My favourite thing about this book is just the richness of the language. Not every Shakespeare play is a King Lear, and even Shakespeare’s good plays are still, in some ways, great. But Moore takes a fair stab at it, and the result is still a very good book. It’s difficult to bottle lightning once, let alone twice.

To be honest, The Serpent of Venice isn’t quite as bright a spark as Fool. It’s akin to the worries fans of the original Star Wars had about the prequels, though in their case, they unfortunately turned out to be right. What if it wasn’t as good? What if it ruins Pocket? These might be silly worries, but I think most fans of a novel that gets a sequel much later down the line can understand it. Of course, as exciting as a sequel to Fool might be, I was also a little worried. With a Chorus as the narrator whom everyone seems to overhear, we plunge into fourteenth-century Venice, where Pocket is killed, rescued by the eponymous serpent, and gets to serve up some sweet, sweet revenge. Moore once more takes a metafictional approach to the stage this time he combines Othello and The Merchant of Venice with an Edgar Allan Poe story I haven’t read. If you don’t, then neither Fool nor The Serpent of Venice are for you.

That’s probably because I love metafiction. sigh)įool was the first Christopher Moore book I read and in many ways one I consider the funniest. Two years in England and I still can’t do a decent English accent. (Libraries are awesome that way.) My first reaction was, “Ooh, a Christopher Moore novel I haven’t read.” My second reaction was, “Bloody hell, it’s a semi-sequel to Fool!” (No English accent though. (I can't tell if the Chorus was over- or underused, but the running joke of this narrator's obviousness wasn't as funny or clever as Art Garfunkel's appearance in an episode of Arthur.I heard about this book ages ago, then promptly forgot it existed, and rediscovered it at my library. Moore even threw in a rarely seen but always annoying Chorus that added little to the story. I was looking forward to Pocket's impish insights, but they were often broken up with chapters of omniscient narration - wonderfully written, mind you, just not as fun to read. It is the shifts in points of view, though, that frustrated this fan. The cast of characters is drawn from both of these famous plays, and if that wasn't enough 'history' to tackle, Moore adds a disappointingly brief cameo of Marco Polo, whose appearance feels forced, like much of the plot. The setting is a mashup of Othello and The Merchant of Venice, with a dash of Poe.

Pocket has been sent to Venice by his queen, Cordelia, to stop a war, and he quickly finds himself caught in multiple revenge schemes. Which is where The Serpent of Venice falls short: The story is not told entirely by Pocket.

The serpent of venice