The Bear and the Serpent

Written by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Narrated by Kyla Garcia

As the south is in turmoil, an old terror emerges in the north. The Bear and the Serpent is the second book in Adrian Tchaikovsky’s epic fantasy trilogy, Echoes of the Fall, following The Tiger and the Wolf.

‘A classically brilliant fantasy writer’ – Paul Cornell, author of Witches of Lychford

Maniye, child of both Wolf and Tiger clans, has been named Champion of her people. But they're unsure if she is an asset – or a threat. To buy time, she joins a warband of outcasts and heads south. She wants to discover her true place in the world, but finds herself heading into the jaws of a fierce new conflict.

The group are led by Prince Tecuman, battling his twin sister for the throne. Only one can rule, and the threat of civil war hangs overhead. Yet, whoever triumphs will carry a heavy burden. A great doom has been foreseen, set to fall across their whole world. Soon, Maniye finds herself at the heart of a political storm.

Danger is casting a shadow over her old home too, where Loud Thunder and his Bear clan are attempting to unite the northern tribes. An ancient adversary is preparing to strike, putting not only their lands but their very souls at risk. It may be the only thing to end tribal rivalries; neither north nor south will be spared in the terror to come . . .

The series is narrated by Kyla Garcia. Listeners love the series in audio:

‘Expertly written and beautifully performed’

‘I've loved every Adrian Tchaikovsky book I've listened to or read’

‘The sheer talent and the wealth of imagination this man has is amazing’

Complete this sweeping coming-of-age fantasy trilogy with The Hyena and the Hawk.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Pan Macmillan
• Release date: Apr 5, 2018
• ISBN: 9781509864607

Adrian Tchaikovsky

Adrian Tchaikovsky is a British science-fiction and fantasy writer known for a wide-variety of work including the Children of Time, Final Architecture, Dogs of War, Tyrant Philosophers and Shadows of the Apt series, as well as standalone books such as Elder Race, Doors of Eden, Spiderlight and many others. Children of Time and its series has won the Arthur C Clarke and BSFA awards, and his other works have won the British Fantasy, British Science Fiction and Sidewise Awards.

Reviews for The Bear and the Serpent

[Madhav Deshpande · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

“We are the deaths of all your careful tomorrows.”

I have enjoyed this book probably more than I should. Why? Because as exciting and well written as it is, what transpires in the pages of this instalment is essentially rendered meaningless by the ending. That means: a perfect book no 2.

The worst what a reader can expect is that s/he will continue a tale of Maniye, an errant child of the Wolf and a rebellious daughter of the Tiger and Asmander, an underachieving son of an ambitious father, and their quest to control their own destinies. This is not happening. While all the books in the Echoes of the Fall trilogy are set in the same universe of bronze era shapeshifting tribes and sport roughly the same set of protagonists, the titles hint very clearly which of the totems and hence which of the characters will take the lead.

As expected, Maniye and her band of the mad, the broken, and the unfitting go south to a different land, different customs, values and different gods (although I still do not get how is it that dog is too small to ride a human soul and a toad is not) and promptly land in the middle of a power struggle. But can there be firm battle lines drawn through the estuaries, bogs and mashes? As Maniye navigates the waters of the new environments and balances between being partly a guest and partly a mercenary, she needs to learn a whole set of new lessons. Similarly, Asmander, either will learn how to have as many faces as souls or face death as a choice.

Nevertheless, these two are far from being the main voices in The Bear and the Serpent. I was surprised by how little Maniye was there; when she appeared at one point, I was literally muttering to myself “and where did you come from?!” as she basically vanished for several chapters. Nevertheless, there are reasons for this.

Firstly, I am glad of the many different POVs in this instalment. They really added a flavour to this story. We see some new faces, like the half-mad Crow Feeds on Rags and just slightly mad Coyote girl Sathewe, but also old acquaintances: Venat (all the world’s chaos and anarchy in one name) who grow exponentially and stops being just a menace with foul breath, Shyri the Hyena, and even Kalameshli Takes Iron. We see more of the Serpent that thrives on secrets and wisdom. But it is undoubtedly Loud Thunder who steals the show. This is the second reason for multivocality. The story itself is far from linear and also becomes distinctly multifocal. Equally important (if not even more salient) events take place in the North, among the Seals and other tribes we have already met in the previous book. So much happens there and of such momentous consequences, that the whole Southern brouhaha feels like an interlude rather than a step in the story (you see the problem here, don’t you?).

The developments in the North are simply magnificent in how terrifying they are. Mr Tchaikovsky spins such horror, such abomination, that when reading I felt hollow inside. Again, his creativity is shining. This time he had me googling prehistoric badgers (who apparently had dinosaurs for breakfast) and all these amazing elements, coupled with excellent writing meant that I did not mind the fact that the book has been a tad too long, and a little bit pointless. Even some YA features that seem to be more pronounced (that finale to the Southern katzenjammer!) were not that jarring.

All in all, a pleasant intermezzo in the story proper with only marginal developments with regards to the main tale. I appreciated the fact that the story becomes less Maniye-centred and more an epic tale of civilizational survival. While the personal bonds forged in the previous book are still important, now bigger things are at stake. The Serpent and the Bear was less intimate but not less intense.