Book #3: Poison Study, by Maria V. Snyder

[grav_ity]

Epic fantasy, girl-power, assassins, intrigue, politics, really obvious true love.

Warnings: drug usage, abuse of children

Let me get my quibble out of the way first: THIS BOOK HAD NO MAP. I hate it when books don't have maps. There are military districts and a castle with an "strange, geometric outline" and a random country the south, and I have NO IDEA WHERE ANY OF IT IS! *tears out hair*

Aside from that, however, this book was AWESOME. By page 10, I'd pretty much figured out a) that Valek was in love with Yelena, and therefore b) he wasn't really poisoning her. But from then on it was all glorious ANGST and WAITING (and, you know, getting over significant personal trauma).

Oh, and the bit where they hooked up was awesome, because at that point he has no secrets from her and she still has a whopper or two from him, and the NEXT DAY when she tells him, he's all "Anything else you'd like to tell me?" and she's all "I love you," and he's all "That's good, because you own my soul" and she's all "Excellent! Let's go kick some ass" AND THEN THEY DO.

*draws hearts and flowers all over the genre*

ANYHOODLE, I liked the "twist" with the Commander, because it explained about the magic (and it made the bit at the END make sense, which was even better), and the "telling" comment earlier on in the text was a total throwaway comment, which I appreciate a lot. Plus: girl-power!

Really though, this book realized what I have recently come to believe is my bulletproof kink: a woman who is highly skilled and awesome, surrounded by a group of males who care a lot about her, and a few trusted females (which is basically every book Tamora Pierce has ever written).

(An aside: I have no interest in teenage girls being...teenage girls. So Aly's books? Which were basically ENTIRELY female? Were fine with me because there was very little pettiness. But a pair up like Eleni Cooper and Alana? Or Beka and Goodwin? Will win me EVERY TIME.)

This book also hit on my political kink by taking down a corrupt system and replacing it with something marginally crappy. I mean, in time it'll work out, but at the moment it's pretty much Communism, and while I appreciate that, I know that eventually the shit will hit the fan, and I fear for the survival of all of my new friends. I like the greyness of it: how in getting rid of corruption they really made everything exceptionally boring.

I'm concerned about what happened to the seamstress. That's really the only loose end.

9 out of 10! It would have been perfect if they'd given me the damn map.

ETA: I am upping this to a 10 out of 10, because one of the sequels included a map. ;)

+++

In case anyone is wondering, the Sherlock Holmes soundtrack (which I totally would have pegged as Hans Zimmer within the first four bars of the opening song, had I not already known) is excellent. And shareable.

Comments

[emmaorgana.livejournal.com]

Oh man, a map would have made it perfect! *longs*

I'm really, really glad you liked it! It's definitely one of the books that I find very fun to re-read when I need something entertaining but still deep, with a large dose of awesome.

[grav-ity.livejournal.com]

"entertaining, but still deep with a large dose of awesome' is pretty much the perfect description of this book.

[emmaorgana.livejournal.com]

It's also what I kind of aspire to as a writer :p

Also, you're whole a woman who is highly skilled and awesome, surrounded by a group of males who care a lot about her, and a few trusted females (which is basically every book Tamora Pierce has ever written).

If I can accomplish those two things and get published, I will be forever excited by my life.

[grav-ity.livejournal.com]

Indeed!