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Finisterre #2
Cloud's Rider
On a distant planet, all the native creatures communicate telepathically, projecting images which drive humans to madness. As a result, the people live in walled cities and owe their lives to the nighthorses, equines who can bond with certain riders and provide a telepathic "buffer". But one savage winter, young Danny Fisher and his nighthorse Cloud lead the survivors of a deadly telepathic attack to shelter high in the snowbound mountains--only to discover their "sanctuary" threatened by a vicious predator never before known to humans. Sequel to "Rider at the Gate".
464 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1996
5 people are currently reading
362 people want to read
About the author
C.J. Cherryh
293 books3,571 followersCurrently resident in Spokane, Washington, C.J. Cherryh has won four Hugos and is one of the best-selling and most critically acclaimed authors in the science fiction and fantasy field. She is the author of more than forty novels. Her hobbies include travel, photography, reef culture, Mariners baseball, and, a late passion, figure skating: she intends to compete in the adult USFSA track. She began with the modest ambition to learn to skate backwards and now is working on jumps. She sketches, occasionally, cooks fairly well, and hates house work; she loves the outdoors, animals wild and tame, is a hobbyist geologist, adores dinosaurs, and has academic specialties in Roman constitutional law and bronze age Greek ethnography. She has written science fiction since she was ten, spent ten years of her life teaching Latin and Ancient History on the high school level, before retiring to full time writing, and now does not have enough hours in the day to pursue all her interests. Her studies include planetary geology, weather systems, and natural and man-made catastrophes, civilizations, and cosmology…in fact, there's very little that doesn't interest her. A loom is gathering dust and needs rethreading, a wooden ship model awaits construction, and the cats demand their own time much more urgently. She works constantly, researches mostly on the internet, and has books stacked up and waiting to be written.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews
April 23, 2014
Wow! Both this book and the previous (Rider at the Gate) form a very tight sequence told over a short winter season. The edgy, dangerous, spooky ambience of these books are a delightful terror to read. Every storm, every slip, every gunshot resonates with a wierd otherness that is captivating. I literally couldn't stop reading these books until I finished, and it was a hell of a ride! As is usual with Ms Cherryh's writing, her characterisations are superb. This book is more 'serious' than the first, but given the escalating circumstances for the protagonists, this doesn't detract! Highly recommend.
January 27, 2016
Cloud's Rider is the second and final book of the Finisterre series from prolific science fiction and fantasy author Cherryh.
Part two starts off right where part one ended, with the inexperienced rider Danny and his nighthorse Cloud taking responsibility for two orphaned boys and their sister, a girl who had been a surrogate rider for a "rogue" horse and may be permanently brain damaged by the experience.
Right from the very first page I felt transported right back to the harsh, arctic planet with its desolate, huddled human populations and their three toed, carnivorous horses, intelligent beasts with the ability to send their thoughts externally, simultaneously transmitting human thoughts through the "ambient".
I have only ever read a handful of Westerns, but I have seen countless movies, so I think I understand the genre enough to recognise that Cloud's Rider is, like its predecessor, a superior example of that genre, despite being set on an alien planet and generously imbued with supernatural elements.
As a writer, Cherryh excels in both the detail she brings to her ecologies and the empathy she evinces for her characters. The dialogue, pure cowboys and indians, never feels forced, the action unravels at its own, unhurried pace. The only criticism I can level at this sequel is that the ending doesn't quite justify the accumulated suspense that she spends so much time bringing to a pitch.
Finisterre is a beautifully realized world and the only pity is that Cherryh, a prolific writer with a number of science fiction series' behind her, has never returned to it.
The planet has an entire side of hostile wilderness that the human population has yet to discover. A third part following an exploration into there by a posse of riders and nighthorses would be very welcome!
Part two starts off right where part one ended, with the inexperienced rider Danny and his nighthorse Cloud taking responsibility for two orphaned boys and their sister, a girl who had been a surrogate rider for a "rogue" horse and may be permanently brain damaged by the experience.
Right from the very first page I felt transported right back to the harsh, arctic planet with its desolate, huddled human populations and their three toed, carnivorous horses, intelligent beasts with the ability to send their thoughts externally, simultaneously transmitting human thoughts through the "ambient".
I have only ever read a handful of Westerns, but I have seen countless movies, so I think I understand the genre enough to recognise that Cloud's Rider is, like its predecessor, a superior example of that genre, despite being set on an alien planet and generously imbued with supernatural elements.
As a writer, Cherryh excels in both the detail she brings to her ecologies and the empathy she evinces for her characters. The dialogue, pure cowboys and indians, never feels forced, the action unravels at its own, unhurried pace. The only criticism I can level at this sequel is that the ending doesn't quite justify the accumulated suspense that she spends so much time bringing to a pitch.
Finisterre is a beautifully realized world and the only pity is that Cherryh, a prolific writer with a number of science fiction series' behind her, has never returned to it.
The planet has an entire side of hostile wilderness that the human population has yet to discover. A third part following an exploration into there by a posse of riders and nighthorses would be very welcome!
June 24, 2021
Just excellent, excellent prose and a world I adore, but (whispers, ashamed) it's too darn slow. The emotional through-lines from book #1 just don't go anywhere, particularly Danny & Guil and Guil & Tara. While the ending took an enjoyable hard turn into creature feature, it was also wildly inconclusive and seemed to end arbitrarily. That said, I'm extraordinarily glad someone introduced me to these books, and still hold them up as just about the best possible example of magical-animal stories for adults.
April 22, 2018
This follow-up to 'Rider at the Gate' follows on almost immediately where the first novel leaves off. The winter is now setting in fully, and Dan Fisher, the young "greenhorn" rider of the first novel is maturing fast under the weight of responsibility thrust upon him, though still making mistakes. He and his nighthorse, Cloud, have to escort two teenage boys and their comatose sister to the next shelter up the mountain - because a nighthorse, whose rider was shot in the first book, is following them, and Dan dreads what might happen if the girl, Brionne, wakes up and bonds with the horse. In the first book, she did so with a rogue animal driven mad by its rider's death and in doing so, destroyed her whole village community.
I won't say too much about the setup of this alien planet and its telepathic life, as I covered that in my review of book one. Suffice to say, this is much more the story of Dan and the older of the two boys, Carlo, and both are anxious not to let on too much about what happened previously when they finally have to shelter in the next village up the mountain, a place called Evergreen. But the various villagers have their own agendas, and Dan is torn this way and that, trying to protect the boys but also trying to shield the villagers from what might happen if another rogue horse has followed them there. All complicated by the fact that anyone near a nighthorse has enormous difficulty in keeping secrets.
I enjoyed this book more than book one because it seemed to have less of the chopping and changing around between characters and the almost stream of consciousness writing which attempted to characterise nighthorse communication. There are still words shown in pointy brackets, but the narrative is far easier to follow. The characters of Dan and the boys are well developed, and there are other interesting minor characters such as the riders at Evergreen, and the doctor who takes in Brionne and has her own hangups.
The main thing that let down the story for me towards the end was the focus on another menace in the 'Ambient' - the general telepathic background generated by the native lifeforms. Certain storylines had been set up through most of the story to do with the villagers' plan to decamp to the boys' village as soon as the weather allows so that they can start claiming it before the other villages find out. That was shaping up to be an interesting story of mixed motives and plain all-out greed - the lost village needs to be resettled because it is low enough down the mountain to be the HQ for all trade in and out of the mountains and without it, the other villages will face enormous difficulties with trade and hiked up prices - but people can also see the personal benefits of settling there, such as a milder climate, control of the re-established trade, opportunities for enlarged businesses and an escape from having to put up with the problems caused by miners, among other motives. But that all comes to nothing in the end because the story veers off to deal with the renewed problems caused by Brionne, plus an out-of-left-field bonding with a nighthorse.
There was presumably meant to be a sequel that might have delivered some of what was promised, but the events towards the end of the story wreck key elements of that, as certain characters are removed from the narrative one way or another and would no longer be part of the migration to the first village. For example, certain characters scheme to take over the property that the boys have inherited, but this comes to nothing because they are killed off. The book didn't need the mcguffin introduced at the end - there would have been enough interest in the various human conflicts. I also found it difficult to believe that Carlo could be allowed to benefit from his "crime" in the way suggested despite the mitigating circumstances. So for these reasons, the book loses a star in rating and I can only give it a 4 rating.
I won't say too much about the setup of this alien planet and its telepathic life, as I covered that in my review of book one. Suffice to say, this is much more the story of Dan and the older of the two boys, Carlo, and both are anxious not to let on too much about what happened previously when they finally have to shelter in the next village up the mountain, a place called Evergreen. But the various villagers have their own agendas, and Dan is torn this way and that, trying to protect the boys but also trying to shield the villagers from what might happen if another rogue horse has followed them there. All complicated by the fact that anyone near a nighthorse has enormous difficulty in keeping secrets.
I enjoyed this book more than book one because it seemed to have less of the chopping and changing around between characters and the almost stream of consciousness writing which attempted to characterise nighthorse communication. There are still words shown in pointy brackets, but the narrative is far easier to follow. The characters of Dan and the boys are well developed, and there are other interesting minor characters such as the riders at Evergreen, and the doctor who takes in Brionne and has her own hangups.
The main thing that let down the story for me towards the end was the focus on another menace in the 'Ambient' - the general telepathic background generated by the native lifeforms. Certain storylines had been set up through most of the story to do with the villagers' plan to decamp to the boys' village as soon as the weather allows so that they can start claiming it before the other villages find out. That was shaping up to be an interesting story of mixed motives and plain all-out greed - the lost village needs to be resettled because it is low enough down the mountain to be the HQ for all trade in and out of the mountains and without it, the other villages will face enormous difficulties with trade and hiked up prices - but people can also see the personal benefits of settling there, such as a milder climate, control of the re-established trade, opportunities for enlarged businesses and an escape from having to put up with the problems caused by miners, among other motives. But that all comes to nothing in the end because the story veers off to deal with the renewed problems caused by Brionne, plus an out-of-left-field bonding with a nighthorse.
There was presumably meant to be a sequel that might have delivered some of what was promised, but the events towards the end of the story wreck key elements of that, as certain characters are removed from the narrative one way or another and would no longer be part of the migration to the first village. For example, certain characters scheme to take over the property that the boys have inherited, but this comes to nothing because they are killed off. The book didn't need the mcguffin introduced at the end - there would have been enough interest in the various human conflicts. I also found it difficult to believe that Carlo could be allowed to benefit from his "crime" in the way suggested despite the mitigating circumstances. So for these reasons, the book loses a star in rating and I can only give it a 4 rating.
May 9, 2020
This is the direct conclusion to "Rider at the Gate" and it picks up at the end of the first book (so you definitely should read that one first). Like the first book, it has a complicated plot revolving around different character groups that come together at the end. The dangers from the first book continue in a much smaller town high up a mountain. Danny is carrying many secrets and he isn't sure if he should tell the riders living in the small village exactly what had happened. Can he trust them? There's also children involved and Danny is concerned about them.
A lot of this story is about greed, anger, jealousy and other dark emotions. Emotions flare, plots are schemed and bad things happen...things that involve blood on the snow..but who did it? Will the correct person be blamed or will it fall on to an innocent scapegoat? There's more stray (or rogue) horses and even something more deadly than a rogue horse, something from out of the High Wild. The last portion of the book is intense..lots of danger.
The characters are all wonderfully complex and very real with great backgrounds. Like the lazy bully from the blacksmith shop to the depressed lady doctor who starts to come out of her sad mood when she has a young girl to care for that resembles her dead daughter. Some you feel dad for like the lady doctor and the bully you really hate.
There are more human-Nighthorse pairings. And while this book is more about the humans dealing with problems and less with the horses, I still really loved it. It's just a wonderful story. In fact I've read this one much faster. In some ways it was more suspenseful I think. Once certain things about the greed was made clear, you just knew there was going to be big problems! Greed and a bunch of scummy characters is never a good combination - but in a story plot it's great!
I have a pretty good idea of what it was that came out of the High Wild..I do wish the author would write more about that. Or maybe she has. I need to check..
I am satisfied with the ending and I'm glad that this book took a different route than the first one in a particular plot point.
I also want to say a little about the cover image. I do wonder what it that at the far end of the bridge, the thing with all of the tall pointed spires? I've never seen anything like that in nature. Could that possibly be the wall around their town? Or is that something growing there, an alien forest? It does seem to continue into the distance so maybe it is the wall. I admit one thing I enjoy about reading science fiction and fantasy novels are the cover images. The first book had some cute creatures on it too...I think they were supposed to be the Goblin-cats. I liked the expressions on their faces.
A lot of this story is about greed, anger, jealousy and other dark emotions. Emotions flare, plots are schemed and bad things happen...things that involve blood on the snow..but who did it? Will the correct person be blamed or will it fall on to an innocent scapegoat? There's more stray (or rogue) horses and even something more deadly than a rogue horse, something from out of the High Wild. The last portion of the book is intense..lots of danger.
The characters are all wonderfully complex and very real with great backgrounds. Like the lazy bully from the blacksmith shop to the depressed lady doctor who starts to come out of her sad mood when she has a young girl to care for that resembles her dead daughter. Some you feel dad for like the lady doctor and the bully you really hate.
There are more human-Nighthorse pairings. And while this book is more about the humans dealing with problems and less with the horses, I still really loved it. It's just a wonderful story. In fact I've read this one much faster. In some ways it was more suspenseful I think. Once certain things about the greed was made clear, you just knew there was going to be big problems! Greed and a bunch of scummy characters is never a good combination - but in a story plot it's great!
I have a pretty good idea of what it was that came out of the High Wild..I do wish the author would write more about that. Or maybe she has. I need to check..
I am satisfied with the ending and I'm glad that this book took a different route than the first one in a particular plot point.
I also want to say a little about the cover image. I do wonder what it that at the far end of the bridge, the thing with all of the tall pointed spires? I've never seen anything like that in nature. Could that possibly be the wall around their town? Or is that something growing there, an alien forest? It does seem to continue into the distance so maybe it is the wall. I admit one thing I enjoy about reading science fiction and fantasy novels are the cover images. The first book had some cute creatures on it too...I think they were supposed to be the Goblin-cats. I liked the expressions on their faces.
November 21, 2017
Cherryh's "Rider at the Gate" and "Cloud's Rider" are part of her experiment with the Western genre. However, the author is doing more than placing cowboys in space or creating a "Wagon Train in the stars" or costuming a la Han Solo or "Firefly", in fact, she has invented a new High Plains Drifter and a society dependent on upon him. This stories are also an exploration of the nature of telepathic societies and its relationship with the mindblind.
Both stories pivot around the relationship of the cowboys and their "horses". However, these are not your normal equines, rather, they are alien four-legged carnivores with telepathic abilities. Nor are they beast of burdens but intelligent beings who choose to enter symbiotic relationships with their riders. This symbiosis has enabled humans to survive on a planet where all fauna have evolved telepathy as an adaptive mechanism.
The stories are exciting and action driven, and, in fact, more violent than C.J.'s normal work - this is the Wild West re-envisioned in the stars after all. Culture clash is as always the point and in these books it is literally on everybody's mind. As always the author delivers the goods.
Both stories pivot around the relationship of the cowboys and their "horses". However, these are not your normal equines, rather, they are alien four-legged carnivores with telepathic abilities. Nor are they beast of burdens but intelligent beings who choose to enter symbiotic relationships with their riders. This symbiosis has enabled humans to survive on a planet where all fauna have evolved telepathy as an adaptive mechanism.
The stories are exciting and action driven, and, in fact, more violent than C.J.'s normal work - this is the Wild West re-envisioned in the stars after all. Culture clash is as always the point and in these books it is literally on everybody's mind. As always the author delivers the goods.
March 18, 2019
The threat of another rogue sends Danny and the Goss kids up the mountain to Evergreen, on the edges of known land. Where the first book was interesting worldbuilding and engaging tropes cascading into a too-neat ending, this is almost the reverse: tedious, mundane social tensions building to a worldbuilding-heavy climax that still relies somewhat on the coincidence that burdened the first book, but which pays off character arcs and the unsettling, unknown setting. I read this for the bond animal trope, and I love Cherryh's id-heavy take on it even more here than in the first book, if only for the presence (and diversity) of new bonds.
But I find myself hung up on the issue of Brionne.
But I find myself hung up on the issue of Brionne.
June 7, 2022
I really really like this book and I'm so butthurt that Cherryh has seemingly abandoned us mid-series, with an unsolved mystery to plague us forever.
I like this even better than Rider at the Gate. Either I've gotten used to the ambient thoughts or she smoothed out the way she wrote them, because they don't jar me at all in this one. I'm a little confused still on just what makes a rogue- Spook seems almost as potentially dangerous as Moon- but another read-through or two may straighten that out. I've read both books before, but not one after the other like this and I may have missed something.
The writing is so compelling and beautiful. I love her writing so dang much.
But I NEED to know what happens with Brionne, dammit!
I like this even better than Rider at the Gate. Either I've gotten used to the ambient thoughts or she smoothed out the way she wrote them, because they don't jar me at all in this one. I'm a little confused still on just what makes a rogue- Spook seems almost as potentially dangerous as Moon- but another read-through or two may straighten that out. I've read both books before, but not one after the other like this and I may have missed something.
The writing is so compelling and beautiful. I love her writing so dang much.
But I NEED to know what happens with Brionne, dammit!
April 9, 2022
I liked this book better than the first Finisterre book, mostly because it's not as confused and constantly stressful. And I like seeing Carlo and Danny have a platonic will-they-won't-they vibe where Danny's like "villagers don't hang out with riders, that's just how it is :(" and Carlo's like "oh no did I piss Danny off??"
March 29, 2019
Ja, jag ska nog ge upp på den här för stunden, i alla fall. "Rider at the Gate" var en helt okej rymd-western men den här lossnade aldrig riktigt, trots att jag fortfarande gillar världsbygget och relationerna mellan ryttare och hästar.
October 5, 2022
Better than the first in the series, and now I want to read more.
April 6, 2023
Only criticism? It's too slow. Otherwise would've been a 5 for me.
May 19, 2023
Cherryh writes so well, totally immersing you in the complex worlds she builds.
August 2, 2025
Picking up right where the last book left off, rookie rider Dan Fisher has to bring two boys and their deranged comatose sister up a perilous mountain. And they’re not the only creatures headed up the mountain, dun dun duh!!!!
So this book falls in the tragic category of being the middle part of a trilogy that never was finished as it ends on a big cliffhanger. There’s a lot more character focus in this book but the plot is really front and back loaded leaving a big meandering couple hundred middle pages.
If you really loved the characters and world of the first book it’s worth a read but I’d recommend most readers refrain and just leave the first book as a stand alone adventure.
So this book falls in the tragic category of being the middle part of a trilogy that never was finished as it ends on a big cliffhanger. There’s a lot more character focus in this book but the plot is really front and back loaded leaving a big meandering couple hundred middle pages.
If you really loved the characters and world of the first book it’s worth a read but I’d recommend most readers refrain and just leave the first book as a stand alone adventure.
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January 2, 2014Sequel to Rider at the Gate. Clearly setting up at least one further book, which has never appeared. The completed emotional arc prevents the experience from being entirely frustrating. I wouldn't recommend reading it without the previous book.
Finisterre (I'm not sure the name of the planet ever appears in the text) is barely a subsidence planet: if the humans there hadn't lost contact with the rest of humanity, they'd probably leave. Most of the native fauna is telepathic to some degree, which means it projects absence and emptiness to entrap prey or nightmares to scare off predators. Radio attracts attacks. Humans live in one very small section of the world, isolated towns and villages linked by caravans protected by nighthorse riders. Luckily, nighthorses bond with humans, because they're pretty much the only thing on Finisterre keeping the human race alive. They are three-toed, ferocious, and fond of bacon.
Cherryh's take on the companion animal fantasy is both sideways and satisfying. The nighthorses are dangerous and probably about as smart as their namesakes; the riders are despised instead of venerated. But the human-nighthorse bond fulfills all the trope's requirements for emotional intimacy. The plot both follows the typical pattern of a newly bonded partner learning to communicate with their companion and subverts it:
Following right on the conclusion of Cloud's Rider, Danny Fisher and his horse Cloud are attempting to get a party of villagers to winter shelter: two brothers and their comatose sister, who is transported on a travois. He misjudges the distance and ends up struggling through a blizzard to reach a village; he'd wanted a more isolated shelter, because there are good reasons the girl, even comatose, shouldn't be sprung on a large population.
The book opens with a young man lost, hungry, desperate, and dealing with extreme weather conditions, and closes with the revelation of just exactly how little humans know about the world they're on. In short, it is typical Cherryh, which is fine if you like Cherryh, and I do.
Finisterre (I'm not sure the name of the planet ever appears in the text) is barely a subsidence planet: if the humans there hadn't lost contact with the rest of humanity, they'd probably leave. Most of the native fauna is telepathic to some degree, which means it projects absence and emptiness to entrap prey or nightmares to scare off predators. Radio attracts attacks. Humans live in one very small section of the world, isolated towns and villages linked by caravans protected by nighthorse riders. Luckily, nighthorses bond with humans, because they're pretty much the only thing on Finisterre keeping the human race alive. They are three-toed, ferocious, and fond of bacon.
Cherryh's take on the companion animal fantasy is both sideways and satisfying. The nighthorses are dangerous and probably about as smart as their namesakes; the riders are despised instead of venerated. But the human-nighthorse bond fulfills all the trope's requirements for emotional intimacy. The plot both follows the typical pattern of a newly bonded partner learning to communicate with their companion and subverts it:
Following right on the conclusion of Cloud's Rider, Danny Fisher and his horse Cloud are attempting to get a party of villagers to winter shelter: two brothers and their comatose sister, who is transported on a travois. He misjudges the distance and ends up struggling through a blizzard to reach a village; he'd wanted a more isolated shelter, because there are good reasons the girl, even comatose, shouldn't be sprung on a large population.
The book opens with a young man lost, hungry, desperate, and dealing with extreme weather conditions, and closes with the revelation of just exactly how little humans know about the world they're on. In short, it is typical Cherryh, which is fine if you like Cherryh, and I do.
July 22, 2012
This sequel to Rider at the Gate reads as if the author had done little more than have a cup of coffee between novels. It takes up right where the previous novel left off with the characters pursuing their fates without a literary hiccup. Danny Fisher, the young rider of the nighthorse Cloud is trying to reach high country shelter and relative safety for the three Goss kids; all survivors of the Tarmin village massacre. Their premature entry into the high country village, Evergreen, brings conflict and unease into its midst. Populated by residents who seem more willing to rub shoulders with each other than typical towns with rider camps, a great deal of intrigue and scheming takes place anyway, spurred by the arrival of the Goss boys, Randy and Carlo and the sister who rode the rogue horse in the last book, Brionne.
As in the previous tale, there is a disturbing presence in the "Ambient" which poses a threat to the little community. the problem is that the identity of that threat is difficult to discern. Avoiding spoilers, it is still safe to say that the outcome is not only somewhat surprising, but also uncertain as pertains to future events. However, inasmuch as 16 years have passed since this book's publication, I don't imagine there is any chance for a third tale at this point. Too bad. It would be fun.
As in the previous tale, there is a disturbing presence in the "Ambient" which poses a threat to the little community. the problem is that the identity of that threat is difficult to discern. Avoiding spoilers, it is still safe to say that the outcome is not only somewhat surprising, but also uncertain as pertains to future events. However, inasmuch as 16 years have passed since this book's publication, I don't imagine there is any chance for a third tale at this point. Too bad. It would be fun.
March 12, 2009
C.J. Cherryh is well known for her ability to develop wonderful ecosystems for the worlds she creates. Even though her worlds are fantastical, they always speak to what is most human. In Rider at the Gate and its sequel Cloud's Rider, Cherryh does not disappoint. We get a mostly recognizable landscape inhabited by previously starfaring humans and the native telepathic fauna. Among the native fauna of this unnamed planet is the fierce and intelligent nighthorse. Nighthorses are curious and addicted to the thoughts and emotions of the human mind and often choose a particular human to be a "rider." The symbiotic relationship that develops between nighthorse and rider is a strong connection meant to be mutually beneficial but sometimes results in a pairing of devastating proportions. Within this alien system Cherryh builds a beautiful coming of age story that captures the often painful and baffling aspects that accompany the human journey to adulthood -- desparate feelings of longing, loneliness and a desire to be independent yet "fit in."
Cherryh is known to take quite a bit of time developing her story and I suggest patience when starting this set. I didn't feel completely drawn into the story until about page 150 of the first book, but after that point couldn't put the books down.
Cherryh is known to take quite a bit of time developing her story and I suggest patience when starting this set. I didn't feel completely drawn into the story until about page 150 of the first book, but after that point couldn't put the books down.
July 13, 2016
This was a re-read.
I really enjoyed this book. Dan, Carlo and Randy have made it back to the high-mountain town of Evergreen, but the issues that began in Rider at the Gate have not resolved. Brionne regains consciousness and still has the psychic powers that caused the issues in Tarmin in the first place. Randy Harper's horse followed them out of the mountains and is a potential rogue, and the entire village now sees the Tarmin massacre as an opportunity and try to use Randy and Carlo to gain legal rights to salvage.
It's really not a stand-alone book. It probably should be combined in one volume with Rider At The Gate. But both books are full of very vivid world-building, with sympathetic characters who hold different points of view and motivations.
The telepathy, which is--less telepathy and more a combination of imagery and empathy, is unique too. What was interesting is that it's NOT completely under conscious control: if someone becomes distressed around the Nighthorses, the feeling is broadcast and amplified and it'll spook every person/horse in the vicinity.
The dialogue is particularly strong in this book. Even without writing in dialect, I "heard" the voices of the riders in a laconic drawl.
Trigger warning for these books for child harm and child death, and the standard thorny "is sex under irresistable mental compulsion actually consensual" problem.
I really enjoyed this book. Dan, Carlo and Randy have made it back to the high-mountain town of Evergreen, but the issues that began in Rider at the Gate have not resolved. Brionne regains consciousness and still has the psychic powers that caused the issues in Tarmin in the first place. Randy Harper's horse followed them out of the mountains and is a potential rogue, and the entire village now sees the Tarmin massacre as an opportunity and try to use Randy and Carlo to gain legal rights to salvage.
It's really not a stand-alone book. It probably should be combined in one volume with Rider At The Gate. But both books are full of very vivid world-building, with sympathetic characters who hold different points of view and motivations.
The telepathy, which is--less telepathy and more a combination of imagery and empathy, is unique too. What was interesting is that it's NOT completely under conscious control: if someone becomes distressed around the Nighthorses, the feeling is broadcast and amplified and it'll spook every person/horse in the vicinity.
The dialogue is particularly strong in this book. Even without writing in dialect, I "heard" the voices of the riders in a laconic drawl.
Trigger warning for these books for child harm and child death, and the standard thorny "is sex under irresistable mental compulsion actually consensual" problem.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 8, 2013
This story starts exactly where 'Rider at the Gate' finishes. Dan Fisher, after helping to defeat the rogue horse, is trying to get the Goss children to safety. With Guil injured and Tara reluctant to help Brione, he is left to negotiate the snow laden trails by himself. But a stray horse is stalking them, after losing its rider, Harper, it now wants to join with another human. Harried and scared, Dan ends up taking them all the way to Evergreen village, where they seek shelter within the walls. As their secrets are revealed, the Goss Brothers find themselves first reviled, then courted, as rich survivors of the Tarmin disaster. Brione, at first unconscious, is taken to live with the Doctor, who has grief of her own. But the mountain isn't safe and a vicious predator that no-one has seen before, is scaring humans and natives alike. And when Brione awakes, full of the same anger and want, the whole of Evergreen, village and rider, must stand together.
I think this is the better of the two books, in that the world was already familier and the story hadn't the rushed feeling about it of the previous one. Brione is one horrible little girl - and I jope that she gets her comeuppance eventually! A very good read - I wish there were more books in the series.
I think this is the better of the two books, in that the world was already familier and the story hadn't the rushed feeling about it of the previous one. Brione is one horrible little girl - and I jope that she gets her comeuppance eventually! A very good read - I wish there were more books in the series.
December 7, 2012
This book picks up right where Rider at the Gate left off, with the survivors heading for shelter. But shelter doesn't solve all their problems, and the wildly varying motivations of the people around them (something Cherryh handles very realistically) make their lives uneasy. Then there's Rider-less horse who seems to be stalking them. And most dangerous of all, the human girl they brought with them.
My chief objection to this book is that it's the last one. Cherryh hasn't written another one in this universe, even though the ramification of the events at the end of this book simply BEG for a sequel.
May 13, 2016
You really do need to read the first book to understand what is happening in this sequel.
It starts where the 1st book stopped.
Plot develops slowly. It primarily focuses on how the humans try to handle a planet where the indigenous life communicates in thoughts and feelings (including deceptive thoughts, i.e. to convey to a passing animal that there is nothing here to worry about, but the predator is really there stalking its potential meal).
This sequel has a greater focus on relationships and how human interactions are changed by the peculiar conditions of this planet (i.e. you have to watch your thoughts around the nighthorses because they are strong transmitters).
Very intriguing concept, this book had more plot than the first, but the plot still seemed secondary. This was more like an ethnographic study.
It starts where the 1st book stopped.
Plot develops slowly. It primarily focuses on how the humans try to handle a planet where the indigenous life communicates in thoughts and feelings (including deceptive thoughts, i.e. to convey to a passing animal that there is nothing here to worry about, but the predator is really there stalking its potential meal).
This sequel has a greater focus on relationships and how human interactions are changed by the peculiar conditions of this planet (i.e. you have to watch your thoughts around the nighthorses because they are strong transmitters).
Very intriguing concept, this book had more plot than the first, but the plot still seemed secondary. This was more like an ethnographic study.
February 10, 2017
While yes, a good deal of this book is internal monologue, it's that psychological-thriller aspect of it that I loved most. The tension from Rider at the Gate is neatly carried forward and amplified in the remote and beleaguered village, and we get to see Danny grow even further into a responsible, cool-headed rider. I particularly enjoyed getting to know Carlo better. In the first book, he blends to the background more, a foil for the development of other characters, but in Cloud's Rider, all his complexities and conflicts are revealed.
Rider at the Gate and Cloud's Rider are two of my favorite books to pull down from the shelf on cold winter nights, and every time I reach the end of one, I yearn for another adventure with these characters.
Rider at the Gate and Cloud's Rider are two of my favorite books to pull down from the shelf on cold winter nights, and every time I reach the end of one, I yearn for another adventure with these characters.
December 11, 2011
Ok this was another excellent and intrigueing book written by C J Cherryh. It is set in the same universe that many of her books occupy but takes place on a 'lost' colony though the people are aware of their roots. It is a sequel to one of her other books Rider At The Gate and continunes almost immediately after this book. The charecterisations are sharp and clear and the world she creates is stark in many of its depictions. There's an underlying threat that runs throughout the book caused by the thirteen year old girl in the book. Many of the villagers in Evergreen that she is taken to regard her as an innocent party it only as the book progresses that they realise that she is no the innocent that she appears! A great book that deserves a sequel!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 19, 2010
Read during a period in my middle school years where I was really into horses. Girlish interests aside, this book was slow but really quite psychological and fascinating, taking place in a world where the native fauna are telepathic and can wreak havoc with the human colonies. Dark alien horses that take an interest in humans help protect them from the wild world outside.
May 12, 2015
Wow was this creepy! I really liked it, but it really earned the tag horror. Not awfully graphic, but the atmosphere builds and builds, and the twists and turns are unexpected. If you like frontier planet stories and horse stories, this is for you. You don't need to read the first book in the series, but it was good, too.
February 27, 2013
The plot is hard to follow in some places due to vastly differing social viewpoints and an unnecessarily switching main character, but it is regarded as a classic, which I respect, yet I can't help but to think he could have written it in a more suiting atmosphere.
July 11, 2015
This is the follow-up to Rider at the Gate and picks up where the first book left off. I liked this one better than Rider at the Gate because there is a little more action and somewhat less time spent in Danny's head. But they are both excellent reads by a master of the craft.
May 5, 2008
Nice follow up to Rider at the Gate but much too much of the plot is internal monolog while lost in snow. Get on with it!
September 21, 2013
I liked it. I liked seeing how Danny matured and the conclusion of what had started in Tarmin.
October 10, 2014
Just can't get through this one. I am finding the writing style choppy and hard to follow.
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