The Serpent's Shadow (Elemental Masters, Book 1)

By Mercedes Lackey

Book Overview

Maya Witherspoon had lived most of the first twenty-five years of her life in her native India. As the daughter of a prominent British physician and a Brahmin woman of the highest caste, she had known only luxury. Trained by her father in the medical arts since she was old enough to read, she graduated from the University of Delhi as a Doctor of Medicine by the age of twenty-two. Welcomed into her father's lucrative practice, she treated many of the wives and daughters of the British military personnel who made up a large percentage of their patients in the colonial India of 1909. But the science of medicine was not Maya's only heritage. For Maya's aristocratic mother Surya, had not just defied her family, friends and religion to marry Maya's father, she had turned her back on her family's powerful magical traditions as well. For her mother was a sorceress--a former priestess of the mystical magics fueled by the powerful and fearsome pantheon of Indian gods. Though Maya felt the stirring of magic in her blood, her mother had repeatedly refused to train her. ""I cannot,"" she had said, her eyes dark with distress, whenever Maya asked. ""Yours is the magic of your father's blood, not mine."..." Surya had never had the chance to explain this enigmatic statement to her daughter, before cholera claimed her life. Yet Maya suspected that something far more sinister than the virulent disease had overcome her powerful mother. But it was Maya's father's death shortly thereafter which confirmed her darkest suspicions. For her father was killed by the bite of a krait, a tiny venomous snake, and in the last hours of her mother's life, in the seeming delirium of her fever, Surya had repeatedly warned Maya to beware "the serpent's shadow." With the sudden loss of her father, Maya knew she must flee the land of her birth or face the same fate as her parents. In self-imposed exile in London, Maya surrounded herself with every protection possible. All the magic Maya knew had been learned by covertly observing her mother, and by cobbling this knowledge together with the street-magic gleaned from a few genuine fakirs. Her workings were a mixture of instinct, extrapolation, and trial-and-error. Crude, but somewhat effective, her spells let Maya hide her household behind a wall of secrecy in a poorer section of the city. Here, in a small but adequate house she lived with only the most loyal of her mother's servants, and her mother's seven unusual "pets"--if you could use such a word for creatures who seemed far more like friends. For Charan, the little monkey, Rajah, the peacock, Mala, the falcon, Sia and Singhe, the mongooses, Rhadi, the parrot, and Nisha, the owl seemed far too sentient to be ordinary animals. Maya knew that these seven unusual and loving companions had been in some way special to her mother, but their secrets were hidden to her, perhaps forever. In her new home she fought the dual prejudices against her sex and her race to continue in her medical profession. Only her high scholastic abilities and her extreme determination enabled her to meet with any success. She managed to place herself in a minor position at a prestigious hospital while she pursued her own medical passions: helping the poor at a tiny clinic where they welcomed any doctor, and setting up a small, controversial practice which specialized in "female complaints" and offered "absolute discretion." But Maya knew that she could not hide forever from the vindictive power which had murdered her parents. She knew in her heart that even a vast ocean couldn't protect her from "the serpent's shadow" which had so terrified her mother. Her only hope was to find a way to master her own magic: the magic of her father's blood. But who...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0886779154
• ISBN13: 9780886779153
• Release Date: March 2001
• Publisher: DAW Hardcover
• Length: 400 Pages
• Weight: 1.14 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.3" x 1.2" x 6.4"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 12 and higher

Customer Reviews

Snow White and the Seven Dwarves

OK, not really. It took until the second reading of this book for me to figure out what it had been based on, and even then, it is very well disguised. Mercedes Lackey's rewritten fairy tales are a delight. The twists on this one are totally unexpected, and until I started thinking, I didn't even realize which fairy tale it was. Snow White in this case is two characters. The protagonist, Maya Whitherspoon, and her mother, Surya. Surya is the one who excapes from the wicked witch and manages to live for 20 or so years as an Englishman's wife until the wicked witch (her twin sister in this case) realizes that the heart that she was brought wasn't actually Surya's. At which point, Surya succombs to illness and dies. Shortly thereafter her particular handsome prince also dies and leaves adult daughter Maya to take up the mantle of Snow White. Maya flees to Edwardian England with Surya's seven pets (enter the seven dwarves) who are more than they seem. The story itself takes place in London of the very early 20th Century where Maya with the aid of her pets and her own handsome prince defeats the evil queen (well, d'uh it *is* a fairy tale) and she lives happily ever after with the handsome prince. Or, at least we presume so.

A Thinker

This book will make you think. It is well written. I loved the main character. I felt like she was someone that I could relate to. The plot was thick with excitement. I did not quite expect it to unfold as it did. I love a book that can surprise me. The pets are an interesting part of this tale. I think it was great how Lackey worked them into the story. This is so like and unlike Snow White all at the same time. It is one of the better Snow White rewrites out there.

Willingly suspend, etc. etc.

I don't know about you, but I don't generally select my fantasy books based on how accurate their real-world depiction is. If you are one of those people, stop reading now: this recommendation is not for you. For the rest of us, I loved The Serpent's Shadow. I was instantly taken with Maya, whose life is made difficult because she is an intelligent woman living in a time where the number of women doctors are infintesimal, but more so because her father was English and her mother Indian. Lackey paints us a gorgeous picture of her life, her friends, and her dwelling deep in London; I've read this book enough that I've imagined her animal friends in their greenhouse lair, her surgery, and the robes she prefers to English clothing. Despite any probable cultural or historical inaccuracies, I found the tale of the evil aunt quite enthralling, wondering how she was going to complete her evil deeds (and being amused by the form her kidnapping of Maya took). Fun, solid story, and a worthy addition to The Elemental Masters series.

Long overdue sequel

Serpent's Shadow is a long overdue follow-up novel in the same vein as the "Fire Rose". Set again in the early 1900's,but this time in Britain, our heroine is Maya Witherspoon, orphaned daughter of a British surgeon and a high-caste Hindu mother with formidable magical powers, magical powers which Maya has inherited, but is untrained and unable to use effectively. Her mother's evil sister Shivani has murdered both of Maya's parents, causing Maya to flee with her odd, but loyal household to 19th century London. Here, Maya, herself a talented doctor and surgeon, must deal with all the prejudices of the age, against women, women doctors, and children of mixed heritage. Even many of those who should be her natural allies, the elemental Masters of Magic, are affected with these prejudices. How Maya deals and overcomes these obstacles to win the day make for an exciting story- I couldn't put the book down until I finished it. As an added treat, there is a delightful tribute to Dorothy L. Sayers, and her "Busman's Honeymoon", woven into the story. Altogether an excellent read.

Brilliant writing-a great tale

When the sun never set on Britannia, many disgruntled natives living in India turn to the dark side by worshipping the evil Goddess Kali-Purga. Most of the followers joined the deadly thugee cult, a group that used force to obtain their demands. Shivani is a high priestess who loathes the English. She uses her powers to kill her sister who had the audacity to marry a British doctor and to make matters worse, she had a daughter with the foreigner. When Shivani murders her father, Maya flees India for the relative safety of London where she tends to the medical needs of the poor. Shivani follows her to London, planning to cause mass chaos, trepidation, and death in order to force the infidel English from her country. Shivani also plans to kill Maya, but that proves difficult as she is closely guarded and has own powers. THE SERPENT'S SHADOW is a beautiful fantasy tale that leaves the audience believing in a happily ever after. Mercedes Lackey's latest novel will please romance fans as well. This adult fairy tale is brilliantly crafted just as the previous tale in this series, THE SUMMER RISE is. A secondary character deserves his story be told in a future edition. Recapture the innocence and pleasures of youth with this fabulous novel.Harriet Klausner