I found it hard to reconcile all the animalistic word-building and characterization with how much might be culturally appropriated from Indigenous culture, whether intended or not. I actually went out of my way to look up Tchaikovsky's background and I do have a deep respect for the fact that he's pull in expertise not from cultural knowledge, but from a zoological one. I do appreciate that aspect of it all, because the details were all there. I also find this series is just too action packed, to the point where I would skip entire sections just to get through the fight scenes. There were way too many sandwiched between boring political strategy and travel, and it just wasn't enough to keep me interested.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the review copy.

The Bear and the Serpent is a YA story about shapeshifting tribal peoples. The protagonist is a so-called Champion named Maniye, who was the hero of the previous book in the series and can morph into some kind of terrifying hybrid creature. The story opens with Maniye heading south to get embroiled with the political struggles of the lizard shapeshifters (crocodiles, 'dragons' or monitor lizards, toads, serpents) who are significantly more populous than the shapeshifting tribes of the north. Meanwhile, in the north, the leader of the bears tries to bring the people together to face a terrifying new threat, the plague people.

That is the blurb I wish I had read before reading this book. I have read great things about Tchaikovsky and I do want to read the Shadows of the Apt at some point, but I will not be reading any more from this series, and here's why:

Setting
The setting felt seriously underdeveloped to me, and overly simple. All humans are shapeshifters. OK. There are Tiger people, and Bear people, Deer people, Horse people, etc. etc. So, when a Tiger person eats a Deer person, is that cannibalism? There are clearly regular animals in addition to the shapeshifting kind, but what the hell? Do the Deer people eat grass and leaves when they're in human shape, or only when they're in Deer shape? These kinds of questions nagged at me throughout my read.

The scale of the setting was also pretty confusing for me. I read a galley copy on my Kindle, so the map was pretty much inaccessible - even still though, the world felt very, very small to me and very simple. There is ONE tribe of Tiger people, ONE tribe of Bear people, etc. How big are these tribes? Are there other tribes in another region of the world? It seems like the entire 'world' is about the size of the province of Ontario, maybe smaller since it took a few weeks, maybe, of walking to get from 'the north' to 'the south'. While the setting is pretty different and could be interesting, I have difficulty coming to grips with a 'serious' fantasy setting that feels 2-dimensional.

Characters
Speaking of 2-dimensional, let's have a quick discussion about the characters. Asmander felt like the most fleshed out character to me because he had to face some serious moral dilemmas as part of the political conflict between his two childhood friends, that also happen to be brother and sister and contenders to a throne. Otherwise, I did not feel any connection to the characters, who felt like they had maybe one or two defining characteristics around which their entire personalities were based.

This type of characterization and setting is fine for YA lit, but not for standard fantasy fare. Compared to works by Steve Erikson, Daniel Abraham, GRRM, Brandon Sanderson, even Joe Abercrombie, Nicholas Eames (a great newcomer!), Michael J. Sullivan, and so many others...and the Echoes of the Fall setting and characters just fell flat for me.

No doubt my bias against YA and lycanthrope tropes have negatively affected by opinion of this book, as has the fact that I have not read the first book, so I will qualify my opinion by saying that this book is not bad. The writing style and prose are quite good, and no doubt this would be a decent read for those many readers that enjoy YA.* If you do not like YA, or lycanthropes, or want a story with deep characterization and a fleshed out, realistic-feeling fantasy setting, I suspect you will not enjoy this book.

*YA is, to me, a tool for identifying the level/complexity of the prose, complexity of plot and characterization, and inclusion of 'R' rated components like gore and sex. The publishing industry seems reluctant to characterize longer books or books that feature adult protagonists as other than YA, even though these types of works can legitimately be YA. Take books from the Forgotten Realms or Dragonlance settings, or this book. These are YA to me, but are not necessarily marketed as YA. Compare the Shattered Sea books by Abercrombie, which are marketed as YA but do not, in my opinion, read like YA books. /End rambling.

If you liked Game of Thrones series you will probably like this one as well as it has similar political machinations, action and grittiness that that great series has. Great read and excellent second installment in the series and I very much look forward to reading the next book when it comes out..