The Serpent Bride
category: fantasy, author:Sara Douglass
book 1 of Darkglass Mountainoriginal copyright 2007,
read in September 2010 (and before, a year or two ago...)
Agamedes' opinion: 6 out of 10
I enjoyed this book. I also enjoyed it the first time that I read it. Why did I read it a second time?When I picked up this book at the local library, I did not recognise it. As soon as I started reading -- it was familiar. Still... an Australian author, no PissWeakly review, need to write a review... Anyway: I was enjoying the book! So, read on...
This book is easy to read. Easy to enjoy. Satisfactory ending. Just don't expect a fairytale ending!
I've read one other book by Douglass, The Wayfarer Redemption. Which -- strangely enough -- I have also read twice. Well, not so strange: that one changed its name, just to confuse me. Anyway:
Wayfarer was, I think, Douglass' first novel. A whole lot of strong interesting characters, battles against evil, indifference and lust, and a to-be-continued ending. In books two and three of that trilogy the hero moved from general to leader to god. Then got the girl -- and died.
In Serpent -- he's back from the dead!
So too are lots of other characters from the first trilogy. Okay, they were not all dead, just otherwise disposed of. In Serpent, they all seem to be getting together again. Not that there's anything wrong with that! Then there's the main character... As far as I can tell, he was an un-deposed king in yet another Douglass book. Now, he's revealed as being the long lost heir to a very mythic and magical lord and master of all he surveys... Wow!
Still, the villains are new. (As far as I can tell, having missed many books in the sequence!) And they are evil, and overwhelming, and they pervert past minions to be even more nasty than before. Wow again!
Douglass has built a world. Now she is telling us long and complex stories of the people who live in that world.
The action is fun -- occasional sharp and brutal small fights, then entire cities are wiped out -- but action is not a main theme. The main theme... is tangled romance. Sure, the hero gets his army -- but he certainly doesn't get his girl! Not in book one, at least.
This is a Mills & Boon soap opera. Larger than life, over dramatic, over nice. This is, in other words, a lot of fun. With a very... possibly old... Mills & Boon view of gender roles:
The men are all handsome, sometimes unconventionally handsome. They are charismatic, amazingly so. Often driven. Deeply emotional, often deeply flawed. One of the gods puts the millennia-old plans at risk because he wants to bed the heroine...
And the women are strong -- but subservient. One woman displays her inner strength by slapping the god (in human form ) -- and then looking down in embarrassment and fear! Ooooohh! The main role for women is, it seems, to seduce and be seduced. All the "real" work is done by men. Flutter... blush... swoon.
Easy to read, no real need to have read the previous books. I have the next book in this series -- and look forward to continuing the saga.
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