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Dark Serpent (2013)

by Kylie Chan(Favorite Author)

4.08 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

0732294401 (ISBN13: 9780732294403)

languge

English

genre

Romance

publisher

Harper Voyager

series

Celestial Battle

review 1: Dark Serpent is the eighth novel by Australian author, Kylie Chan, and is the first book in the Celestial Battle Trilogy. It follows on immediately from the last book of the Journey to Wudang Trilogy, Heaven to Wudang. Xuan Wu’s Snake is still captive in the Demon King’s grasp, and numerous efforts are made to free it. But then an edict from the Jade Emperor sends John and Emma, along with their Welsh visitors, Brian and Tom O’Breen, to Britain to investigate what is happening in the Western Celestial Plane. Emma finds other descendants of her ancestors, but soon also realises she is not only most unwelcome at Holyhead, but also in great danger. Emma and John discovers Emma’s true nature and how she came to be that way, as well as learning of the plans that the De... moremon King and his Western counterpart have for the Eastern Celestial Plane. Countless sentient Stones are missing and the Grandmother (Uluru) makes an appearance. The number of times that Emma is captured and freed will just about have the reader’s mind spinning; add to that the number of times John dies and visits Court Ten, and some dizziness is bound to result. Chan is not afraid to kill off characters, including one from the first book of the Dark Heavens Trilogy. This instalment has plenty of Celtic mythology as well as a bit of Greek and Roman input; an interesting take on the Christian religions; fearful new (and sometimes virtually undetectable) variants of demons; input from the Blue Dragon and the Red Phoenix; a celestial version of GPS; pregnancy, miscarriage and hysterectomy; plenty of battles and deaths; and a unicorn-like qilin. This novel is narrated in part by Emma (first person) and part by John (third person), and while Chan states the reader could start with this one, there is virtually no recap, so without having read previous novels in the series, the reader would be quite lost. Chan does include a very handy list of characters at the end, and it is to be hoped this will also be done for the next two books, tentatively titled Demon Child and Black Jade. This one has plenty of action, some humour and a bit of heartache, making it a cracking good read that will have fans eager for the next instalment.
review 2: This series was recommended to me by a friend who loves to read, but doesn't read the types of books I do. This was the first series she gave me that I have enjoyed. The writing is not great, many characters have the same voice and the word 'damn' is used in almost every exchange in the book! Still, the plot is engaging and the setting and mythology interesting. I found this story less thrilling than the ones that came before but I still would like to know how it all finishes. less

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