Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Well, I will say I was exceptionally hesitant to try any more books in this series. Mirror Sight (the previous book in case any of you are new to the series) was a disaster. Nothing short of an absolute disaster. The author took a fantasy series and switched genres for a steam punk novel that accomplished...oh, nothing. I decided to give this series one last shot, and while this book is definitely a vast improvement, I do not know if I'm interested in continuing it. For the record, I normally stick with series all the way to the end, even if I don't enjoy them, as I like the completion satisfaction finishing a series delivers, but Green Rider...well it's no longer what it was. One of my biggest complaints about this series is the lack of resolutions to a lot of the original plot lines. The wall? Still no progress. A couple books ago at least we were still in the "We can fix it! We can't fix it! We can heal it! We can't heal it! We learned something important! Wait, scratch that...that was a fail too" aspect that, while irritating, at least implied there might be a resolution to that original line (started in book 1 people, we're on book 6). And that's not even the only still open plot line. A second complaint is Ms. Britain is not a great author at shifting points of view. In fact, she's my absolute least favorite author to do so. And, unfortunately, Firebrand does it a lot. There were an annoying amount of her short point of view shift chapters, that didn't add a ton to the story, and could have easily been cut. Most of those point of view shifts added new thread lines (which, we do not need any more!), but thankfully most of them sort of resolved themselves so maybe a following book will be better (very much doubt this as she's been adding more and more view points each book instead of less). As a result, we see Karigan, but as she is the main character (or was, originally, I don't know if we can say that anymore), I would like to see MORE of her. While, yes, the book did return to it's main timeline, characters, and just a hint of it's old feel...there is just too much going on, and in a bad way. I like complex books, with multiple characters, races, and events going on, but only when it's done right. I'm starting to feel like Ms. Britain is overextending her ability, and I'd much rather a book with more intense focus on very specific characters than one that feels kind of like a meandering drunk. And the length for the story we were delivered was too long. With the multiple view points taking away from the feel, rather than adding to it, the book was easily about 300 pages too long. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE long books. It took me only 4 hours to read Firebrand, so it's not the fact it's a long book, but the fact it is a long, very often BORING one. I didn't care about the ice element. I didn't really care about Anna. Navi was not needed. I could care less about Estora (can she please get killed off already?!), and some of the other view point shifts were useful, but I would have preferred them from another source. As a whole the book failed to deliver because there was too much background noise (writing) to make it enjoyable. Also, let's not forget Karigan is still moping over her "boyfriend from the future" whose existence in the series at all pretty much destroyed it for me. It definitely changed our strong willed heroine, and not in a good way. She mopes over her "loss" of a man she shouldn't have gotten involved with (or remembered, don't even get me started on how Yate's pictures shouldn't exist...huge ball drop on that one, Ms. Britain), and then, to make matters worse. She still mopes over Zachary. Karigan has to be in her 20's now, and she's more of a lovesick child in this book than I find enjoyable. Unfortunately the Zachary/Karigan relationship agenda sort of progresses (which, if you care--I don't-- don't get your hopes up as it's just more of Ms. Britain's teasing) which may be one of the very few things that does. The ending also was too rushed. The whole book centered around Karigan's mission to find the lost race and try to form an Alliance with them. At the VERY end of the book (I think it was 15 pages) we get an introduction/conclusion all in one short go, which, following the rest of the story, was a huge disappointment. I feel like that section needed to be longer. Or, since it happened basically at the end of the book, something needed to happen after that continued the results of that event. The book is 800 pages - 15 pages dedicated to the whole point of the mission seems a bit stupid. Enver...I don't even know how to correctly express my lack of interest and frustration with this whole thing. He's just barely interesting, but the interactions with him and Karigan (especially at the end) were just forced, foolish, and really, why in the world would Ms. Britain add that part in? I also agree with fellow readers: Ms. Britain needs to stop torturing her main character for no reason. I am getting sick and tired of Karigan getting these extensive injuries for really poorly constructed reasons. One or two, fine, as she has a dangerous job, and it would make sense, but we're past that now, and I dislike authors who torture their characters as a cheat to keep the book interesting. Small hint: it doesn't. What it does due is irritate several of us readers, and make us even less inclined to pick up the next book. Given how many other reasons there are not to pick up the next book...it may be best not to add to them. I wouldn't mind Karigan getting injured on occasion for reasons that made sense, but I am sick of her just being forced through situations that feel drastically overwritten/played. So, yes, this book was better than Mirror Sight. We got back to the original feel (sort of) of the books. Despite that though, it was a huge disappointment, and I am not certain I'm sticking around for 7/8. At this point, I think the series needs a conclusion fast, and I think Ms. Britain's editors need to put a word count cap on her books (for the record, this comes from a reader who generally wants word count restrictions LIFTED) so she might actually resolve more of her plot lines, have less of these random side character point of views, and return even more to the original feel of the series.