Review: The Serpent's Shadow by Mercedes Lackey

The Serpent's Shadow by Mercedes Lackey
Series: The Elemental Masters, #2
Published: March 1, 2001
Publisher: DAW
Pages: 394

Maya Witherspoon had lived most of the first twenty-five years of her life in her native India. As the daughter of a prominent British physician and a Brahmin woman of the highest caste, she had known only luxury. Trained by her father in the medical arts since she was old enough to read, she graduated from the University of Delhi as a Doctor of Medicine by the age of twenty-two.
But the science of medicine was not Maya's only heritage. For her mother was a sorceress - a former priestess of the mystical magics fueled by the powerful and fearsome pantheon of Indian gods.

Though Maya felt the stirring of magic in her blood, her mother had repeatedly refused to train her. "I cannot," she had said, her eyes dark with distress, whenever Maya asked. "Yours is the magic of your father's blood, not mine...." Surya had never had the chance to explain this enigmatic statement to her daughter before a mysterious illness claimed her life. Yet it was Maya's father's death shortly thereafter which confirmed her darkest suspicions. For her father was killed by the bite of a krait, a tiny venomous snake. In the last hours of her mother's life, in the seeming delirium of her final fever, Surya had repeatedly warned Maya to beware "the serpent's shadow." With the sudden loss of her father, Maya knew she must flee the land of her birth or face the same fate as her parents.

This was actually my first Mercedes Lackey novel. I also think that it might have been my first brush with modern fantasy, though I definitely had read stories with fantastical elements and styles (I'm thinking of The Little White Horse).
I recently reread it because the series is good, but as more books come out, I find myself losing track of whom is whom within the universe. Each novel features a main set of characters, surrounded my other secondary characters. The secondary characters tend to cross paths with many of the main characters of the novels, but I still struggle to remember all their names, so...

Maya Witherspoon and Peter Scott are the stars of this novel. Both come from very different backgrounds, but they hold similar values. They are humble and wise. Very wise. 

My favorite part about these books is the setting (Edwardian England), and the fantasy (Elemental Masters). If you don't already love Edwardian England, there's not much I can say to convince you on that point except that Lackey brings it to life...on her on terms. If you've every read a true fantasy, then you know that descriptions are very particular, and and Lackey's throws a modern, yet mystical light onto the city. As for the magic, I think it's brilliant. I love the colors and shields associated with each elements, and the elemental creatures! I love reading fantasy's because I think they evoke these child-like desires for a secret, luminescent power. And there's nothing wrong with that. In the words of C.S. Lewis,

Some day you'll be old enough to start reading fairy tales again.

We are never too old for magic. Or at least, not this kind of magic. Many stories nowadays use werewolves, vampires, angels, mermaids, zombies, fairies, and even aliens. Those, and even today's "wizard" are very different from the fantasy element of this book. The series treats magic not as a separate being that exists separately in the form of some creature, and so, a paranormal book, but in the world around the characters. Magic is not in the setting because the characters need it, but because it's apart of their world, and they are simply wielders that have learned to use it. And that's what I adore about this series.

As for the story, it is not my favorite. It has some merit for being the first book to introduce the concepts of the world (The Fire Rose is often disregarded for some reason, and I believe out of print). Maya is almost too over ambitious for my tastes, and too liberal for the setting. While I know that Victorian's weren't as up and tight as they're stereotyped, well...there was a place where the stereotype came from. The rule of Society were strict and unfair, and many rebelled. But many went with the flow too, and I felt this book was lacking in that vein. I would've loved for a clearer picture of that a liberal like Maya, her friend Amelia, and both Peter's were fighting against. 

The villain in this story, also, was too... villainous for my tastes. I'm not a fan of the, "Look at me, I'm evil!" characters. I like for them to have multiple sides and facets of evil, and even some shades of goodness. Because that's what real human beings are like. But hey, it's a fantasy novel, and I've learned to accept the fantasy elements. 

In the end, though, this series will always have a very fond place in my heart simply for being a piece of my childhood.