Tag Archives: maria v. snyder

TSS – 1 August 2010

By Lu Posted in Books, Sunday Salon Tagged , , , , , , , , , 14 Replies

Okay, nothing is going right this morning.

WordPress was down.  Now the Sunday Salon badge is NOT working.  But you guys know what it looks like.

Nothing is going right in the reading department either, unfortunately.  I was definitely digging Her Fearful Symmetry and then… I left my book at work.  I forgot to get it again on Friday and now I have spent the whole weekend without it.  But I am seriously loving it, so I can’t wait to get back to it on Monday.

So instead, I started reading Fire Study.  Now please, step in here and say, “But Lu!  You never posted a review of Magic Study!  Why are you holding out on us like that?”

Because I never read it.  I thought Fire Study was the second book in the series, but it is not.  It is the third.  The whole time I was reading it I kept thinking, “Wow!  That’s a weird decision to just start the book after so much time has passed. Why would Snyder decide to do that.”  Um, unfortunately it didn’t click until 100 pages into the book.  Now I don’t even want to continue reading the series.  I’m so bummed out.  Dear publishers: PLEASE make it clear the order of a series.  Nothing is worse than reading books out of order.

I did read the graphic novel The Color of Water today and I liked it, but not as much as The Color of Earth.  It definitely suffered from second book syndrome.  It really just felt like a connector between The Color of Earth and The Color of Heaven. I’m looking forward to reading the third and final book in the series.  Fortunately I read them in order.

I hope your reading goes a bit smoother than mine did.  Happy Sunday and Happy August 1st!

Review – Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder

By Lu Posted in Books, review Tagged , , , , 4 Replies

When I sent out a plea for a good fantasy series, my former (SAD!) roommate She was out of the country livin it up in Europe, so she didn’t hear my cries.  But as I was looking for books to put on hold at the library, I knew exactly which book she would have recommended – Poison Study.  I remember when she read the entire series sometime last year and she absolutely loved it.  So I knew that I had to put it on my list.  I devoured this over 4th of July weekend and it was everything she promised it would be.

Poison Study is about Yelena, who murdered her former master’s son, who feels no remorse for the crime she committed and has accepted her death sentence.  In Ixia, under a military commander’s rule, all murders are punishable by death, whether you killed for self defense or not.  There are no exceptions… unless the commander’s food taster has  just died.  Then the next person who is to be executed will become the next in line, trained by the mysterious Valek.

Poison Study was exciting and had everything I was looking for – danger!  Romance!  Betrayal!  It was exactly what it promised to  be and nothing more or less.  My biggest complaint with the novel was the romance.  Though I don’t want to give away who it is, I will say that I found it to be a little underdeveloped.  I wanted there to be more explanation and more development between Yelena and her love.  I’m told we learn more about him in the following books, so I’m definitely looking forward to that.

Poison Study was not only a joy to read, but it was unique.  Instead of a traditional monarchy, there is a militaristic government that adds another element entirely to the story.   I will absolutely be reading the next book in the series.  This book was exactly what I was craving!

So go read  this!: now | tomorrow | next week | next month | next year | when you’ve exhausted your TBR

Also reviewed by: Dear Author,  Em’s Bookshelf, Grasping for the Wind, Bookalicious, 25 Hour Books, Booklust, Book Airl Mur-y-Castell, Book Nut, Book Minx, Reading Rocks, bookshelves of doom, Literary Escapism, The Story Siren, Today’s Adventure, One Librarian’s Book Reviews, Capricious Reader.