The Bear and the Serpent by Adrian Tchaikovsky is book 2 in the fantasy series Echoes of the Falls.
Maniye the girl with the soul of a Tiger, Wolf and a Champion travels to the south with her warband of misfits and outcast.. She is going to bring her Iron wolves to be the Prince of the Daybreak Throne. Maniye didn’t realise that she is being brought into the middle of a civil war, between brother and sister who fight for the right to rule.
The Sun River Nation is divided in who shall rule, if they choice the wrong it could mean the end of the world. As something is coming that no one in the Sun River Nation or the Crown of the World can hid from.
Although we are introduced to the Sun River Nation by Maniye I felt this book is more about Asmander. I did like Asmamder as a character but I really liked him when he was talking with Venat and Shyri, you could see the person behind the Champion. Venat became one of my favourite characters, he is a grumpy, blunt Pirate Dragon, what more could you want in a character.
This book really has two stories, we have the story with Asmander and Maniye in the Sun River Nation and Loud Thunder in the Crown of the World. I am glad that we still get to see what was happening in the Crown of the World, it help show the impact of what is coming. Also it was interesting to see the other creature that they have in the world, I am use to books that just focus the shapeshifter character on just creatures like Bears, wolves and Tiger. So I was pleasntly surpirsed to read about the Seals, boars, frogs, Deer to name a few.
There is a lot of details every page so I would advise reading this book when you have no distractions, as you will not want to miss anything. As this book contiuned I found that I became more gripped in the book, and didn’t want to put it down.
I am looking forward to reading The Hyena and the Hawk.
I give this book 4 out of 5
Thanks to Pan Macmillion for sending me this book to read for a honset review.
Thanks for reading.
Gem x
