 First edition | |
| Author | Kristen Britain |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Donato Giancola |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Series | Green Rider (series) |
| Genre | Epic fantasy |
| Publisher | DAW Books |
Publication date | February 1, 2011 |
| Media type | Print (hardback) |
| Pages | 664 |
| ISBN | 978-0-7564-0660-8 |
| OCLC | 693779330 |
| Preceded by | The High Kings Tomb |
| Followed by | Mirror Sight |
Blackveil by Kristen Britain is a fantasy novel from 2011, the fourth book in the Green Rider series.
Blackveil Forest was once the home of the Eletians, a magical elf-like race. Corrupted and warped into an evil place by Mornhavon the Black during the Long War, the realm has been sealed away for a millennium behind the D’yer Wall, a magically enhanced barrier that has been neglected by the humans and the Elt for centuries. Strange occurrences in Blackveil Forest have escalated since the Wall was breached during the events of Green Rider . Both the Eletians and the Sacoridians need more information on what threats exist in the forest; the two races agree to a joint expedition to investigate what lies south of the Wall.
Rider Sir Karigan G'ladheon visits her family and informs them of the knighthood bestowed up on her at the end of The High King's Tomb . Upon her return to Sacor City, she finds her role as a knight draws her into in court life more than she’d like, yet she rarely sees King Zachary and his betrothed Lady Estora. She does keep running into the King’s cousin Lord Xandis Amberhill, who tries to learn more about Karigan’s ability to fade out.
At the Wall, Rider Alton D’yer is desperate to repair the breach but unable to do so. Estral Andovian, Karigan’s best friend and the daughter of the Golden Guardian, arrives and begins to heal the wall with her singing. Estral helps Alton and the other Riders gain access to the towers that span the length of the wall, where they can communicate with ancient sage like wizards who witnessed the creation of the wall. Estral and Alton fall in love and worry about how break their new relationship to Karigan.
King Zachary is furious when Captain Lauren Mapstone, the commander of the Green Riders and his closest confidant, selects Karigan as one of the members of the Sacoridian portion of the Blackveil expedition because of her past experiences with the forest and the Eletians. Their argument is overheard by the ambitious Lord Richmont Spane, who realizes that the King’s love for a commoner could jeopardize his cousin Estora’s upcoming marriage and spoil his own plans to expand his power in the kingdom. Spane arranges for one of his own loyal followers, a forester named Ard, to join the expedition so he can murder Karigan if she somehow manages to survive the dangers posed by the forest.
Karigan and the rest of the Sacoridian expedition – which consists of two Sacoridan soldiers, Ard, and Green Riders Lynx and Yates – rendezvous with six Eletians at the Wall on the day of the spring equinox as planned. Hoping to find comfort with Alton before heading into such a dangerous realm, Karigan takes the news of Alton and Estral’s relationship as a personal betrayal and parts with them on bad terms. Once in Blackveil, Karigan and her companions head for Castle Argenthyne, the ancient home of the Eletians. The Eletians travelling with her reveal that their goal is to rescue the sleeping Eletians who have been trapped in Blackveil, sealed within a pocket of time. The expedition faces many dangers during their journey through the forest; more than half its members dies, including Rider Yates and Ard.
On the day of the spring equinox, Captain Mapstone suggests that the King should find a way to distract himself from his anxiety over the Blackveil expedition. Zachary decides to go for a ride in the country with Lady Estora and an entourage. However, an assassination attempt is made upon the king's life. Zachary takes a poisoned arrow to the chest, leaving him near death. With the King's life and the state of the kingdom in the balance, Spane and most of Zachary’s closest advisors advocate for a deathbed wedding. The only two who object are Captain Mapstone, who is drugged and confined to the mending wing, and Lady Estora, who is blackmailed by Spane into following his orders. The wedding proceeds and the rite of consummation is performed while Zachary is too feverish to realize what is going on. Queen Estora, who by now has fallen in love with Zachary, learns of his true feelings when he calls out Karigan’s name while making love to her. The new queen enlists the aid of Green Rider Beryl Spencer to find evidence of Spane’s duplicity and he is arrested. Eventually, Zachary recovers and passes judgement on those of his advisors who betrayed him, but at Captain Mapstone’s intervention he decides not to invalidate his marriage to Estora.
Descendants of The Second Empire, led by the necromancer Grandmother, enter Blackveil Forest before the Sacoridians and Eletians to follow Mornhavon’s orders to awaken the Sleepers in the present. The Sleepers have been largely protected by the spirit of their Queen, but after their long confinement in the tainted forest, a few of the sleeping Eletians have been corrupted into evil, mindless, dark creatures. At least one of the corrupted Sleepers make it inside of one of the towers at the Wall; Alton kills that Sleeper and conveys the danger posed by the Sleepers back to Sacor City. Karigan uses her Green Rider abilities to cross the layers of the White World and to lead most of the Sleepers to safety in the past.
While still in Blackveil, Grandmother senses that Estral is strengthening the D’Yer Wall and coming close to discovering the magical strand of music that will repair the breach. Grandmother constructs her own spell and sends it to the wall. The dark spell strips Estral of her voice and transfers it to Grandmother’s mute granddaughter Lala, who can now begin her training as the next leader of Second Empire in earnest.
Karigan is once again forced to fight for her life against Mornhavon and a peculiar mirror-masked tumbler in the White Would who offers her the power to control the strands of the universe. Focused only on denying Mornhavon the thing he desires most, she destroys the mirror mask and tumbles through space and time, sending the surviving members of the expedition out of Blackveil in the process. She is saved from the endless blackness by the God Westrion, who deposits her in a sealed crypt, in which she is trapped and running out of air.
Meanwhile, Amberhill tracks down more of the pirates he originally encountered near the Berry sisters’ manor and takes one of the pirates, Yap, into his employ. Amberhill and Yap leave Sacor City and sail in search of the island that the dragon stone ring Amberhill now possesses originated from. Their craft eventually crashes into an island inhabited by a Yolande the sea goddess.
The Lady of the Lake is a name or a title used by several either fairy or fairy-like but human enchantresses in the Matter of Britain, the body of medieval literature and mythology associated with the legend of King Arthur. She plays several important roles in many stories, including providing Arthur with the sword Excalibur, eliminating Merlin, raising Lancelot after the death of his father, and helping to take the dying Arthur to Avalon. Different sorceresses known as the Lady of the Lake appear concurrently as separate characters in some versions of the legend since at least the Post-Vulgate Cycle and consequently the seminal Le Morte d'Arthur, with the latter describing them as a hierarchical group, while some texts also give this title to either Morgan or her sister.
Kristen Britain is an American author. She wrote Green Rider, First Rider's Call, The High King's Tomb, Blackveil, and Mirror Sight. The sixth book in the Green Rider series, Firebrand, was released February 28, 2017. The seventh book "Winterlight" was released September 2021.
The Silver Chair is a children's portal fantasy novel by C. S. Lewis, published by Geoffrey Bles in 1953. It was the fourth published of seven novels in The Chronicles of Narnia (1950–1956); it is volume six in recent editions, which are sequenced according to Narnian history. Like the others, it was illustrated by Pauline Baynes and her work has been retained in many later editions.
The Dark Is Rising Sequence is a series of five contemporary fantasy novels for older children and young adults that were written by the British author Susan Cooper and published from 1965 to 1977. The first book in the series, Over Sea, Under Stone, was originally conceived as a stand-alone novel, and the sequence gets its name from the second novel in the series, The Dark Is Rising. The Dark Is Rising Sequence is used as an over-arching title in several omnibus, boxed-set, and coordinated editions; but the title of The Dark is Rising is also used for the whole series.
Green Mansions: A Romance of the Tropical Forest (1904) is an exotic romance by William Henry Hudson about a traveller to the Guyana jungle of southeastern Venezuela and his encounter with a forest-dwelling girl named Rima.
Princess Gwenevere and the Jewel Riders, also known outside of North America as Starla & the Jewel Riders, is an American fantasy-themed animated television series aimed at pre-teen girl audiences and produced by Bohbot Entertainment in association with Hong Ying Animation Company Limited. It was internationally syndicated by Bohbot on their Syndicated Amazin' Adventures block, where it originally ran for two 13-episode seasons from 1995 until 1996. The show's plot follows the quest of the eponymous young Princess Gwenevere of Avalon and her two fellow teenage Jewel Riders, Fallon and Tamara, to find the seven lost enchanted jewels so they can stop the evil sorceress Lady Kale from taking over the kingdom. In the second season, the Jewel Riders receive more powers to compete against the returning Kale and the mighty new enemy Morgana for more magical jewels in order to rescue their banished mentor Merlin and restore harmony in magic.
Deltora Quest is the collective title for three distinct series of children's fantasy books, written by Australian author Emily Rodda. It follows the adventures of three companions as they journey across the fictitious land of Deltora, endeavouring to recover the seven gems stolen from the magical Belt of Deltora and defeat allies of the evil Shadow Lord. The series was first published in Australia in 2000 and has since been published in more than 30 countries. The series has sold over 18 million copies worldwide, including over 2 million in Australia. It is published by Scholastic in Australia and the United States. In most countries, the series is illustrated by Marc McBride.
Green Rider is the first novel written by Kristen Britain and is the first book in its series. It was nominated for the Crawford Award in 1999.
First Rider's Call (2003) is the second novel written by Kristen Britain and is the second book in its series.
The Forests of Silence is a fantasy novel written by Australian author Emily Rodda, and is the first book in the eight-volume Deltora Quest series. It was first published in 2000 by Scholastic and was awarded the "Notable Series in Children's Book of the Year Awards 2001: Younger Readers". The novel follows a teenage boy named Lief as he and his companions search the deadly Forests of Silence for the magical Topaz gem, one of the seven missing gems from the belt of Deltora.
The High King's Tomb is the third novel in Kristen Britain's Green Rider series.
The Twelve Houses series is a fantasy novel series by American writer Sharon Shinn. These books are notable for their marriage of two distinct genres: Sword and Sorcery and Romance. They take place in the mythical kingdom of Gillengaria which is ruled by good king Baryn.
In the myth and folklore of the Near East and Europe, Abyzou is the name of a female demon. Abyzou was blamed for miscarriages and infant mortality and was said to be motivated by envy, as she herself was infertile. In the Coptic Egypt she is identified with Alabasandria, and in Byzantine culture with Gylou, but in various texts surviving from the syncretic magical practice of antiquity and the Early Middle Ages, she is said to have many or virtually innumerable names.
The Cardturner is a novel written by Newbery Medal winner Louis Sachar and published by Delacorte Press in May 2010.
The Inheritance Cycle is a tetralogy of young adult high fantasy novels written by American author Christopher Paolini. Set in the fictional world of Alagaësia, the novels focus on the adventures of a teenage boy named Eragon and his dragon, Saphira, as they struggle to overthrow the evil king Galbatorix. The series was originally intended to be a trilogy until Paolini announced on October 30, 2007, while working on the third novel, that he believed the story was too complex to conclude in just three books.
Mirror Sight by Kristen Britain is a fantasy novel from 2014, the fifth book in the Green Rider series.
Firebrand by Kristen Britain is a fantasy novel from 2017, the sixth book in the Green Rider series.
Cursed is an American fantasy drama television series that premiered on Netflix on July 17, 2020. It is based on the illustrated novel of the same name by Frank Miller and Tom Wheeler. The set location of the series is the United Kingdom. In July 2021, the series was canceled after one season.
DCeased is a six-issue comic book miniseries published by DC Comics from May to October 2019. It was created by writer Tom Taylor and the artistic team including penciler Trevor Hairsine and inker Stefano Guadiano. The story takes place in an alternate Earth, where a corrupted version of the Anti-Life Equation has infected most of Earth's inhabitants with a zombie-like virus. Lois Lane acts as the series' narrator, detailing how the events took place over the course of a few weeks.
