The Serpent's Shadow

Elemental Masters

By: Mercedes Lackey

Narrated by: Michelle Ford

Length: 12 hrs and 42 mins

Publisher's summary

From the magical mysteries of India to the gaslit streets of Victorian London, Mercedes Lackey's unique departure from her Valdemar series follows a young woman doctor as she searches for the secret behind the sorcery in her blood.

Enchanted? Listen to more titles in the Elemental Masters Series.

©2002 Mercedes Lackey (P)2009 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Mercedes Lackey returns to form in The Serpent's Shadow...."This story takes place in the London of 1909, and is based on "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs." Lackey creates echoes of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, pays affectionate homage to Dorothy Sayers's Lord Peter Wimsey (who plays an important role under a thin disguise), and turns the dwarves into seven animal avatars who masquerade as pets of her Eurasian heroine, Maya." (Amazon.com review)

Loved the written series, Audible makes it live

Michelle Ford's wonderful narration brings this story of good and evil and a clash of cultures and their ridged lack of acceptance of strange new ideas.It is a story of overcoming adversity, delightful animal helpers, and staunch old and new friends.Throw in magic, what more could you want. I could barely put it down.

Awsome

loved the book it keeps you interested through the whole story. I love the whole series.

Addictive.

Where does The Serpent's Shadow rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

It's in my top 5.

What did you like best about this story?

The characters have real depth, rather than being caricatures.

What about Michelle Ford’s performance did you like?

Her reading made it so easy to see the world in the book.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

No. But it made me go out and buy half a dozen books by the same author.

Any additional comments?

Mercedes Lackey is my new favorite author.

Superb Elemental Masters

This is one of my favorite books to read or listen to I could listen to all of her works every day! I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the tales of the Brothers Grimm, this is very much a alternative story for those interested!

wonderful

loved it! i never tried the elemental series. now i will have to read the rest of the series. :)

Clever and different

Maya Witherspoon had lived most of the first twenty-five along side her father as a medical assistant. After Maya receives her doctorate, and her father is murdered she decides to move from India to England. Not feeling like she fit in in either country being half Caucasian and have East Indian, she soon learns to carve out a life for herself and her very close family she brought from India with her.
Maya provides medical and counselling to the poor society in the 1900's. As a woman it's TOUGH, as a half Anglo-Indian, it's tougher especially in the "men know best" social stigma of the times.
While this isn't my usual type of book, I found it to be interesting how Maya carves her own path as a woman by herself (with male help) against a sinister magic she wasn't aware of, only to gain more allies and a deeper understanding of the magic she has, and surrounds herself with positivity.

Pleasant read and blessedly atypical

So nice to read a fresh feeling story. Set in England and leaning on Hindu mythology, but not overly much; even that feels relatively fresh these days. Personally, I'm tired of the current cookie-cutter zombie apocalyptic plague stories with monotheistic and/or political dogma, rampant with rogue vigilante anti-hero paranormals with dark pasts and forbidden/doomed fixations. This still has the traditional Good vs Evil thing going, but what are you going to do? A positive and relaxing reading experience, and I enjoyed the story as well as the characters. Mercedes Lackey is a wonderful storyteller and the narration by Michelle Ford was spot on, adding to the experience.

non-white and non-male

Slow pace in the beginning, but engaging. The protagonist is perhaps too capable, well prepared, and public spirited, and the villain (once she appears) too one-dimensional, but nonetheless the story stays interesting.

great characters and storytelling

I really enjoyed the storyline, the characters, and absolutely loved the narrator (she was the icing on the cake).

Grew to love it - worthy of a listen

When the book first started I was concerned it would be spending too much time talking about clothing. As the tale grew and the story unfolded I began to enjoy it very much.

The narrator provides an average but sufficient performance. To my ear her characters sometimes blend and accents are minimal but she does a decent job with both genders.

The story paints a colourful picture of London and serves up interesting characters giving us points of view of both protagonists and antagonists. The explanation of magic as the characters see it fits in well with the setting.

This audio book has no great flaws and is a good listen. I look forward to the rest of the series.