The Serpent's Shadow

Rating:
Summary: Nice, Enjoyable Time Spent Reading
Review: The Serpent's Shadow will never make it into the lists of the worlds greatest literature. It's not a particularly deep, profound or moving work. The writing it fair, the pace adequate, measured rather than slow. The characters are rather well done, this is not a particularly long book and the depth of character description is appropriate for its length.

Sounds like a nice average book? Maybe, but I really liked it. It was a fun, fairly quick read. The story was interesting, a little intrigue and a little romance. I found the descriptions of the Victorian/Edwardian London particularly interesting and the romance/courting under their very strict moral codes highly amusing and somewhat refreshing. There isn't a lot of action and no sex so if you were looking for that kind of story you'd be better off elsewhere.

The Serpent's Shadow is the first of a series. Well there seems to be two in the series anyway (The Gates of Sleep being the other). They enjoy the same universe but otherwise are totally independent stories, you do not need to read one to understand the other.

I like this book enough I had to buy it to keep for my own, in hardcover no less. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and highly recommend it to anyone looking for a little fun.

Rating:
Summary: The worst book she's written
Review: I really luv Misty, but this book was a real let down. She has 3 novels running @ once, and doesn't have enough space to finnish them all. The sufragettes are on once, she is taught once, and she falls i luv w/ Peter after the 4th time they met. The end was pretty exciting, but it came to a stop when you didn't even know why the goddes closed her eyes to Shivani. It also contradicts the Suffragette theme that Maya declares herself her man. I really didn't like it. But the person who said the events were wrong, Misty said in the inside cover, some of the events were going to be not the write time, look at the inside cover.

Rating:
Summary: Pitiful and unbelieveable but otherwise good
Review: I like ML. I've enjoyed many of her book, at the worst they are pandering adolescnt power fantasies - but hey sometimes one is in the mood for candy like that. Some of ML's attractive bits are in this book - the characters are usually likeable, and the setting is pretty cool.

However, the conflict is not believeable, nor are the political views of the viewpoint character at all credible, or even self-consistent. If ML wanted to write a book about a magicly empowered 20th century Western woman thrown back into the turn of the century - she should have written that. As it stands, the character couldn't possibly be a product of her times and given backstory, and it just grated more and more.

SPOILERS
As the book wore on, I stopped wondering if there was any danger to in the conflict, to wondering if they would take ANY LOSS AT ALL. And NO, they don't - they completely overpower the opposition in every encouter and in every respect, and the viewpoint characters are ONLY vidicated, they never learn anything or mature at all. Gak.

Rating:
Summary: A book for mystery buffs, action lovers, and fantasy seekers
Review: The Serpent's Shadow

The Serpent's Shadow, a novel by Mercedes Lackey, is a fantasy dripping with mystery, action, adventure, and even a little romance! This astounding novel is one of my all-time favorite books. It is about a young girl named Maya, who has fled her homeland of India to live in London, England in the later 1800's. She has to work hard against discriminating male doctors to earn her well-deserved doctor's license. Despite all nasty insults, Maya puts on a brave face every day to pursue her cause; helping the people. Lackey uses such tremendous detail that you can't help getting mad at the injustice of it all. However, this is the least of Maya's problems. Besides fighting for her rights, Maya is fighting a mysterious enemy that has been trying to get rid of Maya's family since the day Maya was born. An enemy that is actually her own flesh and blood; she is her Aunt Shivani. With time running out, Maya must learn to use her magic to protect herself before she falls into the serpent's hands.
Peter Scott, a young shop owner, is the one to help her. He is also an elemental master (a magician), and is the only one willing to help Maya summon up her power. Unknowingly, both of them fall deeply in love. When Maya nearly meets the same fate as her deceased parents, it is up to Peter to save her before it is too late.
This delightful story, with a distinct parallelism to the classic tale of Snow White, is a lovable story to be treasured forever.

Rating:
Summary: Finaly! Something good from Lackey!
Review: After the disaster that was OwlFlight/Sight/Etc it looks like she's finally found something new to work with. This is a brand new world and adventure, safely leaving the wellworm Valdemarian and Elves by the wayside.

This book is a wonderful indication of how Lackey can write when she is given free rein and free imagaintion. It's well paced, a tad under charactorized at times, but on the whole a fantastic read for her current fans. (And new fans besides!)

I'll be keeping an eye out to see if there are any more books forthcoming in this world... *crosses fingers*

Rating:
Summary: Hurrah for Lord Peter!
Review: I enjoyed reading this take-off on the Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs theme and its concern with the early 20th century suffragist movement as well as its portrayal of the struggle of women doctors to become recognized in their profession.
What I enjoyed reading most especially were Mercedes Lackey's homage to D. L. Sayer's Lord Peter Wimsey novels and particularly her tribute to "Gaudy Night". There was one almost word for word quote that I caught which I thought particularly delicious ("No one, having put a stamp to a letter, has ever been known to change his mind about sending it.") The epilog in the format of letters to and from ancillary characters was another characteristic Sayers' touch which I found endearing.
I was also interested to find the cameo appearance of Detective Crider who reminded me rather a lot of Edgar Wallace's Mr. J. G. Reeder.
Altogether a bravura performance and I look forward to reading others in this Elementals Masters series.

Rating:
Summary: I LOVED this book
Review: I absolutly loved this book. And you know what? I didn't even realize that it was based off Snow White until I came here and read the other reviews. And I don't think it was "preachy", as another reviewer said, and I don't think it deserved to be nit-picked for historical inaccuracies. I think it was wonderfully told, and I liked the Elemental Magics a lot. I liked Maya's, and Peter's characters a lot too, I really connected to them. All in all, this book is definatly worth a read, and in my opinion, definatly worth buying!

Rating:
Summary: More preachy fiction....
Review: As many readers of this series of novels, I *loved* The Fire Rose. When Serpent's Shadow was released, I immediately bought the hardcover. What a mistake.

I don't know about the historical inaccuracies, so they didn't bother me too much. What did get to me was how Lackey bashed the reader over the head with suffragism and women's rights to control procreation. I am all for birth control. I have absolutely no desire to read a book that PREACHES birth control. While I understand her beliefs, I simply could not read the book and think that the character was so purely gung ho about this -- it seemed more like the character was USED to get Misty's point across.

This has become (unfortunately) something of a certainty in her books. The very, very, very good heros combating modern evils. In the case of Valdemar, they are traditional evils like degredation of women, kidnapping, child abuse, etc. This is good, as her heros become really heroic to our modern tastes, and it really does make the good vs.evil split very defiinite for younger readers. However, in her latest works these explorations are getting out of hand. She has given up trying to blend them in (as with Child Abuse in Magic's Pawn) and has just left them lying all over the book like landmines.

I don't know if Misty has in mind that her "themes" are going to change the world, or simply get her opinion to the masses, but I was looking for simple good fiction and was dreadfully disappointed.

The religion aspect was interesting, however, though I found most everything else in the book at least a bit believable. I also wanted more of the magical interaction that we were given in Fire Rose -- more ritual, more information of this loose alternative world that Misty is creating. Unfortunately, I didn't find it this time.

Rating:
Summary: The Book Needed an Editor
Review: bI don't usually nit pick fantasy books. However, when a book very clearly connects with this world's history and plain old gets it wrong, it annoys me no end.

The front flap of the dust jacket said the book was set in 1909. Then one of the characters quote Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. Saint-Exupéry was born in 1900. I don't think he was publishing at the age of 9. The Lord Peter character, as distinguished from the male romantic interest, is clearly Lord Peter Wimsey (Dorothy Sayers creation) and he (per his creator)was born in 1890, so he would have been 19 years old at the time of this story. Not nearly old enough to be a trusted agent of the Foreign Office.

The hunger strike by Suffragettes only began in July 1909 and the first hunger striker was in fact released, not force fed. The force feedings came later and no one actually died from one-- only one Suffragette (Emily Davison) died as a result of protest activities and she was savaged by a horse when she ran onto the track and grabbed it's bridle.

There was also a reference to King Tut and his Great Wife. Tutankhamun's tomb was not discovered until 1922 and the archeaologist was Howard Carter not Harold Carter. However, the author was right about Egyptomania being an influence on home decorations even before that event. She was wrong in thinking that common household articles were not yet given Egyptian style. Long before Tutmanis struck, it was possible to find home funishings and decorations inspired by Ancient Egypt.

While retelling fairy tales can result in interesting books, trying to force a book into the fairy tale mold is not necessarily a good idea. I didn't even think of the fairy tale theme until the villain shows up dressed up as an old woman and by that time it seemed more of a casual add-on than an intregal part of the plot. I also resented the fact that the heroine, until that point a competent person, suddenly has to be rescued by the hero.

A little more attention to detail would have made this a much pleasanter read.

Rating:
Summary: Great Flash Back
Review: This was the first Lackey book I'd read since highschool ( almost 9 yrs ago) where I read the Magic's Pawn,Price,& Promise triology, and I was so amazed at how the book took me back. The basic frame of how the storyline went skillfully jumping from one scene to another has left me anxiously awaiting Pheonix and Ash the book that follows Serpent's Shadow. When I read about Vanyel, Lackey made me fall in love with him, his plight, and I cried and smiled at his tragedies and triumphs; the same occurred with Maya, I laughed, smiled, cried, and rejoiced as her character did. Lackey, in my eyes is a gifted writer, the emotions of her charaters have in every book I have read by her, always been conveyed to my mind and heart. I hope others who read this book feel as I do. Thanks for reading.. read on for the books of today and yester years shape the minds of our future..