Regardless of the previous reviewers feminine angle I found this book to be amazingly concise and covering all the aspects, indeed even those supposedly left out. I have also just read Gardiner's new book Secrets of the Serpent, which goes into much more depth. The Serpent Grail is about the Grail and it's links to the serpent worshippers of the past. It reveals the elixir of life and therefore is not a mythological encyclopedia as desired by the previous reviewer. Secrets of the Serpent reveals much more than any other mythological book of the serpent and even comes up against the Da Vinci Code. The Serpent Grail is an amazing new angle on the Grail lore and one that many scholars have reviewed glowingly, so it has to be worth a look.

The authors ignore respected sources that apply very directly to their work, and the various observations regarding the serpent icon, meaning and myth.
By not including Marija Gimbutas various archeolgical books ("The Language of the Goddess: Unearthing the Hidden Symbols of Western Civilization" for one), nor Barbara G. Walker's "The Woman's Dictionary of Symbols and Sacred Objects" as well as "The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets" Serpent Grail authors rob their arguments of strong investigators of relevant subject matter. Further, they do not seem to know of Jeremy Narby's "Cosmic Serpent" which offers much insight into an intriguing indigenous and shamanic interpretaion of serpent, life force, and what we call DNA.
Worse, in my opinion all too often the authors ramble on and in sudden "deus ex machina" fashion include "And so it is obvious that...."
What follows is a conclusion unsupported by reasoned presentation based on facts. Rather, a string of events, and suppositions are offered, and quickly summed up as clearly proving whatever the authors are selling.
I wanted this book to be so much better than it is. I think it a shame Gimbutas and Walker are not included as their work is so very relevant to this book and its premises. Further, with more rigorous scholarship and intellectual discipline the case the authors are making would be much better served.