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After her extremely successful Under the Never Sky trilogy, Veronica Rossi’s sophomore project is finally here, and I dare say it’s slightly different from what her readers expected. Told from a male point of view, Riders is based on the New Testament story about the Four Horseman of the Apocalypse. In her story, Conquest, War, Famine and Death are reincarnated (or rather embodied) as four teenage boys, all of whom had to die in order to become what they are.

Our narrator is one of the Four Horsemen, War. Gideon tells his story retrospectively, to an interrogator in an unknown government facility. He is there after being arrested for a crime that has yet to be revealed and he begins his story with the moment of his untimely death. With Gideon narrating his story in such an odd way, some of the urgency is gone and we’re left merely trying to catch up. The pacing is rapid, but we already more or less know how things end, which takes away at least some of our tension.

Rossi was always very good with details, which is true in this book as well. Although we don’t get nearly enough information about Gideon (War) himself and the extent of his powers, the horsemen and their horses were very interesting to read about. There is so much potential here, endless possibilities for weapons, abilities and weaknesses. We’ll hopefully learn more in the upcoming sequel.

In an effort to make Gideon’s love interest Daryn appear more mysterious, Rossi made her compassionless and inaccessible. From the start, Gideon’s insta-attraction seemed superficial and made very little sense. The more he was deceived and outright lied to, the more he admired Daryn and claimed he understood her. That type of romance is fairly difficult to like, but it might turn into something more substantial in the next book, which will be told from Daryn’s perspective.

The next book, Seeker, will be told from Daryn’s perspective. I obviously didn’t much care for her in this book, but I trust Rossi to skillfully turn that around.