Though it sometimes seems like there isn't much originality in fantasy books, stumbling upon a fresh fantasy series creates such a wonderful and exciting feeling. This book has sat, unread, on various shelves for nearly eight years, and I wish that I had picked it up sooner! It's a good story and certainly a  thrilling one! The level of excitement and suspense completely took me by surprise. Though it is has a high page count, those pages really fly by and by the end, I hit the Internet to see how many sequels had been written in the intervening years. Britain's writing style is strong. The book contains some beautifully crafted sentences and I will be keeping my eye out to add the remaining two books in the series to my shelves - where they will certainly not languish for another eight years! The hint of a romance between the young Rider & the king is a development that I hope takes place in the next novels. The magical background has a lot of potential for more stories, too and I am really looking forward to seeing where this series will go!