Full Circlet

Serpentia #3

by Frances Pauli

Book Three in the Award-Winning Serpentia series.

Sookahr and his band of rebel snakes are making a new home among the ancient rodent burrows. But before he can settle in and enjoy his hard-won freedom, Sookahr must make good on a promise to his chick.

The bird he’s fostered longs to know its own kind, so Sookahr begins a journey to the Tower of Aves a place riddled with his ancient enemy. In keeping his promise, he risks the ultimate betrayal, and an old danger hidden at the heart of the birds’ tower.

The rebel snake's quest continues, as the repercussions of his actions come back to haunt him. Can one lowly snake triumph against the might of his enemies combined force? When even the gods are keeping secrets, the quest for truth leads Sookarh into a grim confrontation with his own ego.

The epic quest continues in Full Circlet.

323 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 8, 2022

About the author

Frances Pauli writes books about animals, hybrids, aliens, shifters, and occasionally ordinary humans. She tends to cross genre boundaries, but hovers around fantasy and science fiction with romantic tendencies.

Her work has won four Leo awards, two Coyotl awards, and has been nominated for an Ursa Major award.

She lives in Washington State with her family, a small menagerie, and far too many houseplants.

Reviews

[Andromeda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ive come to love these characters a lot

[Frank LeRenard · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a book about a lot of things, but mostly, I think, it's a book about motherhood. And it's the best kind of motherhood, wherein a male snake is the mother to a baby bird, whom he hatched and raised, and to a bevy of unhatched snake eggs he rescued from certain doom. Even though I don't have kids, those themes stuck out, and I felt it when one of those children grows up and becomes another person throughout the course of the book. That weird wonderful horribleness of simultaneously losing your baby, the dumb charming little guy you protect and guide, but seeing them become a full person before your eyes by dint of that protection and guidance. The conflicted feelings when those changes happen, questioning everything you've done up until that point, questioning your own competence as a parent, questioning whether you deserved to be a parent at all, and the difficulty of letting go.

I appreciated many aspects of this one, all of which are spoilers, so here's some spoiler text. Sookhar is very relatable insofar as, being a political rebel with a vision for a better society, and being a symbol to those he's inspired, he wants to do everything himself. So I appreciate that at the end, he is forced to be on the sideline, to be out of commission while others continue the work he started. On that same note, I appreciate that he doesn't win the final physic-power battle against the big bad, the rival cobra--he merely has to do a good enough job to demonstrate his point to all the normal folks watching, and they see it and understand it and take action because of it. (Considering recent political events in the US, I choose to believe that snakes are simply better than humans in this regard.) I've grown to not believe in the "great man" theory of history; I think individuals can inspire, yes, but real societal change requires all of our participation, and it seems like this book agrees with that idea. I also appreciate that not everyone is satisfied with the changes incurred: some snakes and cobras and others did actually benefit from the banding, and of course the power balance shifts completely. There is always going to be discontent--the work in the future is constructing things so that the place works for everyone in some way, and that's a battle that can never end. It's a rare combination: a hopeful take on rebellion, but not a naive one.

I really hope this series continues in some way. There's room left for it, at the end, and some things were left mostly unexplored (for example, a particular legend, about wings). There's a looming war between rodents and lizards, and there's a bird society that needs its own kick to the beak to fix its problems. The series could justifiably end here, of course, but I don't know... I've grown to really love these characters, so maybe more, please?

[Lone Wolf · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the last book in the ‘Serpentia’ trilogy. Sookahr and his allies are attempting to set up their own society, but Fluffy, the chick he hatched in the previous book, is growing up and beginning to ask questions about other birds. Reluctantly, Sookahr travels to the city of the avians in search of Fluffy’s origins – and uncovers a new set of secrets and conspiracies as he does so. Can he and his friends finally overthrow the unjust systems of the Burrow and the other societies that share their world?

As with the first two books, there are a few factual and spelling errors, and issues with snakes using human terms and phrases that wouldn’t mean anything to them. (Plus, the giant insects from the previous book are now being referred to as spiders). That said, I did enjoy the story. It is a fairly satisfying conclusion to the series, though one loose end is left noticeably untied – whether this is set-up for future sequels remains to be seen.

The series as a whole is worth reading if you like snakes, though I did rather dislike the names the author gives to some of the castes into which she divides her serpent characters. Vipers are simply called vipers, but elapids are aspis, pythons are pythos, boas are constrictors, and colubrids are snakes. I found this last one particularly irksome as, obviously, they’re all snakes! Also, “constrictor” simply means any snake that squeezes its prey, so it’s technically incorrect to use it as a synonym for boas. I realize this sort of thing probably won’t bother most people, but as a zoological pedant it irritated me!