Book Review | The Silvered Serpents by Roshani Chokshi

About This Book

They are each other’s fiercest love, greatest danger, and only hope. 

Séverin and his team members might have successfully thwarted the Fallen House, but victory came at a terrible cost — one that still haunts all of them. Desperate to make amends, Séverin pursues a dangerous lead to find a long lost artifact rumored to grant its possessor the power of God.

Their hunt lures them far from Paris, and into the icy heart of Russia where crystalline ice animals stalk forgotten mansions, broken goddesses carry deadly secrets, and a string of unsolved murders makes the crew question whether an ancient myth is a myth after all. 

As hidden secrets come to the light and the ghosts of the past catch up to them, the crew will discover new dimensions of themselves. But what they find out may lead them down paths they never imagined.

A tale of love and betrayal as the crew risks their lives for one last job.

Purchase Link: http://bit.ly/SilveredSerpents

Goodreads Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

At its core, The Silvered Serpents is an epic journey toward discovering the very definition of what makes us human and the importance of love, acceptance, and hope within that definition.

What I Loved

I love the depth of the main characters whose very flaws make them endearing and life-like. I particularly find Laila intriguing with the mystery of how she came to be. Even her proper name is unknown. Was she born or created? Does that even matter? She is the real enigma that her stage name implies, but what I enjoy about her the most is her heart. None of the other main characters have a heart as big as Laila’s, and she shows it through her loyalty, determination, and ability to notice the small details that other people tend to overlook. She is the very essence of humanity, and her life is on the line as foretold that she would die by her 20th birthday.

The other characters are also brilliant and deserve mention. Severin is the leader of the group of adventurers. He lost his mother and the man he knew as his father at a young age and was raised, in turn, by the seven deadly sins. I’m not sure if this is actual or metaphorical, but the impact is the same. Severin has deep, deep scars that have not fully healed and may never fully heal. His determination to find the salve that will fix leads him on the adventures that make up this trilogy.

Enrique is a man who is desperate to find his place in academia or just in the world. He knows the cold hard hand of racism being half Filipino in a time when ‘human zoos” held Filipinos for viewing.

And last but not least, Zophia. She is Jewish in a time when antisemitism has taken hold and faces bigotry as a result. She demonstrates many symptoms seen in people with autism. She is brilliant at science with a forge ability in metals, but she does not understand emotion or subtle social cues. This rounds out the cast of characters who are the main protagonist, but the support characters don’t disappoint.

I love the setting of The Silvered Serpent – The Sleeping Palace, which is a beautiful hidden palace in snowy Siberia owned by the Fallen House. Full of past horrors and forged objects, the setting is both beautiful and dangerous. The perfect backdrop for the adventure to find The Divine Lyrics – an item that Severin believes will make him a god, and Laila believes will allow her to live beyond the age of 20.

I loved the magic that is not magic. Fragments from the Tower of Babel were buried all over the world, and they give certain people Forging abilities that look like magic from the perspective of this world, but in the world of the novel, “magic is a science that people cannot fathom.” Portals, the ability to look and sound like someone else, weapons created from everyday objects is just a small sampling of the magic that’s not magic but is fascinating.

I also love the smaller aspects that have a significant impact. The puzzles that must be solved in figuring out how to find the object they seek; they are a fun diversion keeping the story from getting weighed down by the seriousness of the overall journey the characters are on. And the use of the Tower of Babel, which is at the heart of the trilogy. I find the symbolism delightfully original, and it fits perfectly in all aspects of the story.

To Read or Not to Read

Yes – read it and enjoy the unique world where magic is a science, and the Tower of Babel has even a more significant impact than giving creating a variety of world languages.

Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.