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The Lady of the Serpents
Book Two of the Vampyricon Trilogy

by Douglas Clegg



      If you are expecting a traditional Bram Stoker  vampire, or even an Anne Rice Lestat, think again. Clegg's vampyre world is a rich, dark fantasy, taking place in an alternate, world, parallel to our own, and kept separate from it by a veil, or fabric barrier, that is subject to being torn apart. In this second installment of Clegg's unfolding Vampyricon, Doug creates his own mythos.

In the Priest of Blood, Aleric seemed destined for glory, until, like many of his brethren, he was captured, to be imprisoned for eleven long years... but, now, he awakens from the silver-sealed well to fulfill his destiny.  He wakes to a lost century, vastly different from the one he left, filled with plague and unrest.  The very face of the earth has changed, populations have died and risen, the seas have frozen and a new dark age has dawned.  Once called the new vampyre messiah, Aleric, along with his long time companion and friend, Ewen, must battle many opponents for the entertainment of the sorceress, Enora.

Aleric envisions a golden mask upon the face of Pythia, the Lady of The Serpents, and he knows he must find her, as she may hold the only key to the source of Enora's power, and the only hope of stopping her and securing the survival of the vampyre world and humankind, as well.

Clegg's word-pictures of clashing vampyre fighting vampyre showcase his fertile imagination as he gives us women who had once been nuns and have now become shapeshifters - wolf-women.  There are necromancers known as Chymers; and vampyre-like creatures called Morns who ride the wind without minds, without thought, and without memory.  It's easy to get caught up in this fantastic world and believe in Clegg's intriguing speculation and the premise of a secret history underlying our own. The Lady of the Serpents is a mesmerizing, fast action read... with the final words a promise of more to come.

The Book

ACE Books
September 5, 2006
Hardcover
0-441-01438-0
Fantasy
More at Amazon.com
Excerpt
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The Reviewer

Beverly J. Rowe
Reviewed 2006
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© 2006 MyShelf.com