Book #5: Fire Study, by Maria V. Snyder
Jan. 26th, 2010 07:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
grav_ityEpic fantasy, girl-power, assassins, intrigue, politics, really obvious true love, clear foundation for a spin-off.
I would really, really like to talk to the author about these books. Because I have a sneaking suspicion that she wrote "Poison Study" so that she could eventually write "Fire Study", (like Tolkien wrote "Lord of the Rings" so that he could play with developing a fake British mythology), and I want to know the story of how she came to write the whole thing, given the dissonance (uh, in a good way) of the first book.
The details in this! HOLY CRAP. The last fifty pages or so were this rush, and sometime I got a bit turned around, but by the time we careened into the ending, I more or less knew what was going on. I think it is INCREDIBLE that everything from "Poison Study" came back into play, and did it so well. The bit where Yelena realized how Valek came to be an anti-magician felt a little bit tacked on...but that just might be because my brain was already SO EXHAUSTED by the time I got there.
Also, it was probably because I was WAY MORE INTERESTED in the part about the Commander, which Yelena also figured out very near the end. You should all go and read these books immediately.
I know I say this a lot, but MAPS ARE YOUR FRIEND. In this book, there is a LOT of kidnapping and a LOT of running around and NO PICTORIAL REPRESENTATION. I don't know how the author wrote this without a map (because she seems to know how long it took to walk or ride from place to place), but for some reason the map is not in the book, and I find that excruciating.
In addition, this book also veered dangerously close to "evil wins because good isn't talking", a personal pet peeve of mine. At the end, when Yelena was all "But you said Gede was my Weaver!" and Moon Man was all "All you had to do was ask!", I was all "MORONS!" (I do get it: she has to find her destiny by herself, and as an agent of Destiny, Moon Man has to let her do it, but if she's going to do it anyway, WHY DOES DESTINY NEED AGENTS?). Fortunately it was almost a subplot (seriously, you could feel the author leave the room to start writing the spin-off), and I can get over it, because for the most part, the characters didn't do stupid things like stop talking to one another and hold grudges.
I laughed out loud a lot while reading this book. I bet you the guy in Starbucks who asked to share my table was THRILLED. Yelena and Valek have inserted themselves rather handily into my "favourite pairing of all time" hierarchy. And Janco is TOO funny.
OH, and in the RUSH OF EXPLANATION that signified the end of this book, the author also let you figure out for yourself how, exactly, it was that Valek was able to share his magic (or lack thereof) with Yelena. Which I liked a lot.
Mostly what this book did was highlight the stark differences between Poison Study and the other two volumes in the series. It's almost like...Pirates of the Caribbean. The first one was AMAZING and then the second two told their own story involving most of the same characters (except the second one didn't SUCK). There were, as I said, moments where Poison Study shone through, leading me to believe that the author really did plan the whole thing, but Poison Study feels to me like she was setting everything up so she could get to the action, except it ended up being amazing in and of itself.
I loved Yelena's decision at the end, in terms of Cahil. In telling the Commander to let him live, she puts in place an insurance policy, should the Commander (or, as is more likely, his successor) be corrupted. And I think they all know it, but they let her do it anyway. It sets up several interesting possibilities for the future (we already know that the Commander is almost entirely fair when it comes to appointing people to things, through Sammy and that kid who did math differently in "Poison Study"), and it also provides the Commander with incentive to remain awesome.
And Opal. I can't wait. (Fortunately, Chapters has them in stock. Now I just have to get paid!)
So I think I'll give it an 8.75 out of ten. Again for the map, and for not quite living up to "Poison Study". But the whole series gets a 9/10 from me!
(I mentioned the scoring system is kind of random, right?)
I would really, really like to talk to the author about these books. Because I have a sneaking suspicion that she wrote "Poison Study" so that she could eventually write "Fire Study", (like Tolkien wrote "Lord of the Rings" so that he could play with developing a fake British mythology), and I want to know the story of how she came to write the whole thing, given the dissonance (uh, in a good way) of the first book.
The details in this! HOLY CRAP. The last fifty pages or so were this rush, and sometime I got a bit turned around, but by the time we careened into the ending, I more or less knew what was going on. I think it is INCREDIBLE that everything from "Poison Study" came back into play, and did it so well. The bit where Yelena realized how Valek came to be an anti-magician felt a little bit tacked on...but that just might be because my brain was already SO EXHAUSTED by the time I got there.
Also, it was probably because I was WAY MORE INTERESTED in the part about the Commander, which Yelena also figured out very near the end. You should all go and read these books immediately.
I know I say this a lot, but MAPS ARE YOUR FRIEND. In this book, there is a LOT of kidnapping and a LOT of running around and NO PICTORIAL REPRESENTATION. I don't know how the author wrote this without a map (because she seems to know how long it took to walk or ride from place to place), but for some reason the map is not in the book, and I find that excruciating.
In addition, this book also veered dangerously close to "evil wins because good isn't talking", a personal pet peeve of mine. At the end, when Yelena was all "But you said Gede was my Weaver!" and Moon Man was all "All you had to do was ask!", I was all "MORONS!" (I do get it: she has to find her destiny by herself, and as an agent of Destiny, Moon Man has to let her do it, but if she's going to do it anyway, WHY DOES DESTINY NEED AGENTS?). Fortunately it was almost a subplot (seriously, you could feel the author leave the room to start writing the spin-off), and I can get over it, because for the most part, the characters didn't do stupid things like stop talking to one another and hold grudges.
I laughed out loud a lot while reading this book. I bet you the guy in Starbucks who asked to share my table was THRILLED. Yelena and Valek have inserted themselves rather handily into my "favourite pairing of all time" hierarchy. And Janco is TOO funny.
OH, and in the RUSH OF EXPLANATION that signified the end of this book, the author also let you figure out for yourself how, exactly, it was that Valek was able to share his magic (or lack thereof) with Yelena. Which I liked a lot.
Mostly what this book did was highlight the stark differences between Poison Study and the other two volumes in the series. It's almost like...Pirates of the Caribbean. The first one was AMAZING and then the second two told their own story involving most of the same characters (except the second one didn't SUCK). There were, as I said, moments where Poison Study shone through, leading me to believe that the author really did plan the whole thing, but Poison Study feels to me like she was setting everything up so she could get to the action, except it ended up being amazing in and of itself.
I loved Yelena's decision at the end, in terms of Cahil. In telling the Commander to let him live, she puts in place an insurance policy, should the Commander (or, as is more likely, his successor) be corrupted. And I think they all know it, but they let her do it anyway. It sets up several interesting possibilities for the future (we already know that the Commander is almost entirely fair when it comes to appointing people to things, through Sammy and that kid who did math differently in "Poison Study"), and it also provides the Commander with incentive to remain awesome.
And Opal. I can't wait. (Fortunately, Chapters has them in stock. Now I just have to get paid!)
So I think I'll give it an 8.75 out of ten. Again for the map, and for not quite living up to "Poison Study". But the whole series gets a 9/10 from me!
(I mentioned the scoring system is kind of random, right?)
