. Karigan must face deadly danger and complex magic to save the kingdom from certain doom.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Karigan G'ladheon was hoping for a break from adventure after the breakneck escapades of First Rider's Call (2004), but this action-packed third Green Rider volume gives her no time to rest. Sent on what she thinks is a mundane errand for the king of Sacoridia and the captain of the royal messenger corps known as the Green Riders, Karigan begins having strange dreams that may hold hidden meaning. Then she receives a cryptic message from the ghost of a would-be magician. Karigan finally accepts that she's destined for the extraordinary when the magnificent black horse Salvistar, the steed of the god of death, beckons her to ride with him among the stars. Britain keeps the excitement high from beginning to end, balancing epic magical battles with the humor and camaraderie of Karigan and her fellow riders.
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Review

"Wonderfully captivating...a truly enjoyable read." -- Terry Goodkind "Kristen Britain is a very talented author who appears destined to be one of the genre''s superstars." -- Midwest Book Review

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Hardcover: 688 pages
• Publisher: DAW Hardcover; First Edition edition (November 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0756402662
• ISBN-13: 978-0756402662
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 2.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (75 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #168,623 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

72 of 82 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Alarm Bells Ring...Are You Lis'nin'?..., November 21, 2007

By 

Eon (Rhode Island) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The High King's Tomb (Green Rider, Book 3) (Hardcover)

From early on in The High King's Tomb, alarm bells started going off in my head. It doesn't take very long, if you've read the other two books (and you should have), to realize that a "grab the reader by the throat" event is conspicuously absent from the beginning of the story. There's one in the first book, there's one in the second book, but The High King's Tomb starts out on a noticeably meandering path.

And it continues to meander, without a great deal of urgency, for a long time. A lot of events happen, some of them interesting in relation to the world Britain has created, but overall none of them seem hugely relevant to solving the tensions of the main plot arc. In fact, they just seem to add in a bunch of new tensions without solving any old ones. Uh oh.
It takes a long time for the reader to understand why this book is called The High King's Tomb. By then, a lot of the elements of the book are coming together and making more sense for the plot of this book, but no amount of smoke and mirrors can distract the reader from the fact that it didn't really offer any resolution on the plot of the series as a whole. With almost 700 pages, more should have been resolved. I reiterate: Uh oh.

Britain has always gotten away with certain things (like Deus Ex Machina solutions) in part due to the strength of her characters. This time I'm not sure it'll be enough to pull some readers through. Main character Karigan mostly annoys me in this book. She doesn't get off on a good foot, with her diatribe about brothels early on. Pages of inner monologue about how wrong it is to sell your body, you should only be with the one you love, blah blah blah, oh! oh! oh! how terrible...I want to scream. Eventually I started to feel like Britain is trying way too hard to keep Karigan from being perfect that she's sliding towards backwards and unlikable instead.
Other returning characters are a mixed bag. Estora, who had struck me in the previous books as being a strong, elegant young woman with a lot of bravery, hits romance heroine levels of stupidity in this books. She redeems herself a little by realizing that she's being stupid, but her demeanor here just seems like an excuse to make the book's storyline work. Alton and Merdigen, at the wall, both retain fairly high levels of interest, though. And then there are a number minor characters whom you'll likely wish had had slightly larger rolls.

New characters play out similar. You have Damien Frost and Lady who are interesting, in spite of being quite obviously based on Tom Bombadil and Goldberry from LotR. Yet you also have Fergal, a Green Rider trainee with an abusive past, who does things so cruel and idiotic that his "redemption" feels forced. And there's Amberhill, who has two aspects, the first being that he's dumb as a brick. This makes him unbelievable in the role of a mysterious, charming thief ala Zorro...not to mention sad evidence that Britain seems to think it's necessary to stuff in every fantasy staple possible.

Though in a lot of ways I enjoyed the book and the alarm bells quieted some, they didn't go away completely. And Britain saying that she will "let the needs of the story dictate its own length" scares the bejeebus out of me. If the series ends at four books then fine, I can deal with the transition book that The High King's Tomb obviously is. But if it doesn't? Fantasy writers need to put a tighter rein on themselves, need to plan better before jumping into their works, or we're going to end up with a whole slew of unfinished Wheel of Time type series on the shelves. Three and a half stars.

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars We have to wait again?, November 9, 2007

By 

L. A. Saloiye (Levittown, PA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The High King's Tomb (Green Rider, Book 3) (Hardcover)

I love this series. The fact that there is a normal, healthy woman as the main character is refreshing. I originally read the Green Rider as a stand alone book. I throughly enjoyed it. This present book was wonderful because we were able to re-meet many of the characters. However what isn't so exciting is that there is another book in the series. Don't get me wrong, I love this series and there definitely needs to be another book, but I don't want to wait any longer. The waits in between the books are massive. I know it takes time to get books written, edited, and published but sometimes the interim seems a bit ridiculous. That and I thought this was going to be a trilogy, similar to Lord of the Rings.

All complaining aside this was an excellent book, there was more down time throughout the adventures but this isn't a bad thing. It allows for more character development. We don't get to see Zachary as much as I would have liked, but his cousin offers us a new treat. Overall this is an excellent addition to the series. Hopefully it won't take another 3 years for the next book in the series.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An enjoyable, character-driven tale, December 31, 2007

By 

Laura J. - See all my reviews

This review is from: The High King's Tomb (Green Rider, Book 3) (Hardcover)

After waiting four years for a follow-up to Britain's strong First Rider's Call, the second in the Green Rider sequence, I was thrilled to finally get my hands on The High King's Tomb. Details from previous books which had slipped away were reinforced as I returned to Sacoridia, relishing my reunion with Karigan G'ladheon, Alton D'Yer, Estora Coutre, and others.

To Britain's credit, the antagonists in this book are complex. None can be taken at face value, especially Grandmother, whose strange knot-magic threatens to unravel the land. While some old baddies return, new threats and situations arise, feeding off of previous conflicts while remaining innovative enough to be interesting.

The same can be said of the protagonists. Karigan displays greater strength (physical and emotional) and a harsher view of her shifting world. I never had much in common with the courageous heroine, but I like and respect her as much as ever. I particularly enjoyed Lady Estora's development. Unlike other reviewers, I did not find her a clichéd romance heroine. She deals with issues of love and confinement, true, but does not lose her individuality. Laren Mapstone, a longtime favorite, attempts to thwart the romance between Karigan and King Zachary without coming off as callous or cruel. The ambiguous Xandis Amberhill adds spark and spice to several ladies' lives. Yes, Britain's characters remain strong -- and for readers who, like myself, prize characterization above all else, this book is a gem.

On the downside, it takes the action a long time to heat up. Sometimes it seems that not only Alton, but every returning character is pounding on a stone wall, unable to get past it. The first 200 pages are hijacked by the newly introduced Raven Mask and Fergel. The middle is chock-full of more delicious characters and intriguing revelations, but some subplots slow the book's momentum. Other reviewers have expressed displeasure over Rider Dale Littlepage's numerous appearances, and I agree with them. Over a hundred pages are devoted to her, but I have little idea of who she is as a person, and I found her interactions with Alton and the tower guardians too lengthy. Britain would have done well to pare down this story line and stick more closely to what was happening to Karigan.

The best parts of this installment are its character development and its fast-paced ending. Although there is no closure on some major plotlines, which were clearly created to carry the next book as well as this one, others are resolved nicely. Karigan's foray into the tombs with the Weapons is a tense affair that had me hooked well into the night. To conclude, despite some faults, this is an eminently enjoyable book with textured characters. Four stars.