Book Review
Nov. 19th, 2025 09:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kenjariIn the Serpent's Wake
by Rachel Hartman
This is the sequel to Tess of the Road and follows it pretty directly. Tess brazens her way onto the explorer Countess Marga's ship, intending to help her friend Pathka get to the Polar Serpent that lives among the southern islands. She is joined by her brother-in-law Jacomo and Pathka's daughter Kikiu. Their voyage is filled with adventure and the negotiations of a complicated web of relationships.
This was a very exciting yet reflective story. It was mostly an adventure story, but took on some deeper issues of colonization, finding one's way to a good path, and how to make restitution for wrongs committed. Both Marga and Tess come face to face with the grim realities of colonization, and face a lot of choices about when, where, and how to engage in opposition and help the oppressed. I liked how they both made some real mistakes but learned from them. I love how much of this book is about doing the work of understanding yourself and others, making restitution for your mistakes, and finding the path to truly helping to make things better.
by Rachel Hartman
This is the sequel to Tess of the Road and follows it pretty directly. Tess brazens her way onto the explorer Countess Marga's ship, intending to help her friend Pathka get to the Polar Serpent that lives among the southern islands. She is joined by her brother-in-law Jacomo and Pathka's daughter Kikiu. Their voyage is filled with adventure and the negotiations of a complicated web of relationships.
This was a very exciting yet reflective story. It was mostly an adventure story, but took on some deeper issues of colonization, finding one's way to a good path, and how to make restitution for wrongs committed. Both Marga and Tess come face to face with the grim realities of colonization, and face a lot of choices about when, where, and how to engage in opposition and help the oppressed. I liked how they both made some real mistakes but learned from them. I love how much of this book is about doing the work of understanding yourself and others, making restitution for your mistakes, and finding the path to truly helping to make things better.
