She Who Rides Horses: A Saga of the Ancient Steppe by Sarah V Barnes is an exciting historical fiction adventure taking place some 6,000 years ago in which a teenage girl decides that instead of simply using the wild horses as food, she wants to ride one. From a modern perspective, the idea that anyone would find riding horses odd is a hard concept to follow. That is just what we do with them after all, but someone had to have come up with the idea at some point. Sarah V Barnes does a wonderful job of telling us the story of the domestication of horses while also giving us exciting characters and a thrilling adventure of near-death experiences, otherworldly visions, and romance.
She Who Rides Horses: A Saga of the Ancient Steppe by Sarah V Barnes as stated above is an exciting story. However, the story is also filled with colorful characters and well-researched aspects of the time the story takes place. How the people live in a historical fiction work is often as important as the story, as knowing how the day-to-day requirements of people work allow us to feel more for the characters as we understand their world better. Let’s be honest, the average reader hasn’t researched how life was 6,000 years ago, as such Barnes’s descriptions are spot on in helping you to understand the world as it was at the time her fictional story would have taken place. I will warn you though, that this story ends on an intense cliffhanger, leaving you champing at the bit for the continuation of this tale.