Rating: 
Summary: On the Hindu spots
Review: I'm a computer consultant, 45 years old. Many of my collegues are people from India and quite a few enjoy science fiction and fantasy. I have been very interested in India and the Raj for several decades.
I'm sorry that more research wasn't done for the book. I generally buy Mercedes' books in hardcover, (and am very happy with the money spent) but I never even touched the hard cover book, and only picked up the soft cover on impulse.
Alternate history or not, it doesn't stand up on the India theme. If India were to become a land of magic with animal avatars, there had to be a way it would become that. I found my disbelief not suspended over the marriage of the "brahamin" woman Surya, and the enimity of her sister, Shivani.
The Thugee had been pretty much wiped out BEFORE the Indian Mutiny, in the mid-19th, and Shivani's anger at the Raj simply doesn't seem to have any personal basis. There was nothing in the book to suggest something triggered it, she simply "turned" to the dark and away from her sister before her sister's marriage.
From what I know of the culture it is highly unlikely a young brahamin woman would become a "priestess" or Sanyatsu. They are (still) groomed for marriage exclusively even when highly educated.
Several of my collegues read the back of the book and croaked at once, one sputtering on the idea of animal avatars, and I got an earnest 20 minute lecture on a religion that I am reasonably familiar with. I let him speak and express his frustration with the portrayed distortians of his religion.
It wasn't the Kali stuff that got them on the sore spot, but the myriad of animal avatars. Pity. I hope ML chooses a culture she knows better next time, since even these things didn't destroy her ability to create likable characters... More Tregarde, please!
Rating:
Summary: Too many inaccuracies for me...
Review: I am a devoted fan of Ms. Lackey and was looking forward to having something new of hers to read. This book was a disappointment for me.
She sets the book in London 1909, but her male character is selling Egyptian reproductions, sorry but the craze for Egyptian items did not really explode until 1922 and the discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb by Carter. Next BIG problem is with a character that is almost completely lifted from classical English detective novels, I prefer the original to her version.
If you don't have these kinds of problems with Edwardian culture, then please read it.
Her characterization is strong, the dialogue is good, and her setting is excellent. This is also an excellent companion to her "The Fire Rose"...if you can deal with her lack of knowledge of Britain.
Rating: 
Summary: The Other Books...
Review: I think that the other books in the "series" are The Fire Rose, The Black Swan and The Firebird, but I am not sure. This is a great book, as are the rest.
Rating:
Summary: Very much liked it
Review: I loved this book. It was so completely different from the Valdemar series, and the elven series. New world setting, new magic system based on Elemental Forces rather then on ley lines and nodes. i found that aspect absolutly enchanting. I haven't yet read Fire Rose but now knowing that it was the first and this the second i do plan on picking it up.I have a problem however with people that attack the book on flimsy, and superficial reasons. When i read a book i don't worry about how accurate the facts are, though when they are wrong i do get annoyed, but i don't get annoyed to the point that i consider stopping reading the book. I'm a male, and i'm white, so i don't know what the womene's suffrage movement went through in england, was never covered in my classes, heck the suffrage in THIS country was lightly touched on. The plot of this book held my attention, and while i do agree that the romantic part of the plot was a bit flimsy, it was still very nice. I thought that Maya's attitudes towards the poor and the wealthy were fairly good. Most poor people, in any time, if they go against a powerful or rich person, they will lose. the rich and powerful have better lawyers, and more connections. not always, but is often so unfortunately. I don't know much about the Hindu relgion, but i dont' think that it portrayed Hindu as a negative relgion as it was quite clear that the villain was insane. there are negative aspects to pretty much every religion. and in a story, those are aspects that are going to come up. a story about christian religion will probably focuse more on Satan then God. This is my opinion. Read the book, permit the 'suspension of belief' that you should with the book, and simply enjoy it for the story that it is, and you will thoroughly love it!
Rating: 
Summary: Not bad, but...
Review: This is just, well, lacking something. I like Mercedes Lackey's
writing in general, particularly her older work, and she has chosen quite an interesting world/mythology to write in here, one she hasn't worked in before, to my knowledge. But something is missing. It might be that things unfold too neatly and easily for the good guys. It might be that the characters aren't fleshed out very well. It feels like the book should be longer and considering the setting (London early 1900s) and type of adversaries, it should be grittier. Won't she please, please
write in the style of her first few books again??
Rating:
Summary: Misty Lacking
Review: I've been a fan of Misty Lackey's books for a long time, but this one fell short. The Sayers references were altogether too blatant, for one thing. What annoyed me the most is Peter's reference to Ankhsenamun, wife of Tutankamun, and the four lovely goddesses with her face that guarded his tomb. The tomb was discovered in 1922, and this story is set in 1909. Since the suffragette scholarship was so sound (a good point for the book), how did a huge anachronism like this get by?? It colored the story for me badly enough to spoil my enjoyment. She needs to write about some more interesting villains as well, not just ones who are bad because they are bad. Shivani had some promise in that regard, but that aspect of her character was never really developed, just hinted at. She could have been far more interesting.
Rating:
Summary: Promising, but disappointing.
Review: I had hopes for this being a good read: challenging, engrossing, and satisfying. Instead, I ended up finishing the book only by perseverance. I could have put it down at any moment and hardly cared. Lackey is trying to mimic the style of Elizabeth Peters, Carole Nelson Douglas, or even Judith Tarr, but without their well-developed characters and intricate plots. Maya Witherspoon could have been aninteresting character, full of magic, interesting pets, and career. However, she is thinly developed, the romantic relationship that ensues is transparent and shallow. I found myself wondering more about the backstory (why she left India) than the current one. In fact, this book falls prey to one of my main compaints about Lackey... being oversimplistic in some respects, and hammering in moral issues with the subtlety of a bulldozer. While it's nice to put Maya's medical career in perspective considering the turn of the century setting and women's rights at the time, Lackey handles this clumsily and hamhandedly. Perhaps she is not meant to be an adult author; she appears to write about moral/ethical issues with the mental underlining and emphasis of a schoolteacher trying to "sneak in" factoids to unsuspecting children. (Maya's adherance to cleanliness in the operating room, yadda yadda yadda...) I hadn't read Lackey in a while, as I'd gotten tired of her usual sword and sorceress characters, but a new setting and new characters haven't changed her style.
Rating:
Summary: Not This Misty Fan's Cup of Tea
Review: The Serpent's Shadow is, disappointingly, a jumbled rehash of Ms. Lackey's past work, material that has already been stretched thin. Where The Fire Rose (the first of her attempts to rewrite classic fairy tales) is fresh in its approach and stands as one of my all-time favorite books, The Serpent's Shadow struggles through a pale, undeveloped plot, see-through characters, and a villain that's absolutely ridiculous in her motivations and mannerisms. There's no element of surprise in this book whatsoever, and while Ms. Lackey's prose occasionally shines, it's all in a scene of a kind we've seen before from her. (Example, from The Serpent's Shadow: "She liked his handshake; strong without being over-bearing, a warm, dry hand, neither too familiar nor too distant." And from The Fire Rose: "His grip was firm and quite strong, and she had the feeling that if she had not been wearing gloves, she would have found his hand to be warm, the skin of his palm dry.") Ms. Lackey seems to be running out of steam and interest in her own topic throughout The Serpent's Shadow. The 400-page book leads up to a climax that is resolved in two pages, as if the author is as anxious to get to the book's end as the reader. While her characters are not completely devoid of personality, they're too one-sided -- the good guys are Beautiful People, kind, thoughtful, intelligent, witty, caring, etc, while the villains are motivated purely by greed or "evil"; after years of reading and admiring Ms. Lackey's work, I would very much like to see a villain that doesn't scowl and rely on "sex and blood magic" for his/her power. The book's primary villain, Shivani, is a pathetic caricature of a bad guy who brings the story to a lower, often eye-rolling level ("Then the campaign of terror would begin," we are told in one of Shivani's more melodramatic scenes; her reasons for playing a 'chess game of power and death' are weak at best). Coming after the brilliance of The Fire Rose, The Serpent's Shadow isn't much. Ms. Lackey contradicts the rules of Elemental magic that she herself set in the first book, where it had been established that Masters of the same element could not stay in the same vicinity without rivalries and difficulties. In London, where The Serpent's Shadow takes place, there is a whole club of Elemental Masters, who all seem to be living in the same city without any difficulty whatsoever. The characters and plotline of this book leave much to be desired. Maya Witherspoon, the heroine, is basically flawless -- beautiful, an accomplished doctor and surgeon at twenty-five, a powerful mage, and of course, selfless and liberal-minded. Ms. Lackey often goes off on tirades, via her characters, about the cruel and repressive upper class and especially the malevolence of men, as well as the never-ending struggling of the downtrodden poor, and while these are valid and important points, after a while it feels like we're being preached at. Not to mention that she can't seem to think of any new male names (there are two Peters, a Paul like in The Fire Rose, and a Simon -- again used in The Fire Rose). Maya's romantic interest is a Water Master (her Element is Earth; in The Fire Rose, the focus was on Air and Fire Masters), and from the moment we see him, it's obvious that they're intended to become romantically involved. There isn't any element of surprise whatsoever in The Serpent's Shadow, and from start to incredibly predictable ending, there isn't a moment that leaves one anxiously turning pages to see what will happen. Maya's story is supposed to be a retelling of Snow White, and Ms. Lackey throws in a few elements of the classic fairy tale -- magic mirror, seven guardians, poison, a life-saving kiss -- but never fully develops the parallel between the two stories. Her early twentieth-century London is never given much detail, though she will occasionally toss in a few British slang words as if to proudly prove that yes, she did her research, despite the fact that some readers might have no idea what she's talking about. And Maya's seven guardians -- the dwarf substitute -- are bound to offend some followers of Hinduism, as they are supposed to be the major Hindu gods -- given the form of pets. The gods' dazzling histories and personalities, which might have added some spark to the book, are never explored at all; they're used only as a convenient names to throw around. The Serpent's Shadow has a few well-written, fun scenes, and Elemental magic is an interesting topic in Ms. Lackey's hands. But the crumbling, transparent plot and pointless, shallowly crafted characters detract from what could have been a good book. For long-time Misty fans, The Serpent's Shadow comes as a disappointment. Those seeking a masterful, magical retelling of a well-known fairy tale should look to Ms. Lackey's The Fire Rose, and not to this uninspired imitation.
Rating:
Summary: Shades of Kurtz...
Review: The Serpent's Shadow is very very reminiscient of Katherine Kurtz's Adept Series. England is the setting, there's a lodge, there are Masters, you name it. The only difference pretty much are the characters. But the book was pretty good. I hope there'll be more books about Maya Witherspoon.
Rating:
Summary: Extremely good
Review: This book is a return of Mercedes Lackey to her old form. It tells the story of Maya Witherspoon, a half-British, half-Hindu medical doctor, who has moved to London to escape the enemy who has killed her parents. Returning to the world of "The Fire Rose", it uses the same system of Elemental Magic. This book draws you in, with excellent world-building, interesting supporting characters (including a very charming one based on Lord Peter Wimsey), and, for once, a villain who may be evil, but whose logic makes a twisted sort of sense. Although Lackey's explanations and sidelines do occasionally interfere with the plot and we never actually get to meet a Gnome, this is a very engaging, interesting and fun book. As another rater has said, "More like this, please!"
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