A review by albatrossonhalfpointe
Serpent Mage by Margaret Weis, Tracy Hickman

2.0

This one was better than Elven Star, but I didn't like it as much as Dragon Wing or Fire Sea. The setting was certainly relevant, and the characters good, and the plot, once it got going, was intriguing. But it did take a while for anything to really get going, and give us enough information to start getting interested. I would have liked, I think, to see more of the Sartan, and maybe a little less of the young'uns and their fairly uneventful travels.

One area where this really didn't satisfy was in the battle scene, and I now sincerely hope that there aren't too many of those in the final three books, because this one was very dull. It felt very turn-based, like they were falling back on their D&D roots to write it, and as a result, it had no sense of urgency. I was really wishing for some [a:Jeff Somers|809148|Jeff Somers|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1271351803p2/809148.jpg] action while that was going on. So hopefully the final three books stick mostly to political intrigue, and don't try for too much direct battling.

That said, we now have everything all laid out for the final three books, so that should be a good time.