Scan barcode
A review by euanbrook
The Serpent by Jane Gaskell
adventurous
emotional
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
This was a neat find. I stumbled across it in a comment section discussing Conan the Barbarian. Someone said that this was a superior series and as someone wanting to check out fantasy novels with a different bent, I was intrigued and bought the whole Atlan series cheap.
I really liked Cija the protagonist. It says a lot when I'm someone who generally dislikes aristocratic characters, but the book seems to be aware of this because Cija hates other aristocrats as well. As a princess literally kept in a tower throughout her childhood, the strange world she's suddenly thrust into is all new to her. She doesn't even know what a man looks like and mistakes one of the novel's first male characters, Zerd, for an ugly old woman.
It's a fun take on the female fish out of water, throwing her into a frankly terrifying situation as she's forced to march alongside a hostile army as a hostage. She's tasked with an assassination mission, but it's quickly apparent that this mission is practically impossible. She's a completely untrained 17-18 year-old who's never met a man before, oh sure yeah, she's totally going to know what she's doing. Her mum and handler really didn't give the plan much thought.
Then again, that may have been the point. I don't know yet because I haven't read the sequels, but something tells me her leaving her home city was probably more to do with political expediency than an actual desire to assassinate the country's enemy.
It's wonderfully fleshed out, you can tell Gaskell had a keen eye for personal habits and creature comforts. Cija's first person narration really brings the marching army's world to life. It's sometimes melodrama, sometimes action, sometimes fantasy and mystery, there's a lot going on.
It's fairly meandering because of that, a lot of characters and subplots. As the first book of a series it doesn't really have an ending either. I was enjoying the overall feel of the story so I didn't mind too much, but if you're wanting a story with a solid beginning middle end, you're not going to get that here.
Still, between the fascinating fantasy world with its bird and prehistoric creatures and various governments and political intrigues, you can find yourself immersed in this world. I was especially fascinated by the sympathetic depiction of a trans character in this. It actually has one of the best descriptions of gender dysmorphia I've come across, and this was back in 1963. There's a lot of great gender-swapping stuff in this, especially when Cija disguises herself as boy. She has many guises.
It's so funny how this book can be so progressive from that angle then struggle with actual sex politics. I wouldn't say it's a feminist story, although with its female protagonist it obviously has a lot of claim to that, but it's interesting how rapey the love interest is. It's definitely in that old camp of, "her body says no but her heart says yes" stuff. This isn't a knock on Gaskell, this was a fairly prevalent view at the time, and you can see it in plenty of other media (like the entire James Bond series) but it is fascinating how aggressive he is and while Cija isn't disinterested, she's clearly not consenting in most of their encounters.
So classic 60s there. Instances of amazing progress steeped in decidedly less so stuff. I don't want to put people off though, it's a really fascinating world with great characters and it saddens me how little of a digital footprint it has. I hope with this review someone will want to check it out.
I really liked Cija the protagonist. It says a lot when I'm someone who generally dislikes aristocratic characters, but the book seems to be aware of this because Cija hates other aristocrats as well. As a princess literally kept in a tower throughout her childhood, the strange world she's suddenly thrust into is all new to her. She doesn't even know what a man looks like and mistakes one of the novel's first male characters, Zerd, for an ugly old woman.
It's a fun take on the female fish out of water, throwing her into a frankly terrifying situation as she's forced to march alongside a hostile army as a hostage. She's tasked with an assassination mission, but it's quickly apparent that this mission is practically impossible. She's a completely untrained 17-18 year-old who's never met a man before, oh sure yeah, she's totally going to know what she's doing. Her mum and handler really didn't give the plan much thought.
Then again, that may have been the point. I don't know yet because I haven't read the sequels, but something tells me her leaving her home city was probably more to do with political expediency than an actual desire to assassinate the country's enemy.
It's wonderfully fleshed out, you can tell Gaskell had a keen eye for personal habits and creature comforts. Cija's first person narration really brings the marching army's world to life. It's sometimes melodrama, sometimes action, sometimes fantasy and mystery, there's a lot going on.
It's fairly meandering because of that, a lot of characters and subplots. As the first book of a series it doesn't really have an ending either. I was enjoying the overall feel of the story so I didn't mind too much, but if you're wanting a story with a solid beginning middle end, you're not going to get that here.
Still, between the fascinating fantasy world with its bird and prehistoric creatures and various governments and political intrigues, you can find yourself immersed in this world. I was especially fascinated by the sympathetic depiction of a trans character in this. It actually has one of the best descriptions of gender dysmorphia I've come across, and this was back in 1963. There's a lot of great gender-swapping stuff in this, especially when Cija disguises herself as boy. She has many guises.
It's so funny how this book can be so progressive from that angle then struggle with actual sex politics. I wouldn't say it's a feminist story, although with its female protagonist it obviously has a lot of claim to that, but it's interesting how rapey the love interest is. It's definitely in that old camp of, "her body says no but her heart says yes" stuff. This isn't a knock on Gaskell, this was a fairly prevalent view at the time, and you can see it in plenty of other media (like the entire James Bond series) but it is fascinating how aggressive he is and while Cija isn't disinterested, she's clearly not consenting in most of their encounters.
So classic 60s there. Instances of amazing progress steeped in decidedly less so stuff. I don't want to put people off though, it's a really fascinating world with great characters and it saddens me how little of a digital footprint it has. I hope with this review someone will want to check it out.