≡ [PDF] Gratis The Serpent Atlan Jane Gaskell 9780708881378 Books

The Serpent Atlan Jane Gaskell 9780708881378 Books

Download As PDF : The Serpent Atlan Jane Gaskell 9780708881378 Books

The Serpent Atlan Jane Gaskell 9780708881378 Books

anyone who enjoys fantasy adventure fiction will love this trilogy. Jane Gaskell writes with a distinct voice and her protagonist Cija, is a wonderful and real character faced with fantastic circumstances


Tags : The Serpent (Atlan) [Jane Gaskell] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Orbit / Futura, 1985. British mass market paperback, 1st thus. The first book (or the first part of the first book) in the Atlan / Cija series. After first publication,Jane Gaskell,The Serpent (Atlan),Futura,0708881378,Fiction,Science Fiction

The Serpent Atlan Jane Gaskell 9780708881378 Books Reviews

The Serpent by Jane Gaskell

I've never actually read a "historical romance" novel, but The Serpent is rather like what I imagine them to be, though The Serpent is set in a fantasy prehistory, when the Earth had no moon and dinosaurs, giant snails, and half-reptile people lived alongside ordinary humans.

Cija is a princess who has spent the first 17 years of her life locked up in a tower with her female servants, due to a curse and a prophecy. She has never even seen a man; in fact, she was told that men were extinct. When a foreign army takes over Cija's country, Cija's mother has to give Cija to the invading army's general as a hostage. Cija's mother tells Cija to seduce the general and stab him in the neck in his sleep. This is not so easy as Cija's countrymen might hope, because the army with which Cija now marches is full of beautiful girls who are all trying to seduce the general, who, despite the fact that he has scaly skin like a grey snake's, is a real hunk. Can Cija triumph over her rivals and get into the snakeman's bed? Can Cija bring herself to murder the hunk, even if she has the chance?

The pace is slow, and the plot is not resolved as this is the first volume (300 pages long) of a series. There are many characters, most of them involved in catty relationships based on envy and jealousy. The whole thing is kind of squalid and cynical. Neither Cija nor the snakeman general is interesting enough that I cared whether they fell in love or killed each other or whatever. At times I wondered if this book was meant to appeal to the S&M crowd; people get flogged, women get raped, there are lots of slave girls who get groped and beaten, etc. Gaskell throws in some jarring anachronisms; one of the characters talks about "sublimating" sexual desire, and the army's quartermaster demands that requests be made in "triplicate" and carries around a little notebook. (Aren't paper and ink expensive in this preindustrial society?) Gaskell also tosses in an impassioned plea for government regulation of chemical fertilizers and preservatives. There are also lots of "literary" descriptions of the weather, landscape, light playing on gilded columns and reflecting off panes of glass and so on.

I read the Pocket Books 1978 edition of this 1963 novel, the one with the Boris Vallejo cover and the Soho Weekly News blurb. ("A thrill a minute!" we are told.) I counted ten phallic symbols in Boris's cover painting; see how many you can spot!

Not really for me, but Gaskell is admirably ambitious and seems to have an extensive vision, so 2 stars.
anyone who enjoys fantasy adventure fiction will love this trilogy. Jane Gaskell writes with a distinct voice and her protagonist Cija, is a wonderful and real character faced with fantastic circumstances