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jenpaul13 's review for:
The Silvered Serpents
by Roshani Chokshi
Searching for an elusive, and perhaps mythic, treasure in a secretive manner leads the fractured crew of treasure hunters to Siberia in Roshani Chokshi's The Silvered Serpents.
To read this, and other book reviews, visit my website: http://makinggoodstories.wordpress.com/.
After the tumultuous exchange with the Fallen House, Séverin and his assorted team of treasure hunters dispersed into their own worlds to grieve the loss of one of their own as they try to get on with their lives. But when a lead surfaces that might just direct them to a long-lost and vastly rumored artifact that could provide the powers of a god, Séverin manages to pull the team back together to follow it. Leaving behind the glamour of Paris for the icy tundra of Russia, the team investigates an abandoned hidden mansion filled with ice animals, handless goddesses, and Tezcat portals in pursuit of the mythic artifact that seems to become less mythic and more real as they delve deeper and reveal surprising truths.
Jumping quickly back into the lives of the team members, the story picks up and starts running headfirst into the next adventure, which has has much higher stakes. The world-building and the development of the characters and their interpersonal dynamics within this novel was better than the first, though it was still quite localized to specific places and situations rather than all-encompassing; the more descriptive, introspective, and emotional nature of deepening the investment in crafting the characters reduced the amount of witty banter throughout the story but it's still there - just in smaller doses. There was quite a lot of repetition within the text, especially regarding the muses and their various remits, which felt over explanatory without an appropriate payoff for doing so. I appreciated the independence and choice afforded to Laila throughout the story as she was provided the agency to determine who knew about her life's secrets, and, more generally, the enhancement that some of the characters had toward asserting themselves and advocating for their desires was well-done and a fitting inclusion within the heavily emotional tone of this novel.
Overall, I'd give it a 3.5 out of 5 stars.
To read this, and other book reviews, visit my website: http://makinggoodstories.wordpress.com/.
After the tumultuous exchange with the Fallen House, Séverin and his assorted team of treasure hunters dispersed into their own worlds to grieve the loss of one of their own as they try to get on with their lives. But when a lead surfaces that might just direct them to a long-lost and vastly rumored artifact that could provide the powers of a god, Séverin manages to pull the team back together to follow it. Leaving behind the glamour of Paris for the icy tundra of Russia, the team investigates an abandoned hidden mansion filled with ice animals, handless goddesses, and Tezcat portals in pursuit of the mythic artifact that seems to become less mythic and more real as they delve deeper and reveal surprising truths.
Jumping quickly back into the lives of the team members, the story picks up and starts running headfirst into the next adventure, which has has much higher stakes. The world-building and the development of the characters and their interpersonal dynamics within this novel was better than the first, though it was still quite localized to specific places and situations rather than all-encompassing; the more descriptive, introspective, and emotional nature of deepening the investment in crafting the characters reduced the amount of witty banter throughout the story but it's still there - just in smaller doses. There was quite a lot of repetition within the text, especially regarding the muses and their various remits, which felt over explanatory without an appropriate payoff for doing so. I appreciated the independence and choice afforded to Laila throughout the story as she was provided the agency to determine who knew about her life's secrets, and, more generally, the enhancement that some of the characters had toward asserting themselves and advocating for their desires was well-done and a fitting inclusion within the heavily emotional tone of this novel.
Overall, I'd give it a 3.5 out of 5 stars.