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...

While this is touted as the first book in the Elemental Masters series, the real first book in this series is the 'Fire Rose', so if you are going to read this book, you definitely want to check out the other one. You can read that book before or after this one, it doesn't matter as the two are not too closely tied together.This is overall an entertaining book. It brings magic into this world in a subtle way, almost like Harry Potter except magic works differently in the Elemental Masters univer...

The London fog becomes deadlyI enjoyed this novel but enjoyed two of the short stories in this series more. GRAY and GRAY'S GHOST have a feel of Kipling and Dickens about them which this novel lacks. Instead, it is a typical Mercedes Lackey fantasy, but set in London instead of some alien world or universe. Being a typical Mercedes Lackey fantasy is not a bad thing as she is a master of the genre. There is not a lot of action in this one. There are accounts of the trials of those campaigners for...

This is my favorite book from Mercedes Lackey's new series, Elemental Masters. Lackey has done a lovely job of creating interesting and reasonably realistic characters, and the world she has created is detailed and well-written. I love the multicultural flavor that this book has, as well as the wide diversity among the characters. Unlike many books which are based in this particular time period, the main characters of this story are all lower or middle class people - we only see the upper

I'm not going to lie, this book was pretty mediocre. I liked the premise, the setting, and the build up but it fell apart at the end with a rushed climax, which seems to be Mercedes Lackey's style.The characters are charming enough and I do love Victorian settings. The pacing is a slow when compared to the ending, which is rushed. I like the idea of having a half Indian main character who can hold her own, which is what we get with Maya, but it also brings about the issues of Lackey's use of the...

For entertainment and clever rendering of a fairy tale, The Serpent's Shadow deserves four stars. The writing is not profound or life changing, but an excellent means for escape.I began this book with reluctance, feeling a little tired of fairy tale retellings. I know it's shocking, but even I can have too much of a good thing. However, in spite of my overdose, I was still impressed with Lackey's presentation of Snow White. Her representation was all I most appreciate in a good retelling. The st...

I really like this book; it's so much better than the ones which follow it in this series. Maya is a great character, the pets are wonderful - Hanuman, the langur monkey; Rhadi, the wise parrot; and the other birds (saker falcon, peacock, eagle-owl), and of course the mongooses.I just wish ML had been able to keep up the quality of the books she published after this one (or maybe after the first 4 or so?). Phoenix and Ashes was very good, as was Wizard. After that.....

I read this before The Fire Rose, thinking it was the first book in the series. Now that book has me pissed off at Mercedes Lackey and not in a mood to be charitable, even though I found this book to be much better than The Fire Rose.This book is a much better disguised fairy tale, as opposed to the blatant Beauty and the Beast tale of the first book. It seems to have had much greater care and dedication given to it.She has clear tributes to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Rudyard Kipling, and Dorothy S...

So beautifully written, but the casual racism and confusions about Hindu mythology were a bit jarring and prevented me from being fully immersed in the narrative. Despite her routinely stressing that she is not Hindu, is Christian, has no desire to be Hindu, and her magic is distinctly British, somehow HIndu deities come to her aid and basically take care of her? WTF? Would it have been so hard to just leave them as familiars?Also, that passage about how "exotic" she looked in a sari was unneces...

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 l...

A very solid 3 stars. This book was a lot of fun to read. Even though Maya was a type A character I warmed to her by the end, and it is always great to have a biracial or non-Caucasian heroine, particularly in these older books. Lackey’s descriptions are lovely, particularly of Maya’s home.At the beginning there were a fair few ‘stereotypical’ references to Indian objects, and it was a bit of a leisurely start, but when Peter Scott came in was when the narrative picked up. The elemental magic sy...

Actual star score is 4.5. Just a bit different from the other books by Mercedes Lackey.Maya Witherspoon has moved to London from India.She became a doctor in India and after she arrived had to prove herself again. Only getting her surgeons papers by agreeing to work with the underprivileged. But her biggest problem is a enemy who has followed her and wants her dead.Learning she has the magic her father's people in London have starts to make it easier especially after meeting Peter.

Second in the Elemental Masters historical paranormal fantasy series for Young Adult readers (I consider The Fire Rose to be the true first) and revolving around the Council of the White Lodge and masters of elemental magic. This is one of the standalone novels in the series set in the London of 1909. The focus is on Dr Maya Witherspoon, a new elemental master from India.My TakeLackey has made use of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves to discuss male and ethnic bigotry. It's sad that it's stil...

I'm gonna be honest here. I didn't like the main character. Maya Witherspoon is a half-Indian, half-British suffragette doctor in the early 1900s. (If I remember correctly, the year is 1909.) As unlikely as it is that she would be able to come out on top of all that while living in London and be able to practice medicine in a prejudiced society is great! Unlikely, obviously, but it's fiction! It's great reading a novel with a person of color as the main character - it's not something you often g...

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

Some of my favorite fantasy books are from Mercedes Lackey’s Elemental Masters series. The Fire Rose, The Gates of Sleep, The Serpent’s Shadow, Phoenix and Ashes, The Wizard of London, and Reserved for the Cat are the titles so far. I like all of them. I LOVE some of them. They combine alternate history, classic fairy tales, magic, and the setting of early 1900s England (except The Fire Rose, which is set in America). They stand alone quite well, but are set in the same world, and some of the sa...

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") an...

Entertaining

Read this entire review here: THE SERPENT’S SHADOW – A PHENOMENAL FANTASY SPIN ON A CLASSIC FAIRY TALEReview by Clarissa HadgeOverall Rating = 4.5; Romance Rating = 4The writing is great here, with plenty of historical points that are woven through the plot, such as Maya and her friend Amelia marching in a suffragette protest. Lackey does take some liberties with the story, but as it is set in a fantasy world, albeit based off of a real time period, the slight inconsistencies are not distractin...

DNF @ Chapter 5. I just do not care & have no interest whatsoever in picking it up again. Magic aside (because it *is* a fantasy novel), I can't stand the MC's 'tude. There's a fine line between characters in the past who are aware of their society's shortcomings (i.e. a good thing for fiction) vs those who consistently point out how enlightened they are/how backward their peers are solely for the benefit of showcasing their modern sensibilities (i.e. annoying mouthpieces). And as for the magic....

Maya Witherspoon has fled to England from India, knowing only that she has a powerful enemy and having no idea of who that is. A doctor with minor magical skills, she heals patients by day, butting heads with the patriarchal system that battles her at every turn. By night, she places small protections about her home to keep herself and her beloved staff safe. Peter Scott is sent by the other magicians of London to check out this newcomer and finds himself becoming a teacher to the powerful young...

This one was a lot of fun. I have some issues with the structure, some events seem unconnected to others and the flow of the plot is at times unclear, but it's enjoyable throughout and it really comes together in the end.

Enjoyable retelling of Snow White with magic and early 20th century London

I enjoyed this book so much because of the heroine. She is wonderful!

This was a super fun and original retelling of Snow White. I could go on and on (and have) about fairy tale retellings and how so many rely on either the Disney storyline or trying to 'darken' the stories by turning them into a predictable YA fantasy or erotica. Which, is, ya know, fine, to each their own. BUT. I've read the original, I've watched various film interpretations, and my favorite aspect of retellings is consuming a familiar story that has been completely re-imagined. And this novel

This is the first book in Mercedes Lackey's Elemental Masters series, which take place in Edwardian England. I enjoyed it quite a lot. Maya is half-Indian, half-white, and a trained doctor who grew up in India. Upon leaving India for England in what seems a very Frances Hodgson Burnett sort of way (both of The Secret Garden and The Little Princess) Maya struggles for acceptance as both half-Indian and as a woman in attempting to practice medicine. Maya also has Earth Magic, but she is self-taugh...

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, wh...

I have not read any Mercedes Lackey in quite some time (I really loved her Valdemar books), and I was thrilled to discover that she was as good as ever in "The Serpent's Shadow." (Being OCD, I will have to go back and read the first book in the series.)The heroine of the book is Maya, a half-English, half-Indian doctor at a time when both were extremely rare. There are interesting interactions depicted by the author where Maya encounters discrimination on either or both counts, but it's done wit...

I picked up the Serpent's Shadow after reading my first Mercedes Lackey book, The Black Swan, which I really liked. And so it happened that I'd harboured high expectations of this book, hoping it would be one step closer to making Mercedes Lackey one of my favourite authors. I wasn't disppointed, yet not thrilled either. It turned out to be not so good as Black Swan, though very similar to it in its structure and the general human themes it dealt with. I suppose such is most of Lackey's work in

This review is for the audiobook, which was very capably narrated by Michelle Ford. This is the first book (I think?) in Lackey's Elemental Masters series, all of which are loosely inspired by fairy tales and set in Edwardian England where people endowed with what is known (in the books) as Elemental Magic live alongside ordinary citizens. This particular book is a unique take on the Snow White fairy tale. The female main character, Maya, is (ironically?) of mixed heritage: British-Indian. An al...