The Silvered Serpents – Roshani Chokshi
Hardcover | Wednesday Books | September 22, 2020
The Gist
Four grieving treasure hunters walk into a magical palace that’s hidden in Russia to get their hands on an artifact that can turn them into gods and help them avoid death and dealing with their feelings.
Read this if you like…
Treasure hunts and heists
Rich worldbuilding
A whole lot of romantic tension and angst
The Verdict: Worth the read, but wait for the paperback.
Séverin and the gang are reluctantly back for another job that takes them deep into the Russian tundra. Since the events of The Gilded Wolves, Séverin, Laila, Enrique, Zofia, and Hypnos have gone their separate ways, each of them trying to move past their grief. Unable to deal with his grief, guilt, and fear of losing the rest of his friends, Séverin has been searching for an ancient artifact called The Divine Lyrics that’s capable of raising the Tower of Babel and granting godlike powers and, more importantly, erasing a person’s humanity.
This sequel builds effortlessly on the first book while diving deeper into each of these diverse and unique narrators. In particular, Chokshi really brings Zofia out of her shell in this sequel and makes her more three dimensional. But while Laila, Enrique, Zofia, and Hypnos grow over the course of the novel, Séverin is stagnant. We understand his motives and empathize with his grief and fears, but beyond whether or not him and Laila will finally wind up together, there doesn’t seem to be much at stake for him until the final pages of the novel. The novel’s final twist makes it much clearer as to where Séverin’s arc is going and what hangs in the balance. So while, to an extent, it feels like a little too much was revealed too late, The Silvered Serpents ends with the perfect storm momentum and tension that will carry into the trilogy’s final installment.
