A.K. Larkwood’s The Thousand Eyes has one big flaw: it marks the end of the story. With this second book, Larkwood wraps up the Serpent Gates series. Other authors might fall to their knees, thanking the heavens for such a unique and brilliant concept, stretching the series across at least five books, knowing this could be the magnum opus of their career. After all, who can guarantee they’ll come up with anything even close to this good again?
The Thousand Eyes Hisses Ominously
Orc girls in love, crazed death-worshipping cults, divine incarnations roaming the earth, and countless worlds you can literally sail between through the Serpent Gates. The setup is monumental. But where Larkwood really shines is in her depiction of gods. In The Unspoken Name, her debut novel, she introduced three deities, any one of which would elevate any fantasy novel.
A goddess of serpents, shattered into a thousand pieces scattered throughout the universe; a terrifying dragon, banished to the cold of space, burning with eternal murderous rage; or an all-knowing entity that kurking in the mysterious depths of a mountain, forever hungry for human sacrifice. These gods create a fantastic foundation for Larkwood’s series.
Magic is dealt out sparingly. The gods dole it out in small doses, and anyone who takes too much faces a gruesome early death.
It’s a fantastic setup, laced with uncertainty, unpredictability, and mystery; the human characters of The Thousand Eyes stumble around in this dramatic setting like dizzy wanderers.
Sometimes Less… is Just Less
Around a third of the way through The Thousand Eyes, Larkwood introduces a twist that would usually be a book-ending cliffhanger. The story then jumps forward in time and freezes for fifteen years.
With this move, if you think about it, Larkwood essentially wipes out any chance for her mortal heroes to continue adventuring through the worlds of the Serpent Gates. Poof—end of story.
If that feels like a big letdown, you’re probably not alone. From here on, all that’s left is the series’ grand finale. And if, for instance, you’d been hoping for a book where the Qarsazhi go after Suthmili to take, let’s say, a well-deserved and fairly brutal revenge for past grievances, deploying their specialized, hive-minded battle-wizards along the way—well, you can forget about that…
Even the main villain in The Thousand Eyes doesn’t do much to fill the void. Because, essentially, the antagonist is… a veil. Sure, it’s a divine incarnation, but it’s still hard to see it as anything more than, well, just a piece of cloth.
Divine Comedy
The remaining two-thirds of The Thousand Eyes feels like a chamber drama, unfolding in a confined setting with a small cast of characters. And among the few characters, there are precisely three gods.
If you have a series and three impressively crafted gods, perhaps the smartest move is to spread them across three books—unless you’re just eager to get the series over with. And Larkwood clearly is. In the meantime, all three gods “descend to earth,” taking on human form—thus losing much of their mystery.
Still, despite all these criticisms, The Thousand Eyes still works remarkably well. In fact, it feels more cohesive than the first installment.
Talasseres Charossa Takes the Lead
Even in human form, the gods are fascinating, complex characters. As for the human characters, Talasseras Charossa clearly takes center stage. Csorwe and Suthmili are practically pushed to the background in comparison. (Haha.)
And believe it or not, the despised, unbearable Charossa from The Unspoken Name somehow manages to carry almost the entire weight of the next installment. This requires some serious character development, of course…
Belthrandos Sethennai Has Got to Go!
Ever had a job where your boss was an unbearable jerk who made your life miserable? Sure you have. Now, how about a place where your superior was a dreamy, indifferent figure who didn’t care how things were going?
Sethennai definitely falls into the latter category. Seriously, you couldn’t ask for a better boss. And what do you think—could there actually be some foolish employees out there who would prefer a cruel, bloodthirsty reptile as their boss instead? Absolutely! Plenty of them!
For a fantasy, The Thousand Eyes feels more like a thriller crossed with a spy novel. Our characters need more cunning than an Israeli intelligence agent (see: Daniel Silva’s The Cellist). Infiltration, deception, recruitment, prisoner rescues—they’ll need all these skills, plus a fair amount of magic, to take down every last chancellor in Tlanthothe.
A Subdued Love Story
Sex? Let’s be honest, a bit of it wouldn’t hurt in a book where love and the deepest sacrifices made for love are key themes. Yet in The Thousand Eyes, you’ll only get a few chaste kisses.
Oddly enough, this doesn’t feel lacking. (And it’s not like this is due to the unwritten rules of the YA genre, as Larkwood’s book is far beyond that category.) Readers mainly experience the love between Csorwe and Suthmili through their emotions—not in a sappy way, but through actions and perseverance.
The story of the stocky orc warrior girl and the ethereal Qarsazhi sorceress is, above all, about love. Having to overthrow a few Tlanthothean chancellors is just a subplot. And in the end, it doesn’t even matter that Zinandour—the Traitor goddess of things hidden and things decaying, the flame that devours—constantly whispers in their ears.
Rating: 8.3/10
The Thousand Eyes (The Serpent Gates #2) by A.K. Larkwood
385 pages, Hardcover
Published in 2022 by Tor Books
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Review of the Previous Book:
The Unspoken Name
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