High King's Tomb by Kristen Britain

WARNING: I try to avoid spoilers, but they are possible (even probable), since this is the third book of the Green Rider series. Green Rider (review here) is the first. I recommend reading them in order.

A thousand years ago the armies of the Arcosian Empire, led by Mornhavon the Black, crossed the great sea and tried to conquer the land of Sacoridia —and during Karigan G'ladheon's early years as a Green Rider, Mornhavon's spirit, sensing weakness in his prison walls and seeking vengeance, began to wake. With the ghostly help of the First Rider, Karigan had managed to drive off the spirit of Mornhavon—but for how long, no one could know. And now, the descendants of those Arcosians are ready to strike, reaching out to claim the land their forebears had tried to conquer. Worse, these vengeful enemies had spent generations honing their powers of dark magic—a force against which the Sacoridians had no defense…

I love this series. Really. I do. But it should have been a trilogy. I think someone was trying to get their money's worth out of this author, so she was signed up for a 90 bazillion book deal instead of what she had originally planned to do, which simply wasn't making them enough money.  

The Green Rider series was supposed to be a trilogy, as far as I know, up until the second book. In my opinion it shows. First Rider's Call reads like a good second book...things are coming together, almost ready to be tied up and brought together in the final volume. 

However, The High King's Tomb takes all of that and spins off in another direction. I felt like the plot of this one was kind of out of left field, and now that I've read the fourth (review forthcoming), I think this book was just a way to extend the series. It didn't really move the plot along, and more served to introduce more characters and plotlines that couldn't be resolved in just one more book.

Godbeings were introduced as well, and I'm not sure how I feel about that. Again, it just did not seem like it went along with where the second book was going. That said, with the fourth book now out, the third book is a nice tie-in to the series, although it seemed to have more "filler" than the rest. Filler for this author, though, still makes for an entertaining read.

Bottom Line

 To sum it up: If you like this series so far, don't stop now. :)

Overall Rating: 3.5 / 5

Buy or Try? Buy

More? 3 / 4 so far. Unsure of how many there will be total...it was initially to be a trilogy.

Content

Plot: 2.5 / 5

Setting: 4 / 5

Characters: 3 / 5

Style
Pace: Middlin'
Descriptiveness: Prose

Fantasy factor: High Fantasy

Amazon.com link 

Challenges: 2011 Fantasy Reading Challenge, Read Me Baby One More Time