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A review by julicke95
The Bear and the Serpent by Adrian Tchaikovsky
2.0
DNF. I hate leaving books unfinished, but I just can't get my brain to pay attention to the story and I'm just done. Two thirds of the way through is close enough.
This is by no means a bad book (or bad series for that matter), but it's just not for me. Can't exactly put my finger on why, but part of it is definitely that the motivations of the characters just remain very unclear or unfounded. Sure, Asmander supports Tecumen because they were childhood friends. But he was friends with his twin all the same, so why the loyalty to one but not the other? Wouldn't it be more interesting if he was more torn up about the war between the rival monarchs instead of this blind loyalty? And what on earth is Shyri's motivation? I guess in the first book she went with Asmander because she was bored, but is that still the case? I just don't buy that she's become good enough friends with Asmander to risk her life in a war in a foreign nation. Same goes for Maniye. Also, the first book focused on Maniye's search for a place to belong, but that's just entirely gone now? She just seems to be going through the motions of a war she has nothing to do with and for what? And why the heck is Takes Iron with her? Loud Thunder's storyline was really the only one I was mildly interested in and what kept me going, because at least it was clear that he was only reluctantly uniting the tribes out of loyalty to the Mother of the bears.
I could go on, but the bottom line is that this seems like a very plot-driven series and I was hoping for a more character-driven one. The world is well-crafted and the pacing is fine, but I was just hoping for a bit... more I guess.
P.s. sorry if I misspelled any names. I read the audiobook and I'm not sure about some of the spellings.
This is by no means a bad book (or bad series for that matter), but it's just not for me. Can't exactly put my finger on why, but part of it is definitely that the motivations of the characters just remain very unclear or unfounded. Sure, Asmander supports Tecumen because they were childhood friends. But he was friends with his twin all the same, so why the loyalty to one but not the other? Wouldn't it be more interesting if he was more torn up about the war between the rival monarchs instead of this blind loyalty? And what on earth is Shyri's motivation? I guess in the first book she went with Asmander because she was bored, but is that still the case? I just don't buy that she's become good enough friends with Asmander to risk her life in a war in a foreign nation. Same goes for Maniye. Also, the first book focused on Maniye's search for a place to belong, but that's just entirely gone now? She just seems to be going through the motions of a war she has nothing to do with and for what? And why the heck is Takes Iron with her? Loud Thunder's storyline was really the only one I was mildly interested in and what kept me going, because at least it was clear that he was only reluctantly uniting the tribes out of loyalty to the Mother of the bears.
I could go on, but the bottom line is that this seems like a very plot-driven series and I was hoping for a more character-driven one. The world is well-crafted and the pacing is fine, but I was just hoping for a bit... more I guess.
P.s. sorry if I misspelled any names. I read the audiobook and I'm not sure about some of the spellings.