Seh, the main character in this, the third book, in The Five Ancestors series was certainly a more believable Kung Fu master than his fellow monks, Fu and Malao. Seh's actions were more cautious, methodical, and deliberate than Fu's or Malao's, and I thought that this character anchored the story (to this point) and kept it from floating off into silliness with Malao or into broody cantankerousness with Fu.Snake also puts to rest another of my complaints about the series up to this point: it is suddenly becoming much harder to tell friend from foe. This serves to keep our monks on their toes, and to not underestimate anyone they meet on their travels. Seh is particularly good at this, and you would think that with all of the trouble that has befallen Fu and Malao up to this point they would do a better job of emulating Seh, but they don't. Still, the point is made in this book that a good martial artist doesn't let his or her guard drop.In this book a ton of supporting characters were introduced. I think that if I had read this book instead of listened to it on audiobook it would have been easy to become confused by this rapid introduction of so many new characters. Kiki Barrera, though, did a good job of making the voices for these new characters distinctive, so I didn't have too hard of a time keeping track of them. With the introduction of the new characters came the introduction of females. I had complaints about the denigration of the feminine in the previous two books, but that was nowhere in sight in Snake. All of the females in this book were tough, and all held their own against their opponents. Thank you, that's all I ask.The main issue I had with the book is that it contained a lot of twists and turns, and I'm no longer quite sure what the monks view as their objective. There's been a lot of running around the countryside, and it doesn't seem to have really served a purpose or forwarded the story much. I am hoping that the objective will start to firm up and become more clear in the next book. I'm sure it will. It seems to be the case that with every complaint I've had with this series Jeff Stone has answered with the next book in the series.
Waahh, Seh ini ular banget yak. Dingin, pendiam dan selalu waspada. Terlalu waspada mah kalau saya bilang. Tapi keren eh, kemampuan Seh untuk menyembunyikan diri sangat mudah. Berguna sekali kalau Seh ingin mengetahui percakapan rahasia yang sering terjadi di dunia kungfu.Cerita pelarian Seh lebih banyak aksi kungfunya. Keren. Bikin iri. Saya jadi pengen bisa bela diri juga. Terutama yang seperti Seh, bisa membuat dirinya tidak terdeteksi. Jadi bisa menguping, hahhah. Bersama Seh, rahasia yang di buku sebelumnya sempat membuat saya penasaran mulai terkuak sedikit demi sedikit. Ngomong-ngomong, aroma pengkhianatan kental sekali di buku ini. Susah sekali mengetahui siapa lawan dan siapa kawan. Bahkan Seh yang selalu waspada pun bisa tertipu.Seperti biasa, ending buku ini juga berakhir gantung. Berikutnya, giliran Hok yang akan kita ketahui kisahnya. Bagi yang sudah membaca buku 1-3, saya rasa cerita Hok tidak terlalu membuat penasaran. Soalnya sedikit banyak, cerita Hok nyelip dikit di petualangan saudara-saudaranya. Yang membuat saya penasaran justru bagaimana nasib Long. Kemana anak itu ya? Tidak sabar menunggu giliran Long untuk diceritakan.At last, 3 dari 5 bintang juga untuk Seh. I liked it :)
Do You like book Snake (2006)?
Seh, master of snake style kung fu, is a secretive and observant individual. After the fall of the temple, Seh goes searching for help among the bandits who leader is Mong, master of cobra style kung fu. He is granted membership but soon after Monkey get in a quarrel with Bear, one of the gang members. Monkey succeeds in defeating him and leaves. Seh catches up with him and Fu later and they get ambushed by Ying. Ying and his soldiers defeat them. as they were about to get executed, they escape and plan to steal the Dragon scrolls from Ying. They succeed in getting three. They decide they need to go to Shaolin Temple for help.
—Mingo Johnson
I'm not certain how I feel about this book now that I have finished it. In the beginning I found myself feeling bombarded with information, either as a rehashing of what had happened in previous books or as a way of hurrying along to the next part of the plot. I felt almost as if I was being pushed along on this maddening experience without getting much chance to breathe. Once we reached an actual plot point for the Snake character, however, things calmed down a little and I settled into reading. There were several times where I felt characters were still being thrown at me and the twists and turns of the plot were very reminiscent of a snake slithering along in the woods, but on the whole I eventually found a comfortable place with the journey the book was putting me on.I deeply enjoy the series and found the end of the book left me hanging, wanting to know what more there is to discover about each of the animals to come. Hopefully there will be a little more balance and a little less rush in the next book of the series. Either way, this is an action-packed, fun read for martial arts fans and I can't wait to see what happens next.
—Mirrani
This one gets a little confusing, partially just due to the convergence of characters with similar names, and the fact that many of the characters now have TWO names. Some good action at times and also some humor (Inevitable whenever Malao, the Monkey-brother is around) make it still worth reading, and some twists at the end make you hold out hope that the next book will be better again--up to the level of the first two books, which I did like a little more. Hopefully the series is not running out of gas, because there are still several books to go.
—Steve Clark
