The feminists will have a heyday with this one...

books:

	• In the Coils of the Snake: Book III -- The Hollow Kingdom Trilogy Clare B. Dunkle Henry Holt and Co. BYR Paperbacks, 2006 - 240 pages average customer review:based on 11 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Very enjoyable read

I forgot how much I liked the first book until I read the third book in this series. Miranda is the main character in this book. She lives with her mother who is abusive to her. She does not have any friends, either. The only person that she feels a connection to is Marak, the goblin king. The goblin king told her that she will be the next goblin kings wife, and he grooms her to be a goblin queen.

Once Marak dies and his son Catspaw becomes king, Catspaw has 300 days to marry. Miranda moves from her abusive home into the lavish elf queen quarters. Meanwhile, Catspaw looks forward to marrying Miranda, but he meets an elf woman with extraordiary magical abilities. Catspaws duty is to get the best queen for his people. Miranda has no idea that there is another female that could take the role of goblin queen.

The characters were well developed and the plot was good. From my description, it sounds something like "Days of Our Goblin Lives" or some soap opera. However, I am a picky reader, and I liked this book. Unlike other readers, I didn't notice any anti-feminist issues, nor did it offend me in any way, and I am female.

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The feminists will have a heyday with this one...

I can't think of a better way to end a trilogy than this. I loved the first book of "The Hollow Kingdom", was reasonably pleased with the second, and now must say that the quality and magic of this third installment compares to the original. Similar emotions of love and despair and choice are brought forth in an imaginative and gratifying way that still has its originality--while the first book dealt with the choice between a human world and that of the fantastic, this deals with people utterly unsure of where they belong, desperate for a real choice.

Dunkle's writing is still as lush, simple, and poetic and always, still conjuring up a rather Victorian aura that nods to all the old myths and legends of "the little people". And yet this particular story has grown to something more akin to what Tolkien would have written for young girls had he ever taken such a genre. Call me crazy, but I relish the clear problems of elf society (too many authors have praised it beyond the ridiculous.) But it is nice to see a few good elves that give plausibility to the story of war and prejudice.

The feminists, however, will not be pleased. I hate to say it, but part of me loves the idea of being kidnapped by a roguish goblin to his underground kingdom, and indeed these are books about women who are pretty much at the mercy of the males. And yet... they all strike me as powerful, remarkable girls who always truly have a choice of their fates.

Wonderul storytelling to a truly romantic tale. Thank-you!

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Flawed, but still enjoyable.

If you're looking for a fairly light but enjoyable read, In the Coils of the Snake fits the bill pretty well.

I'll admit I have some problems with Dunkle's work: I think she has the seeds of some excellent ideas, but doesn't develop them as far as she could have, which ends up weakening her work overall. That and she has a tendency to ignore internal consistancy on small but important things, which drives me batty.

First off, Dunkle ended Close Kin with heavy, hit-you-over-the-head-with-the-point-foreshadowing that Til is Bad News, and will cause severe trouble for Catspaw in the future.

Fast forward to In the Coils of the Snake: we find that Til continues to be a witch supreme, but now she's left the kingdom for the human world and spends her spite on her daughter, Miranda, earmarked by Marek as Catspaw's bride. What happened to the foreshadowing at the end of Close Kin? Did Dunkle just forget about it?

Another quibble: Miranda goes on and on about how Til has abused her--but where's her father in all this? Neither Miranda or Dunkle seem to pay him much attention, though we know from a flashback that he's still alive and hasn't fled the household to get away from his harpy of a wife. So why--if Til's abuse of Miranda is so obvious and frequent--does he never lift a hand to help his daughter? Why, through her frequent bouts of abuse, does Miranda never wonder why her father doesn't try and stop her mother or even seem to think about him at all?

It's little things like this that tend to drive me wild, because it shows a lack of concern for consistency and lazyness--it's not that hard to keep track of things like this.

Other then that, the book's plot is fine, but thin. It's basically "here are the goblins, here are the elves, there are big misunderstandings and Miranda has trouble adjusting to Elf life, but everything's fine in the end." Catspaw continues to be an arrogant, essentially unlikeable jerk, but the narrative does call him on it at several points. Looking at Til's character through the whole series, she's basically a waste of space; what exactly was the point of having her, beside being needed to birth Miranda and mess with her head? So she could cause Kate some angst and have vague threats that she's going to be a threat to goblins thrown around, which are never fulfilled?

Kate is Kate and remains awesome. Miranda is difficult, but mostly likeable, and Lir, while a nice and slightly quirky guy, doesn't really have a lot of substance to his character--though Dunkle's elves are the classic "play all day, no cares in the world" type, so it's not really that surprising.

Overall, In the Coils of the Snake falters somewhat but it's still a light, enjoyable read despite the flaws.

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Sadly, not feminist friendly

As an avid and insatiable reader with a tendency towards fantasy, I have hit my fair share of male-dominated literature. Heroes, not heroines, are prevalent. I understand and accept this, but it is nice to have female role-models in my preferred reading. So I was overjoyed at the prospect of reading a new series which focus on women! I have happy memories of Tamora Pierce's novels and young adult fantasy tales. Perhaps this would add to my collection of books to share with my daughter eventually! Sadly, the further I read into this series, the more depressed I became. I rate the entire series as a whole with three stars because the writing is very solid, the characters are personable, and my own personal quirk; the story is NOT the traditional 'hero - quest - action - happy ending.' I am very taken with the writing, and the style of the tale. However, anyone with strong feminist tendencies will NOT enjoy this series, as the main theme is that of weak women, either through nature; portrayed by elven women, or through environment; displayed with shocking forthrightness by the 'human' sisters and eventual girl-children showcased in the story). These women, time and again, are captured, kidnapped, stolen from their family/culture/preferred reality in order to be forcibly (in yet another brutal and shocking scene from the story - the wedding itself is a horrid travesty) wed to creatures dependent on outside blood to "strenghten" their genetic line. Despite this brutal introduction to the men of the tale, hardly any time passes before the women (perhaps weak in emotional control and mental powers as well? It's certainly suggested in the storyline) fall helplessly in love with their husbands, and proceed to aid their brutal adopted culture in inflicting the same fate on other helpless women.

In a way, I was almost anguished at the quality of this series. It BEGS you to like it, with lyrical prose and a gifted ability to show feeling as well as sense of place. To use such skills to portray a tale so deeply against everything modern women STILL fight to gain... it was saddening. The final straw was the author's website, where she commented that the tales were meant for her own teen and college aged daughters!

Read and enjoy, but THINK about what the author presents for you to accept.

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Great third book

I LOVE THIS SERIES! THe third book has a huge surprise right at the beginning and it is a tear jerker. The book goes on and is a great ending to the series. I love Merek!

reviews: page 1, 2, 3

Clare Dunkle?s acclaimed fantasy trilogy? now available in paperback For thousands of years, young women have been vanishing from Hallow Hill, never to be seen again. Now Kate and Emily have moved there with no idea of the land?s dreadful heritage?until Marak decides to tell them himself. Marak is a powerful magician who claims to be the goblin king, and he has very specific plans for the two new girls who have trespassed into his kingdom . . .
So begins the award-winning Hollow Kingdom Trilogy. Now in paperback, these editions welcome a whole new audience to the magical realm that Newbery Award winner Lloyd Alexander calls ?as persuasive as it is remarkable.?

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