Today’s instalment of Fantasy Friday is the follow-up trilogy to Witches of Eileanan by Kate Forsyth, Rhiannon’s Ride. I started reading this around the time that book two came out, hence it being in trade paper, but I think I didn’t pick up book three before I left Australia, so had to wait until I returned for a visit to pick up the third book (the series not being available in the UK at the time).

This trilogy picks up several years after the conclusion of Witches of Eilanan. It was good to visit some of the characters I had come to love in the series, and to see what had become of them, but this book was centred around a new character, one of the satyricorns. We do however get back to the capital, and there is a significant plot built around characters from the original story. It’s hard to say too much about this trilogy without introducing potential spoilers for Witches of Eileanan, so here’s the blurb from the back of book one instead.

One-Horn’s daughter is not like the other satyricorns. Born of a human father, she has failed to grow the horns so prized by her kind. Soon the satyricorns will kill her – and even if she runs away, their swift hunters will find her in the end. If she could only capture one of the magnificent winged horses of the high mountains, and stay in its back long enough to fly far away, she might escape.

So begins a journey that will take her towards danger, death, love and betrayal – and give her a new name: Rhiannon, the rider that none can catch.

Travelling with a group of apprentice-witches, Rhiannon can sense what her human companions cannot: there are dark walkers about, and those who wish ill upon Eileanan. But can the humans trust the word of a wild and fierce satyricorn girl.

I’m glad I read the series, as it was nice to visit the world again. But it’s not a series I would reread, like I have Witches of Eileanan. It read quite young. In so many ways it wasn’t a match for the first series. I still own the books, but I expect I will release them into the wild eventually. Whereas the original series will stay in my collection until they are falling apart, or I am.