Magic Study by Maria V. Snyder

Following my TBR Wednesday review for May which was Poison Study I bought Magic Study the second in the trilogy. As an aside there are now about three different versions of these books. My copy of Poison Study was from Luna I think, Magic Study is from Mira and that means different covers. :(

Anyway, enough of my griping and on with the review.

Magic Study picks up very shortly after the end of Book 1. Yelena and her companions have journeyed to the land of Sitia, reuniting the stolen children with their parents. Yelena meets up with her own family - mother, father and brother (who unlike his parents is just not happy she's home), but this is an awkward reunion. She doesn't stay with them long before journeying on to the Magician's Keep where she must begin her training as a magician. Unfortunately it seems nothing in Yelena's life is fated to go smoothly. Once again, she needs to use her magical abilities to sort everything out and once again it's her own life that's on the line.

There's a lot going on in this story. Yelena's reunion with her family - the fact that her brother seems to despise her for some reason. Yelena enrolling in Magic School. A serial killer. A visit from the Ixian ambassador and her retinue. The exiled heir of Ixia turns up. So it's quite busy plotwise and Yelena is in the centre of it all. Which leads to the main reason I gave this one a C+.

I had a problem with this book and the name of that problem is Yelena. I'm not saying I didn't enjoy the story because I did (though not as much as Poison Study). But somewhere in between Book 1 and Book 2, Yelena became a little too arrogant for me. When four master magicians don't know what to do but Yelena does and they're looking to her for help it annoyed me a little. Apart from this her character is still well drawn and you want to read about her and her adventures. It's just grating that she's always right.

I liked the fact that her family reunion wasn't a roaring success, that there is some distrust there - on both sides. And if I had a favourite new character from the book it would probably be Yelena's brother Leif, the first character who's reminded me of a flow diagram. (Flow Chart in Question) Honestly he seems to run his life according to this. I like the sibling relationship he and Yelena have towards the end of the book. You can tell that he isn't going to let her get away with anything and she needs someone saying to her "You're doing that wrong", even if she isn't. :)

There were plenty of other things I enjoyed about the story.

Yelena's time in the Magician's school. LOL - I'm a sucker for stuff like this, it's reading all those adventures set in boarding schools when I was young.

The visiting Ixian dignitaries because this means Valek, Janco and Ari are in town. Though Valek is not as present in this story as in Poison Study. Which makes sense and is realistic, this one really is more about Yelena, but it was great to have him turn up. And Maria V. Snyder maximizes the impact of his appearances.

Trouble love? Valek asked.
I need your immunity to magic.
Yours.

I also liked the Ixian Ambassador. :)

And it still isn't clear who it is safe to trust. It quickly becomes apparent that Sitia is just as dangerous a place, if not more so, than Ixia, but in different ways.

There were a couple of things that made me shake my head.

At one point Yelena has to hold a pill the size of a robin's egg in her mouth and not bite down onto it. (For an American Robin that's 2cm by 3cm, for a European Robin that's 2cm by 1.5cm). So I spend five minutes not reading and trying to puzzle out if this is possible.

Even when events spiral beyond her control, things still have to be done Yelena's way, because she knows best. It's a positive thing that she's so independent, but you can't help thinking at certain points that if she had just stopped and asked for help the outcome may have been resolved differently.

I think I've said before that middle books in trilogies can be tricky. So I am left wondering how fair it is to grade this book on its own, without knowing how the third book goes. I am heartened by reading other reviews that consider this the weakest of the three, as hopefully that means Fire Study is a return to form. Once I've read Fire Study I'll grade the trilogy as a whole. Yes, I will be getting Fire Study but I don't have the desperate urge to immediately get it, that I did for Magic Study.

Poison Study - Maria V. Snyder

POISON STUDY by MARIA V. SNYDER published Sept 2006 by Luna

This book was just one of those that never quite made it to the top of the TBR pile. Always dropping further and further down whenever something new came along. Plus (I think) when I got the book about twenty of the centre pages were slightly torn, which I didn't notice straight away and I think it always narked me a little bit.

On with the review. Yelena is about to be executed for murder. With her life on the line she's offered a choice - attend her execution or become a food taster for the Commander of Ixia, a man under constant threat of assassination. She accepts the job offer, aware that whilst it may be merely a delay of her death, it also offers her the opportunity to escape. Despite her circumstances she manages to make a life for herself, but when rebels plot to seize Ixia from the Commander and with her own life under threat the choices she makes not only shape her destiny but also the destiny of those around her.

Yay! Another score for the TBR pile. I really enjoyed this one and am kicking myself for not getting to it sooner - darn those torn pages.

Poison Study is set in a society (Ixia) which is Totalitarian. But it's made clear that in some ways this is better than the monarchist system it replaced. Whilst neither situation is a democracy the people as a whole appear to be better off under the rule of the Commander - everyone has a job, there are no homeless, people are expected to contribute to society. But it's also a rigid system with high standards, there is little flexibility. The use of magic isn't tolerated for example. Creating another problem for Yelena when her magical abilities start to develop. Unfortunately even within this controlled system there is still room for unscrupulous people to manipulate things to their advantage.

The story did start out slow for me. I was hooked on page 81 and at that point basically read until I'd finished the book.

"Tell me why you killed Reyad."
"You're not ready to believe me."

And with those words I wanted to know how this story was going to end.

Initially the story seems very simple. Yelena is the hero, we're on her side. The people who've imprisoned her are bad. But it's more complicated than that. And as we progress through the story it becomes more complex and layered. Especially as Yelena doesn't know who it's safe to trust. Every time she confides in someone it's a risk and you feel that as you're reading. This becomes even more dangerous as her magic develops. Who does she trust? Who won't betray her? And in sharing her secrets is she endangering the people she's come to care for?

What made this book for me are the relationships between Yelena and the other characters. Not just Valek her mentor and more, but also Ari, Janko and even the characters that she didn't get on with. They're very well drawn and make you feel like this is a story about a real place and real people, even though some of the circumstances are fantastical.

Valek is one of those men who sees everything. He slightly reminded me of Anafiel Delauney from the Kushiel series. And the author doesn't betray his character. At the end when he has the most difficult choice to make. He makes it, but he makes it his own choice. It's the relationship that develops between Valek and Yelena that kept me turning the pages. How it progresses from jailor and prisoner, to mentor and student to more. The way they circle cautiously around one another both constantly testing the other.

LOL - and I learnt a new word. Mucilaginous - of the nature of or resembling mucilage; moist, soft, and viscid. Lovely. :)

If I had any complaints it would be that some of the resolution was a little convenient and wasn't as involving (for me) as I hoped it would be. Slightly too much running from place to place.

But apart from that this is definitely a book I'd recommend. And I've already got Magic Study on my TBR pile ready to go.