The Serpent and the Staff

As is usually the case, I loved this book as I have loved all of her other works. Ms. Wood is a master at linking intrigue and romantic fiction to historical facts and people. What a wonderful way to learn History! I wish all history books had been written her way when I was in school - perhaps I would have had more of an interest in the subject. She is a undoubtedly a Christian woman with Christian morals and a strong and ethical approach to any sexual involvement in her books - how refreshing. Also, her language is clean and unoffensive. I highly recommend The Serpent and the Staff to anyone, who like me prefers an exciting, romantic, historically factual read. Rosalyn

I have read several of Barbara Wood's books, some set in ancient times. This one is again about the ancient world but a different part of it. I enjoyed learning things through the characters about the Canaanites and the Egyptians. Character development was good and the storyline kept me interested.

I read a lot of historical novels, but only once in a while does one pull me in as deeply as Barbara Wood's "The Serpent and the Staff." Historical fiction readers know that delightful feeling of being so utterly and completely drawn into another time and place that one feels like they are there with the characters every time they pick up the book. And one doesn't ever want the story to end. Not only is Ms. Wood's writing top notch, she balances adventure, romance, and history in a perfect combination. Don't miss this addictive read!

I've read every novel Barbara Wood has written. She is one of my all-time favorite authors. This epic historical novel is as wonderful as all her rest. Highly recommended if you like ancient history and a riveting plot with many unique twists and interesting characters.

Well written and hard to put down. Barbara Wood is an excellant writer and this another winner. I would recommend it to others.

Very good book classic Barbara Wood I loved it. This book pulls you in from the first page. I stayed up all night for days until the end. Love the history in the book.

Too difficult to follow all the ancestors lines

Wasn’t sure if I’d like this book, but gave it a try because I like the author. Turned out it was an excellent read!

Das Buch liest sich sehr gut. Aber die Qualität des Buches ist schlecht! Beim Lesen fielen ca. 20 Seiten hgeraus.

No es de los mejores de Bárbara Wood. La trama está bien y te mantiene interesado, el problema es que le mete muchísima paja. Emplea páginas y páginas con los pensamientos de los personajes, lo que le quita muchísima acción a la novela y la hace muy lenta.

I really wanted to like The Serpent and the Staff, by Barbara Wood. Here was a historical fiction book claiming to address a place and time close to my own heart – the city of Ugarit (on the coast of modern Syria), in the time of the early New Kingdom Egyptian pharaohs Hatshepsut and Thutmose III. Sadly, however, I struggled to finish it, and cannot give more than three stars to it. First, the good stuff. As already mentioned, full marks for Barbara’s choice of place and time. The characters were (for the most part) interesting and well-crafted. The recurrent theme of herbal medicine and healing was a convincing thread around which to hang the story. The technical production of the Kindle copy was good, with a mere handful of very minor slips in a long book. Where I struggled, however, was with the intended historical rooting of the people and plot. Barbara has apparently done far too little background research into the period to be able to write persuasively about it. And I am not talking about research taking several years and a PhD, but a very ordinary level of background reading from reliable sources readily available on the Internet. I abandoned the whole book for several weeks at the point where a long passage digresses to celebrate one of the protagonists inventing the alphabet. If you want to enjoy a fictional presentation of this, you would go a long way to beat The TwentyTwo Letters by Clive King. But there is plenty of readily accessed technical material about the relative roles of the different competing scripts of this age, and the sheer uphill struggle alphabetic scripts had in gaining acceptance. The naivety of the description here, on top of the difficulties I was already finding in the book with iron weapons factories being set up (way way way too early), fictitious kinglists (when we have real ones), Egyptian chariots with four horses (like everyone else’s they had two), and a rather cavalier approach to geography, led me to close the book and give up on it. However, I returned after a couple of months, partly out of a sense of duty and partly through stubbornness. I decided that the best way to read the book was as a kind of fantasy story without any actual real-world context. Taken on that level, and pretending to myself that the storyline had nothing to do with the start of the Late Bronze Age in the Levant, it was quite a fun romp. The outcome was never really a surprise – my main uncertainty was when and how a particularly brutal individual was going to reappear and unintentionally advance the fortunes of the protagonists. In summary then – as fantasy I might well consider giving it four stars, though it could easily have been somewhat shorter without losing anything much. But as an intended work of historical fiction, and with all of the historical flaws and anachronisms, I cannot give it more than three. I do hope that Barbara will consider returning to this period – which has a great deal of intrinsic interest – but for my part it would need considerably more investment in background research.

Enjoyed it