title: The Tortuous Serpent: An Occult Adventure
author:  Donald Tyson 
description: This dark historical fantasy features real-life magicians <a href="/exec/obidos/Author=Dee%2c%20John/${0}">John Dee</a> and Edward Kelley of the late 16th century, their spirited wives, a cunning rabbi from the Prague ghetto, and various monsters, both human and supernatural. All are focused, for good or for ill, on a twisted, chthonic version of the goddess Lilith. If &quot;the tortuous serpent&quot; is empowered by the right spell, her loathsome womb will flood the world with hideous creatures. The likeable heroes must avert the Apocalypse, but not before enduring a slew of horrifying (and entertaining) adventures. One factor that can make all the difference in a story based on magic is whether the author is well-versed in the field: Donald Tyson displays ample knowledge to support his claim to be &quot;a Western ceremonial magician in the Hermetic tradition.&quot; He's occasionally prone to hyperbolic words such as &quot;incredible,&quot; but for the most part uses a matter-of-fact descriptive style to create vivid word-pictures of magical and beastly phenomena.
zlib_text: **_UNDER ATTACK_**
  
  Tremors shook the ground, creating more of the cracks that already covered it.
  A few more seconds passed, and then all went still.
  
  “An earthquake?” I asked uncertainly.
  
  “No,” said Volusian. He was in his solid, two-legged form, staring around with
  narrowed eyes. It was a little disconcerting that he didn’t seem to know
  precisely what the problem was.
  
  “Then what are we—”
  
  The ground below us suddenly split open. With only the light of the fire, my
  vision was bad, but I thought I saw what looked kind of like a serpentine
  shape emerge from the earth. No, it was _exactly_ like a serpentine shape
  because a moment later, a giant snake shot up and landed neatly in a perfect
  coil. Its head towered over Kiyo and me as it regarded us with glowing green
  eyes. The light from them illuminated a flicking, forked tongue, and the loud
  hissing that followed was kind of a given.
  
  Beside me, Kiyo was shifting into fox form, and I decided a gun was probably
  going to get me farther h