Review: Fascinating ideas, but needs one more draft to make it great.
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 03 14, 2011
As usual, James has built The Serpent Kings with some fascinating ideas. The story is a take on the Millennial Kingdom and how good and evil will battle before the King returns. I liked the death walkers the most, and enjoyed the inclusion of dragons. The main character is what is called a "wraith dancer," which is a cool idea. Wraith Dancers are women assassins chosen to defend and kill with Gifts of Transcendence which allow them to do such things as make pin-point assaults that can kill with a touch, and increase their agility and senses in battle. The idea of cities lain to waste so that technology has devolved was also interesting, and one of my favorite collection of scenes shows them visiting these ancient cities - now wastelands because of how fragile they are not having been kept up.The reason why I gave this 2 out of 5 stars is because I was often uninterested in the character's plight and felt many scenes could have been cut. Originally I gave it 3 stars, but the truth is I didn't enjoy reading it. I think he has some great ideas, but the pacing needs polishing. The first 30 percent of the book could use major compaction. All the set up to show that Gwen has doubts about her service to the Serpent Kings might have been shown on her way to meet the dragon Belial. That would have been a great opening scene. If it started there I would have been much more enthusiastic about going forward. There is action in the first 30%, but it seems only for action sake, not because it was necessary for setting up the story. In studying the philosophy of including a twist in every scene, I really noticed the scenes in this book that just...ended. Putting a twist on the end of scenes really pushes a reader forward, and the places where this lacked in James' book made it easy to put the book down. A good editor's touch could make this book great, but as it stands I just see too much that could be taken out without much consequence.James provided a free copy for review under the promise that I read the whole book and provide an honest review.