The Serpent’s Shadow

The Serpent’s Shadow (2001) Mercedes Lackey

Myra Witherspoon is half-Indian and half-English, and has followed in her father’s footsteps to become a doctor. Unfortunately for her, both her race and her gender work against her, in a society where women are still little more than possessions, and India remains a British colony. It is her determination and her magic that allow her to survive–even thrive–in a place so unlike where she grew up. The place she had to escape if she wanted to survivie.

There was so much about this book that I did like, I found it frustrating that overall the book left me with a sense of mild disappointment. I loved the integration of different mythologies and folklore: the mythology of India, the folklore of western Europe. Little bits and pieces were pulled into the story, yet managed to remain a coherent whole, just as Myra, with all her disparate parts, remains a coherent whole.

So, I liked the different bits that were added to the story. I liked the heroine, Myra. I liked the hero, Peter. The dialog was fine, as was, for the most part, the pacing of the story.

However, I hated the villain. Despite the multiple explanations, I never really saw why she did they things she did. She seemed to be acting evil solely for the sake of acting evil. Her motivations for her behaviors were unconvincing, and so I found her entire portion of the story both unbelievable and frustrating.

The same goes for the male “villain” who wasn’t so much a villain as an annoyance. He was flat and uninteresting; a spoiled brat who did things because he could, and got away with them because he was rich. He was boring.

So despite the many things I did like about this book, in the end, I didn’t particularly enjoy it, because the bad guys annoyed the crap out of me. There were no surprises–everything worked out precisely as I expected it to. All in all, the story just didn’t hold my attention or interest.
Rating: 5/10

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