Customer Reviews

Balshazzar's Serpent

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

There's excellent, good, fair, mediocre, poor, and gawdawful.

This one rates a "fair." It's the first book in what is clearly going to be a series of either three or four books, and each one is patently going to deal with the exploration and mysteries of a treasure-trove system called "the Three Kings." This system contains three worlds named either after the Three Magi who brought gifts to the infant Jesus, or "Inferno", "Purgatorio" and "Paradiso."

Chalker essentially spends the entire book doing the background for "How Our Heroes Got Into This Mess." I found the middle so tedious and strung out to fill pages that I nearly abandoned the book at that point. I persevered right up to the massively unsatisfying ending, which essentially amounted to saying "OK, that's the background, I'll start the *story* in the next volume." I was not amused.

I suspect that what I'm going to do is wait for the *rest* of the series to appear and then read the other volumes as a group, assuming Chalker doesn't tedious them out again just to fill a length requirement. However, my personal take is that I'll wait for them all in paperback before I start.

Chalker is justly famous for the richness of his creations. The "Well World" saga is as rich as the Bayeux Tapestry, and the "Four Lords of the Diamond" a Bokhara Carpet. This is a throw rug, and I think Chalker's fans deserved better.

I'll admit up front I have never written a book, I am a consumer not a producer of books. I acknowledge the fact that good ideas and great stories are hard to come by. I'll also acknowledge that in art there are themes and patterns that are unique to an artist and make up distinctive and recognizable styles. However I expect this more in terms of styling than story line. Having read a ton of Chalker (since I was 12) there are times when his themes though could be construed as bordering on the lack of original ideas. I wouldn't exactly characterize this book in that vein, but I did notice at least one simliarity, namely the setup of planetary system which three inhabitable worlds was similar to his The Four Lords of the Diamond series (which I highly reccomend). However I can't fault him for that entirely, just noting a thematic similarity.

Regardless, its clear Chalker sets out to write a series, and this book largely sets up the books to come, but I found that over all I enjoyed the book. The major story lines centers on a evangelical Christian group proslytizing colonial outpost worlds that have been cut off from contact since the "Great Silence". I was worried that Chalker would use this as a means to grind an ax against religion in general, and was pleasantly surprised to find not only a fairly balanced account, but an exploration of faith in the face of doubt and the individualism of worship juxtaposed against congregational preaching.

I am looking forward to finishing the series, and am glad that the other two books have already been published and I won't have to wait for publication to finish the series.

Chalker is a great writer and doesn't let up with this book. Although B's Serpent is clearly written to introduce characters and the worlds of 'The Three Kings' it is a compelling story in its own right. I would have liked to see more character development. Perhaps because Chalker is introducing characters who will play vital roles in future novels, we do not truly learn to fully empathize with very many in this introductory novel. Pretty good.