Buy Used
Used - Good See details
$3.99 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details

or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
 
   
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
The Serpent's Tooth
 
See larger image
 
Tell the Publisher!
I'd like to read this book on Kindle

Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here, or download a FREE Kindle Reading App.

The Serpent's Tooth [Hardcover]

Diana L. Paxson (Author)
3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)


Available from these sellers.


Formats

Amazon Price New from Used from
Hardcover --  
Paperback --  
Mass Market Paperback --  
Unknown Binding --  

Book Description

June 1991
Cridilla, the youngest daughter of Leir Blatonikos, grows to womanhood in a magnificent land, learns the lost secrets of the Goddess from Crow, and must face her own sister's perfidy. Reprint.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this fantasy retelling of King Lear , Paxton intriguingly posits that the daughters' treatment of the old king demonstrates a conflict between matrilineal and patrilineal cultures. Leir, a leader of the Quiritani people from the Great Land, conquers the Painted People of Iron Age Britain. He fathers a daughter with each of three major queens, his favorite child being the youngest, Cridilla, who is trained, like her sisters, to join a long line of women warriors. When famine overtakes the land in Lier's old age, his oldest daughters secretly agitate his overthrow and a return to the rule of the Goddess. Cridilla, who loves a chieftain of the Quiritani of the Great Land, refuses to join her sisters when they make their false and honeyed promises to the king and is banished when her pregnancy is revealed. Later, Cridilla determines to battle her sisters and save her father, since she realizes that the old ways cannot return. Unfortunately, the magic Paxton brought to the Tristan and Isolde legend in The White Raven makes but a dim appearance here. Too much attention is devoted to the rituals and omens of the Goddess and not enough to character and plot development.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

Retreading ancient legend for the modern British mytho- fantasy fiction devotee is Paxson's specialty (e.g., The White Raven, 1988, a return to the saga of Tristan and Iseult); this time out, she's tracking down the Lear story, first amid dusty tomes like Geoffrey of Monmouth's History of the Kings of England, and then in her own busy imagination. It's around the fifth century B.C. when Paxson kicks things off, with the Celts (here, the Quiritani) recently arrived in Britain, subduing the land under the leadership of King Leir. Leir manages this feat, despite continued resistance from weird pockets of recalcitrants like the Old Race and the Painted People, largely by getting children off local queens--exclusively women-children, three in number: beautiful Rigana, Gunarduilla the warrior-woman, and little Cridilla, who loves Leir dearly, and is Paxson's heroine. After an enlightening stint on the Misty Isle with She-Bear, who trains Cridilla in the ways of war, and some bizarre coming-of-age rites at the Womb Cave, Cridilla sticks by her father as his ragtag kingdom begins to unravel. She also gets pregnant by a princeling from the Great Land, or Europe. This is all interesting enough, but about halfway through, when Leir exiles Cridilla for telling him the truth about the nature of her love for him, Paxson reclines back into the ever-beguiling Shakespearean version of the legend, leaving few surprises in store. Rigana and Gunarduilla turn on the old man, rebellion erupts, and Cridilla returns--though Paxson serves up a happy ending, leaving her to live and rule. It's all just a little too familiar and rehearsed, with multitudinous settings that pass by in a fog. Perhaps, then, a reasonable selection for the Marion Zimmer Bradley crew, but by no means a standout. -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Product Details

  • Hardcover: 402 pages
  • Publisher: William Morrow & Co; 1st edition (June 1991)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0688083390
  • ISBN-13: 978-0688083397
  • Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 1.6 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
  • Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,414,035 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I was brought up in southern California, but came north to attend Mills College and never left. I got my M.A. in (medieval) Comparative Literature from the University of California in 1966, the same year I put on the first tournament of what was to become the Society for Creative Anachronism. Since 1971 I've lived at Greyhaven, a hundred-year old house in Berkeley, with successive generations of family, friends, cats and dogs.

It's a literary family, including my husband, Jon DeCles, and the late Marion Zimmer Bradley, who was my mentor as a writer as well as colleague in founding Darkmoon Circle. My first published novel was Mistress of the Jewels, which began the chronicles of Westria. After I had written several historical fantasies, Marion, whose health deteriorated after she wrote Mists of Avalon, asked me to help her with The Forest House, which is how I ended up writing the Avalon series.

Much of the spiritual experience in my novels comes out of my work in the pagan community. I have now begun to publish that material in a series of non-fiction books, the most recent being Trance-Portation. My most recent novel is Sword of Avalon, set at the end of the Bronze Age, which gave me an opportunity to explore the end of the Homeric Age and the techniques of bronze- and iron-forging.

For more about my work, see:

www.westria.org
www.avalonbooks.net
www.seidh.org

 

Customer Reviews

2 Reviews
5 star:    (0)
4 star:
 (1)
3 star:
 (1)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
3.5 out of 5 stars (2 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars From the "Mists of Avalon" genre, September 4, 1998
This review is from: The Serpent's Tooth (Hardcover)
What a pity that so many of Diana Paxson's novels are out of print! While perhaps not up to the very high level of Marion Zimmer Bradley's or Rosemary Sutcliff's portraits of Celtic Britain, Paxson undeniably draws a rich and detailed picture of life in Britain just after the invasion of the Celts from across the English Channel. Her scenes frequently have the feel of Homer's archaic world of the Iliad. There is a bit too much fantasy marring the historical impact--visions and shapeshifting and such--but Paxson draws a compelling picture of a lost world. I recommend reading Shakespeare's King Lear before reading this novel--it brings it to even more colorful life.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews 
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No


1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Decent Historical, but not enough fantasy, June 1, 2000
This review is from: The Serpent's Tooth (Hardcover)
Unlike another review for this novel, I found that the fantasy element was lacking. A good re-telling of the King Lear story, it reads more like a proper historical novel than a fantasy novel. This is especially apparent when read in comparison to Marion Zimmer Bradley's Arthurian Novels.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews 
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No

Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
Only search this product's reviews



Tag this product

 (What's this?)
Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organize and find favorite items.
Your tags: Add your first tag
 

Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store

If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store. Learn more

Customer Discussions

This product's forum
Discussion Replies Latest Post
No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
 


Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
Search all Amazon discussions
   
Related forums


Listmania!


Create a Listmania! list

So You'd Like to...


Create a guide


Look for Similar Items by Category


Look for Similar Items by Subject

Search Books by subject:








i.e., each book must be in subject 1 AND subject 2 AND ...