The Serpent Bride

(Harper Collins/Eos, 672 pages)

by Sara DouglassTHIS is probably the ultimate for fans of Sara Douglass’ various fantasy series and stand-alone books, because it mixes in characters and locales from a number of them. Readers will recognise faces and places from The Wayfarer Redemption <$>series, and the Thresholdd Beyond the Hanging Wall <$>books.

The Serpent Bride, first ohe Darkglass Mountain books, opens in the years after all the previous stories take place. Evil is on the rise, and the forces of good must be assembled to defeat it.

But getting them together is a rough process, filled with betrayal, pain and sadness. By the book’s end, babies have been killed, marriages sundered, yet the various proponents know they have to soldier on.

Douglass definitely has a gift for storytelling, and The Serpentide <$>is eminently readable, with dramatic twists and turns all over the place. It drags on occasion, though, and one wishes Douglass would pick up the pace or else stick to major characters and not make so many side trips to include the perspectives of characters who turn out to be minor players.

While those who have read her other books would probably get the most out of her latest, Douglass is talented enough to come up with something that a first-timer could pick up and read without feeling that too much back story is missing.

She has accomplished a neat trick, though, leaving the reader both anticipating the next book and curious about the ones that came before.