The Serpent
core novel 1963 The Atlan Saga
Record
| First published | 1963 |
|---|---|
| Original language |  EN |
| Work type | novel |
| Canon status | core |
| Reader rating | 3.64 (267 ratings, collected 2026-08-26) |
| Page count | 317 |
| First-edition ISBN | 9780879979904 |
| Internal chronology | 1 |
Synopsis
The Serpent opens with Cija, the illegitimate daughter of a kingdom's Dictatress and a high priest, who has spent seventeen years confined to a tower and raised to believe that men are extinct and that she herself is a goddess. At seventeen, her mother finally releases her and sends her out as a hostage-spy to the camp of Zerd, a half-human, half-reptilian warlord leading an army toward the hidden continent of Atlan, with secret instructions to seduce and destroy him. Thrust for the first time into a world of men, armies and political intrigue after a lifetime of isolation, Cija must navigate Zerd's camp and the wider invasion while concealing her true purpose, all narrated in her own naive, headstrong voice as the first volume of the Atlan Saga.
Where it sits
- Universe: The Atlan Saga
- Series: The Atlan Saga core; position 1 of 4 in the series' recorded order
- Author: Jane Gaskell
Notes
- From the series record (The Atlan Saga): A prehistoric secondary-world saga following the heroine Cija across a mythic, magic-infused Atlantis; the debut volume was reportedly begun when the author was a teenager.
Neighbouring works
Publication order and internal chronology are tracked as two separate orderings, but they resolve to the exact same sequence for this book, so one combined line is shown instead of two identical ones.
- Reading order, within the series The Atlan Saga: position 1 of 4: next Atlan (1965)
Sources
- The Atlan Saga bibliography (specialised series-tracking site)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Serpent_(novel)
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