The Thousand Eyes, by A. K. Larkwood (Tor)
This sequel to A. K. Larkwood's debut fantasy, The
Unspoken Name, continues the adventures of many of the original characters,
including some we thought were dead. It seems that in Larkwood’s world of “The
Serpent Gates,” you cannot count on anything staying dead, whether they
be people (not strictly limited to humans), gods, empires, or gigantic mystical
serpents. It’s now two years after our heroes/anti-heroes—ogre Csorwe, her
girlfriend, mage Shuthmili, and ne’er-do-well Tal Charossa—supposedly defeated
the immortal wizard, Belthandros Sethennai. Who, of course, is not actually
dead, in no small part because he’s made a bargain with a snake goddess to
become her mortal, unstoppable incarnation.
Making bargains with snake goddesses never turns out well, as
our friends discover when they unearth an ancient artifact, the Mantle of
Divinity, from the long-extinct snake empire. And wake Bad Snake Things up.
Without giving away too much of the marvelously convoluted-but-circular
plot, the Bad Snake Things include the last royal soldier of the above-mentioned
extinct Snake Empire, a person of truly epic obsessive loyalty. The Mantle of
Divinity does its thing, turning a mortal into a divine incarnation of the
original snake goddess, who then commences to remodel all the linked
dimensional worlds into a recreation of the original above-mentioned extinct
Snake Empire. But Belthandros Sethennai is not only not dead, he’s been
systematically destroying all the subsidiary incarnations of the One True Snake
Goddess so that he can become Her. And matters go pear-shaped from there.
Like its predecessor, this is a long novel, lushly detained,
and for all the horrific ways Things Go Wrong, it’s a joy to spend this much
time (and these many plot reversals) with our friends. It’s not the place to
start, but for everyone who, like me, fell in love with the world and its characters,
it offers a rich feast of the imagination.
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