When I received a review copy of The Serpent Bride, Book One in the DarkGlass Mountain saga by Sara Douglass, I was a bit apprehensive of the large book with 627 pages. But the chapters are extremely short, and it’s very easy reading. And I was hooked on the story by chapter one.
Orphaned at a young age, Ishbel is now the archpriestess for the Order of the Coil. Their serpent god orders Ishbel to marry King Maximilian of Escator, but she is reluctant. Maxmilian, too, is told to marry Ishbel in order to usher in the Lord of Elcho Falling. But there is an ominous presence at work as well. There are those preparing for the evil Kanubai’s return. And they are willing to stop at nothing to ensure he awakens.
With many gods and beings with supernatural powers, this story has plenty of unexpected twists. And there are a vast amount of characters, which amazingly are easy to keep track of because of Douglass’ in depth character development for each of them.
This is no happy little fairy tale. Most of the characters have gone through tremendous hardships and heartaches. As in The Fellowship of the Ring, The Serpent Bride ends with a mild cliffhanger, leaving me anxious to read the sequel. This was a wonderful, magical story where I found myself completely drawn into the story and characters. If you love high fantasy, check out this and other novels by Sara Douglass.
The Serpent Bride is available for preorder on Amazon, and will be released on May 22nd.
Oh, this sounds good. Can I buy this for myself for my anniversary? I need a gift for being married 15 years. LOL!
LOL. Go for it! Unless you can give your husband a not-so-subtle hint of what you want..
I had heard of this book but after her Troy quartet I was not sure if I was going to bother with her anymore, but this might be good. I will have to add it to my wishlist.
I just love coming here to find new books! Thanks. 🙂
Ooohhhhh I hadn’t realized this was coming out SO SOON. That makes me quite excited.
I both love and loath how Sara Douglass always leaves her books with a cliffhanger.
I’ll have to keep my eyes peeled for this.
Damn, I wish I could get review copies like you do. I like Sara Douglass a lot. I read her Wayfarer series and it was excellent. It’s nice to see she has a new series coming out.
hold on, hold on…looking at Amazon I see mention of the Icarii and also Isembaard and Threshold….is Douglass cashing in by meshing her commercially successful books into one? And if so does Faraday make a pain ridden appearance? Or this this taken up by a new character destined for weeping self sacrifice?
Yup, I used to be a big Douglass fan but her recent novels left me more than disenchanted. Good review though 😉
Naridu – No Faraday in this one. But there are a few characters that were dead (or thought dead) that make their way into this story.
This one does sound good. Thank you for the review. It is now on my wish list.
Sorry this has nothing to do with the Serpent Bride, but I was reading your post about Spiderman and was SO excited. I absolutely can’t wait to see it and I am even more excited now that you said it was good.
Is this the same Sara Douglass who was in ‘Superman II’?
I love the cover on this. All of the women look really cool.
LOL looked again – saw there were two guys! I guess I need more coffee this morning.
I also received a copy as an early reviewer, but I just couldn’t get into it. The author’s writing style, the constant references back to things that happened in other books… I couldn’t get past the first 100 pages or so.