Spoilers ahead. 1.5 stars for an entertaining story that has absolutely no place in this series.
This is the 5th book in the Green Rider series which up until now has been an entertaining and well written, story-driven fantasy complete with its semi-historic fictional setting, magic, and adventure. In this book, the protagonist is thrust forward in time and the entire book takes place in a distant steampunk future which is ultimately irrelevant because she escapes back to her own time in the end which changes the future. Thus all those characters are meaningless and the story and trauma is pointless.

The good - In the steampunk future where an empire has overthrown sacoridia and magic is all but extinct, Karigan finds herself lost and alone. She makes friends blah blah blah none of it matters because it essentially didn't happen. However, the story is entertaining if you can somehow forget that you're supposed to be reading a fantasy novel about a strong headed woman with magic and a destiny.

The bad - I could not forget that I was supposed to be reading a fantasy novel about a strong headed woman with magic and a destiny. Admittedly, I have no interest in steampunk fantasy so this was DOA for me. First, a few critiques of the storyline and writing. In this book Karigan is not herself, she is a weak, boring protagonist that doesn't drive the story so much as she is just along for the ride. This book has elements of political writing and realism as Britain creates a future society dependent on slavery and a society in which women are second class citizens to be seen and not heard. I appreciate the desire to write about these topics. In another book, it would make sense. However, in the middle of an established series with characters that have already been defined and are beloved by the readers, this book is nonsensical and out of place. The story line of the Green rider series has not been moved forward at all. You could safely assume this entire book is "filler" material and from what I have read, although the story returns to the green rider universe in the remaining novels, the addition of filler material to stretch out the series is an ongoing problem.

I think my advice for anyone that wants to stick with the series is to skim this book. There were whole pages that I skipped when it was apparent that they were absolutely useless. Maybe even skip the book and read a review? ( )

I don't think I had any of the problems a lot of readers had with this book -- though I will admit I went into this novel knowing that we ended this novel, where we ended Blackveil, too, but I am no surprised or enraged by this idea. I don't see why people weren't expecting more time hijinks/lessons/mishaps as Karigan's powers to cross boundaries grow. We've seen her go to the past, and this time we got to see her go to future.

.....if I have any problem with the time traveling it's with the fact the timetraveling isn't done in the normal loop, and thus creates a number of plotholes and realistically (if this weren't hand-wavedly the same two universes), they'd have to be two completely different ones since the future was never impacted by the return that would have already happened to the future, even before she returned.



I'm no less invested in the Karigan-Zachary-Estora dance, and I don't feel like the internal tension between Karigan and Zachary has changed through this, based on the text itself. I am glad she found some companionship and comfort, and I think the anti-pregnancy is going to come back and bite the story in the back. I love Mapstone in both of these last two books so much. ( )

The Green Rider series has always been a series I have greatly enjoyed. I do think the first few books are the strongest in the series but there are other books later in the series that are quite good too. My biggest complaint is the slow speed at which these books are published. These are a fun high fantasy read. ( )

This continues the character development of Karigan as her feisty, self confident character is painted on a more conservative (some would say woman oppressive) society. This causes the story to move slower as she has to work within the framework of this future society. I don't think is a spoiler to say she wishes to change this future. Give this one patience, in the end it will fit well in the Green Rider framework. ( )

This book focuses almost entirely on Karrigan and while it is a good read it's a slightly slow book compared to the others. It also leaves out a few details. ( )