If you're looking for my reviews of a certain author or genre you can check my tags list. You can also see my list of book reads in 2007 & 2008 and 2009.

Book Title: Fire Study
Author: Maria V. Snyder
Genre: fantasy
Rating: 2/5

Summary (from book cover): THE APPRENTICESHIP IS OVER. NOW THE REAL TEST HAS BEGUN.

When word that Yelena is a Soulfinder – able to capture and release souls – spreads like wildfire, people grow uneasy. Already Yelena's unusual abilities and past have set her apart. As the Council debates Yelena's fate, she receives a disturbing message: a plot is rising against her homeland, led by a murderous sorcerer she has defeated before.

Honour sets Yelena on a path that will test the limits of her skills, and the hope of reuniting with her beloved spurs her onward. Her journey is fraught with allies and enemies. Yelena will have but one chance to prove herself – and save the land she holds dear.

My thoughts: I've read some bad reviews, but I never thought it would be so hard to read it and it was with joy that I put it aside.

The first book is by far the best one, with interesting characters and story. In the second, the characters lacked some charisma but the story still griped us. In this third and final volume, neither character nor story was appealing. I must confess I sensed it from the moment in which Moon Man, Yelena's Storyweaver, who teaches her through cryptic messages, is told to suffer from claustrophobia. Yeah, right...

Yelena starts her journey, in this last volume, chasing after Ferde and Cahill to stop them from raising forces to go against Ixia. However, she stumbles on a bigger plan behind this all.

There's nothing new, or seems not to be nothing new, and the story is more than predictable. I lost count of the times I rolled my eyes in different situations, that seemed déjà vu or were just annoying, and me rolling eyes isn't a good sign. We feel that we go around with no meaning and not advancing on the story; there's an altruistic super-hero, who shuns everyone aside and starts questioning her powers (some pseudo-depth, that made me dislike the character even more); there's also references to previous books, that become annoying and doesn't contribute to the narrative, I actually think that if someone were to start reading this book without reading the previous, wouldn't understand at all the references. I can't forget to mention the battles, which seemed to be copied and pasted from the previous. The ending didn't satisfy me as well, but at least it was able to tangle up the loosed strings.

Clearly on a lower level, comparing it to the previous books, its worth is in the ending which, as I said, answers the doubts we had since the first volume, but I think I could have done without it. Or at least, I could have done without a great part of it. Still, I don't know if I will pick Glass Storm up...

Book Title: Magic Study
Author: Maria V. Snyder
Genre: fantasy
Rating: 4/5

Summary (from book cover): CONFRONTING THE PAST. CONTROLLING THE FUTURE.

With an execution order on her head, Yelena has no choice but to escape Sitia, the land of her birth. With only a year to master her magic – or face death – Yelena must begin her apprenticeship and travels to the Four Towers of the Magician's Keep.

But nothing in Sitia is familiar. Not the family to whom she is a stranger. Not the unsettling new facets of her magic. Not the brother who resents her return. As she struggles to understand where she belongs and how to control her rare powers, a rogue magician emerges – and Yelena catches his eye.

Suddenly she is embroiled in battle against good and evil. And once again it will be her magical abilities that will either save her life... or be her downfall.

My thoughts: I know it usually happens and I was prepared for it as, when one gives a high rate to a first volume of a series, two things can happen: the next volumes are as good as the first or they aren't. After reading some reviews my enthusiasm over this second volume of the Study trilogy died a bit, which actually it was a good thing as I ended up not feeling frustrated by it.

We meet Yelena where we left her. With an execution order over her head in Ixia, due to her possession of magic abilities, she runs towards the south, to Sitia, her homeland, to get reacquainted with her family and to learn how to control her powers. But not everything is easy. Her brother doesn't seem happy with her return, doubts about her true intentions arouse, and there's a rogue magician kidnapping and torturing girls to possess their powers, as it happened on the first book.

From the beginning that the book seemed to lack something. Despite preferring Ixia to Sitia, just as Yelena we feel we don't belong there, the characters seem to lack some charisma and the relationships aren't as credible as they were on Poison Study. It lacks what made me love the first book. The only characters who remain just like themselves are Ari and Janco, everyone else lacks something: Yelena lacks good sense and becomes a bit annoying with all her eagerness to dive into the various situations; Leif pretends to have some depth and his relationship with Yelena in the end made me roll my eyes, just as her relationship with the rest of her family actually, as it seemed to took only an instant until she trusted them completely; the Four Master Magicians didn't convinced me as well; Cahill (as long as the Moon Man) was the only character with a bit of interest but he still wasn't a match to Valek, who in this book looses his mystery aura, the thing that made him so seductive. The relationship between Valek and Yelena also made me roll my eyes (there was to much 'love' for me) and he was also incapable of pulling her ears when she stormed into something irrational. I know there wouldn't be books if she took the safe side, but it gets annoying.

Fortunately, the story is interesting and keeps you hooked and eager to know what is to come, since there's non-stop action, which might explain the less character development. To tell the truth, while in the first book the time passed at an agreeable rhythm, is this one everything seems to rush by you. No wonder I preferred the calmer parts, as Yelena's lessons with Irys, it actually made me laugh in the middle of traffic, and Yelena's ability to talk to horses. You also understand better how magic works; learn Yelena's abilities but other questions remain unanswered and I hope to see them cleared by the remaining volume.

Also, we meet the main character of the new book by the author, Glass Storm, but I really don't know what to expect from it. First I must finish this series.

Book Title: Poison Study
Author: Maria V. Snyder
Genre: fantasy
Rating: 5/5

Summary (from book cover): CHOOSE: A QUICK DEATH OR SLOW POISON...

On the eve of her execution for murder, Yelena is reprieved, but her relief is short-lived. She is to be the Commander of Ixia's food taster. Can Yelena learn all she needs to know about poisons before an assassin succeeds?

Her troubles have only just begun, however... Valek, her captor, has a uniquely cruel method to stop her escaping; General Brazell, father of the man she killed, still wants her dead; and someone is plotting against the Commander.

Resourceful and wily, Yelena gains friends, survival skills – and more than a few enemies. In a desperate race against time, the Commander's life, the future of Ixia and the secrets of her own past will be in her hands...

My thoughts: Sometimes book covers influence my choice. This was one of those cases. I thought the cover was pretty and the read a favourable review. I usually try to search for more opinions but, for this book in particular, the steps mentioned were enough for me to buy it. I'm glad I did it.

I don't usually buy books in English to keep them, since I'm Portuguese and I'm the only one who reads English written fiction at home (my mom doesn't understands English), I trade them using BookMooch. This book however will be an exception. It's simply fantastic, or at least for those like the Fantasy genre, I also thought it as innovator. I'm used to those Fantasy books which seem to take you to a medieval setting, as Tolkien and George R.R. Martin, something that doesn't happen with this book. I associated it to a more modern time, an industrialized setting. Due to the authoritarian and military character of the setting, I associated it to Bismark's Germany, or at least to the idea I have of it, as I don't know much about this historical period. But getting to the plot...

The book tells us the story of Yelena to whom, though sentenced to death because of killing the son of the man who took her in as an orphan, is given one more chance to live. However, the proposal made by Valek, the Commander's (who rules over Ixia) trustful man, has a catch as she becomes the Commander's food taster, making her detect poisons in the food and drinks served to him. Despite her second chance on life, it remains threatened. So we follow Yelena on her taster training, while she makes friends, avoids enemies, reveal intrigues and discovers herself.

The world in which the characters move is a bit undeveloped, the reader only knows the essential to understand what is happening. The strong point is the characters. Just like what happened with Outlander, we see relationships evolve. You see friendships getting stronger consistently and even turning to romance. The main character is strong, although it has ghosts and you see her growing. I liked how the author gives you clues about Yelena's past and powers without giving all away. The same is true to the other characters: Valek, the Commander (whose story I really thought it was interesting), Irys...

You have action and intrigue in considerable amount, keeping you interested in the book and in what is going to come. Adding to this, you have magic and a bit of romance. For me it was a complete book, providing everything I ask from a book while reading it: it provided an escape to my daily life.