Well, I can formally say that all my predictions for Mirror Sight by Kristen Britain were wrong. As for my final verdict on the book: it was largely a waste of time. It reads like filler, a story that has no real bearing on the great arch of the world.
So what went wrong? The primary culprit was the time travel. This was a problem in many different ways.
First, the reader was disconnected from the Green Rider world. The fantasy medieval setting with its largely equal views on the role of women and hate of slaves was replaced with a repressive society. Two hundred years in the future, women are treated more like Victorian Era ladies, to be barely seen and rarely heard. In fact they are to wear fully covered bodies and long veils. Further slaves abound (mostly to show how Evil the future is). This was disconcerting in many ways. While the author tried to use Karigan’s perspective to show how bad society in the future was, it was all tell and no show. It came across as preachy and utterly unnecessary. The entire set up of the Green Rider world with its strong female characters does more for equality than Mirror Sight’s long-winded rants ever could.
Book 4 in the series. I was not fond of this one either.
The steampunk elements served no apparent purpose in the world other than making it different. Long sections were spent describing some of the mechanicals. This bloated the book but added nothing as the descriptions were not engaging. There was no sense of wonder when reading about Enforcers. In fact, machines seemed to be present as further evidence the Emperor was Evil. If anything was to come out of it, I would say the author was once again expressing a negative (preachy) view against technology.
Finally, being in the future stripped the reader of all their favourite secondary characters. Personally, I feel the previous books became too tangled with secondary plot lines and additional points of view. So in principal I appreciated the more focused story telling in Mirror Sight. On the other hand, we had glimpses of other characters, teasers, to remind us that we would certainly be returning to the ‘proper’ time. This lessened all the experiences of the future. Ultimately, the author undercut her long-winded novel herself when she returned Karigan to the past (the main-character’s present) with hints the future was completely changed (unmade) and the main character now forgetting all her experiences (because they never happened). If this doesn’t scream Waste Of Time, I don’t know what else would.
Now, I might have been able to forgive such terrible set up if the writing had been brilliant. It wasn’t. This was the least engagingly written book in the series. After a little thought, I believe there were a couple of very obvious and correctable problems. First, it was by far too long. I don’t know the word count of a novel with 770 pages, but it felt like it was well over 300 000 words. The author cannot even claim that she was rushed and didn’t have time for editing as it has been three years since Blackveil.
Book 5 in the Green Rider Series.
Another complaint (that I will reiterate from the previous mess of a post) was the long exposition about what was happening without ever doing anything. Description is both good and important. However, every chapter in the book should serve a purpose. The first half …. Hell, the entire book dragged because of its inflated word count and lengthy paragraphs of explanation. The book should NOT have summarized every previous novel. It should NOT have described events like a log-book of a scientist. The reader didn’t need the information and they can read the earlier works to better understand the references. Also, I am pretty sure it was repetitive in its descriptions. One clear example stands out. About 4/5 into the book Karigan ‘explains’ her experiences from Blackveil (previous book) to another character in the world. The reader gets a one page paragraph rehashing old information. This could have been handled in several ways. For example one sentence could have been used to indicate what Karigan was talking about (topic only). Or Karigan could have related her experiences in dialogue in some interesting manner.
Further, the character development was weak and often last minute. There was little progression of the characters and when they did ‘grow/change’ it was rushed, requiring more paragraphs of explanation. For example, the kindly Professor that shelters Karigan is driven to turn against her. The explanation of why he is doing this comes mostly as he is giving her a large dose of morphine (or the fantasy world equivalent). Now, I will grant the lead up to this decision was not entirely out of nowhere. It was not well structured, but not entirely surprising. However, within two sentences, the Professor instantly regrets his decision, has a complete about face, helps Karigan to escape and kills himself in part to protect her. Really?! If it only took 10 seconds for the character to go from betrayer to martyr why did he have to betray her in the first place?
Like the above, there were too many instances when characters did things only to drive the plot. Which is amusing as this was the slowest moving plot in the world. But while Miriam never betrayed Karigan, the Professor, Arhys, and Luke all did. Why? Well, we were given explanations as needed to help explain why these characters did what they did. Sure, the explanations were reasonable, but that doesn’t change the feeling everything is more than a little contrived.
Book 1 in the series. The best book I think.
Finally, I would like to take a moment to indicate how disappointed I am with the manner in which the Author dealt with her other great creation, the Black Shields (Weapons). This order of elite swordfighters has dedicated their lives to their monarchs. They are cultish in their oaths and highly secretive. Yet, throughout all the books the Author has teased her readers with the idea of ancient order of Weapon masters. In the first books there was just enough mention and reaction to the Weapons to make their mysteriousness intriguing. However, here we are in book 5 and the Author is trying to incorporate a Black Shield (well, a want-be-Weapon) into the story. Now is the time to unravel some of the mysteries, at least to the reader if not the main character. Only she still only teases about the goals and beliefs of the Weapons. Why? Well, I have come to the conclusion the Author does not herself know anything about this elite order. It is a great shame, because this was an opportunity for her to do something new and interesting that was still tied to the familiar world of the ‘past’.
I could continue to complain about the introduction of p’hedrose (half human half moose creatures – which don’t make any sense), the suggestion of a half-Eletian (half-elf), the tediously drawn out relationship between Karigan and her King (please let it end) or any other of things that irk me. But I won’t.
Instead I will say in my own self-defence that I do not hate everything. In fact I am still quite fond of the first Green Rider book. It was good. It was fast paced. I had magic, adventure, structure and compelling characters. Even the second book, though much dark, held a world in change. So, while I might not continue with this increasingly ridiculous series, I will fondly reread the Green Rider (book 1) periodically.