Details Based On Books The Serpent's Shadow (Elemental Masters #1)
| Title | : | The Serpent's Shadow (Elemental Masters #1) |
| Author | : | Mercedes Lackey |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | Special Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 394 pages |
| Published | : | March 5th 2002 by Daw Books (first published 2001) |
| Categories | : | Fantasy. Fiction. Romance. Fairy Tales. Magic |
Description During Books The Serpent's Shadow (Elemental Masters #1)
Mercedes Lackey returns to form in The Serpent's Shadow, the fourth in her sequence of reimagined fairy tales. This story takes place in the London of 1909, and is based on "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs." Lackey creates echoes of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, pays affectionate homage to Dorothy Sayers's Lord Peter Wimsey (who plays an important role under a thin disguise), and turns the dwarves into seven animal avatars who masquerade as pets of her Eurasian heroine, Maya.Some of Maya's challenges come from the fact that she is not "snow white," and she has fled India for her father's English homeland after the suspicious deaths of her parents. Establishing her household in London, she returns to her profession as a physician, working among the poor. Her "pets" and loyal servants stand guard, and Maya herself uses what bits of magic she managed to pick up in childhood to weave otherworldly defenses as well. But the implacable enemy who killed her parents has come to London to search for her; if Maya can be enslaved, her enormous potential powers can be used to the enemy's ends. Fortunately, English magicians of the White Lodge have also noted a new, powerful presence in their midst, though they're having trouble locating her, too. They send Peter Scott, a Water Master, to track her down. He finds Maya beautiful and benign, and is determined to teach her to use the Western magic she is heir to, before her enemy discovers her.
Some will find the author's Kiplingesque descriptions of India and Hindustani culture offensive. Lackey describes Maya's enemy as a powerful devotee of the goddess Kali-Durga, though she carefully shows that the avatars of the other deities will not attack her, and has Kali-Durga repudiate her servant in the climactic confrontation. And, though the story is layered, its surface is as glossy and brightly colored as an action comic. But readers who enjoy late Victorian London, Sayers, Sherlock Holmes stories, and a page-turning tale will want to take this one home. --Nona Vero
Identify Books Conducive To The Serpent's Shadow (Elemental Masters #1)
| Original Title: | The Serpent's Shadow |
| ISBN: | 0756400619 (ISBN13: 9780756400613) |
| Edition Language: | English |
| Series: | Elemental Masters #1 |
Rating Based On Books The Serpent's Shadow (Elemental Masters #1)
Ratings: 3.99 From 9563 Users | 361 ReviewsWrite-Up Based On Books The Serpent's Shadow (Elemental Masters #1)
I enjoyed The Serpent's Shadow, but not nearly as much as Phoenix and Ashes. The Serpent's Shadow is a bit more twee (for lack of a better term). It has seven animal companions that behave not at all like pets. And, since the story takes place before Phoenix and Ashes, I already knew some of the plot points. I also wasn't entirely comfortable with the depiction of India in the book. And finally, while there are a few elements that are reminiscent of a fairy tale, it really isn't a re-telling,Mercedes Lackey was at her best with The Last Herald-Mage Trilogy because of the realness that Vanyel's ambivalence about his life gave the series. There wasn't just an existence of good guys and bad guys, and the guys that did things that were bad but repented in the end; but, since then, this shallowness has become fairly typical of Lackey's work.The main character, Maya Witherspoon, is a horrible person. She's shallow, thinks rude and ugly things about Amelia (the girl who is her "friend")
I have read Mercedes Lackey book's for several year's now, but I never tried the Elemental master's series. I was lucky to be giving the first one in the series as a gift. I will definitely be continuing the series. This one in about Maya Witherspoon and the trouble from her past that won't let her go. Family secrets and an old family enemy are at the heart of this novel. Also her life as a doctor in the early 1900's. This is a great mix of history and fantasy. I recommend this book to all who
If you follow sci-fi/fantasy fandom at all, you've probably come across Kameron Hurley's excellent essay We Have Always Fought . It's worth reading in its entirety, but one of the points it touches upon is the importance of narrative in human culture-making; specifically, how a majority narrative about a group will skew your views of that group, even when you're aware of that bias and actively work against it.I bring this up because the strongest impression this story made upon me was how it
This book was really and truly terrible, with poor character development and weird expositional interludes that went nowhere. It was also pretty tone deaf about issues around race, gender and class. Somehow, I didn't completely despise it though. It had the same kind of awful charm that B movies do and I love a good bad movie.
Goddammit. If I end up reading this entire freaking series just because of the Wimsey homage character, I swear I will....not be surprised. Okay, so, there's an egregious amount of dialect, and the handling of Hinduism is maaaaaaaaybe a step and a half above Temple of Doom, and the author is clearly v. proud of how she's handling issues of race in Edwardian England with a heroine whose mother was Indian, and while you're totally aware she's tanking it most of the time, you don't realize how much
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