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Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
Fans of high-spirited adventure, intrigue and romance will celebrate the third book (after 2007's Magic Study) in the saga of reluctant mage and diplomat Yelena Zaltana. The news that Yelena is a Soulfinder, able to manipulate the spirits of the dead and the living, hasn't made her popular with the inhabitants of Sitia's Magician's Keep, since the last Soulfinder turned people into mindless slaves. First Magician Roze Featherstone's hostility toward Yelena increases until the Sitian Council decides to send Yelena north as diplomatic liaison to the rival nation of Ixia. When Roze takes over the council, imprisoning her rivals and driving the nation to the brink of war with Ixia, Yelena is caught between her duties as liaison, her love for Ixian intelligence officer Valek and her fear of her own power, which she must embrace fully to defeat Roze and restore the council. Snyder delivers another excellent adventure, deftly balancing international and local hostilities against Yelena's personal struggles. (Mar.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Review
"This is an impressive debut and a strong start to what should prove to be a compelling new fantasy series." - Rhianna Pratchett, SFX Magazine"
--This text refers to an alternate
Paperback
edition.
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Most helpful customer reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars
Suffers from comparison to Poison Study,
By
This review is from: Fire Study (Paperback)
One improvement over Magic Study is that this is more original than the previous tome. The author also seems to make efforts to amend the most Mary Sue aspects of the heroine. So these are welcome changes.Another good point is that there are humourous dialogues (and even a little situational irony) and they make for a more interesting read. The plot is interesting, but suffers a bit from the "late explanation syndrome". Instead of giving us clues to unravel the plot, the author keeps the reader and her protagonists in the dark, then later has to introduce new information to shed light on the latest development. So don't be surprised if the denouement comes Deus Ex Machina style. And that's too bad, because the transition from where the previous book ended to where this one starts is quite well done. The expansion on the concept of magic is very neat and fits in with Magic Study. Unfortunately, it also makes Yelena seem a bit like a dunderhead that she still doesn't know her "Magic 101" after spending many months at the Keep, but the reader understands that it's plot dictated, because if she did then almost none of the events would have taken place. It is too bad that the wonderfully original plot device (the poison tasting) can no longer be used and I don't think anything else the author throws our way really measures up. Also, the characters are under-developed. Secondary characters, who made the charm of previous installments, are reduced to the literary equivalent of "extras", or worse, they become props to explain how Yelena can affect so many events at once. Even a few villains' backstory remains very sketchy at the end and that makes their motivation seem one-dimensional or ridiculous. And that makes Yelena's triumph seem much less interesting. Many times, the author makes Leif and other characters say that Yelena is the leader now. This is unfortunate as readers usually prefer to be shown rather than spoon fed. At times, the writing starts resembling the latter. The emotional conflict is really centered on Yelena. Other characters' angst is downplayed and not given room to mature. And except for Yelena's big woe, conflicts are resolved almost as quickly as they are actually spelled out. I think more actual interaction between the main character and the secondary characters would have been a good opportunity to make these conflicts more compelling. Since the book focuses so much on Yelena, reading it becomes somewhat tedious at a point where Yelena isn't so smart or so nice. It picks up near the end to come to the conclusion but the pacing is uneven and doesn't maintain the reader's attention throughout.
3.0 out of 5 stars
Exciting final installment,
By
This review is from: Fire Study (Paperback)
This is the final book in the Study series. As much as I loved these books, this one was my least favorite. I still like Yelena and think that she is a great character, along with Valek, but this book just did not come together in the same way.Snyder is still very good at creating excitement, this book starts off quite exciting and she has a knack for cliffhanger ending chapters. However, I found this book to be a bit repetitive with many of the details. I also found Snyder spent a lot of time filling in background from the other books. Sometimes this was seamless, but sometimes it felt like a bit much. This book brought together a lot of the best characters from both of the previous books. The action in this book was non-stop, as Yelena faced one horrible situation after another. I am torn about this book - I really did like it. Despite some of the issues I had with the book, I raced right though it, it just wasn't as good as the other two. However, it is nice to see how everything ended and to enjoy the adventure of how Yelena learns to counter her most fearsome enemy yet, the Fire Warper. All in all, a good book and worth the read, especially if you have read the other two in the series.
5.0 out of 5 stars
I didn't want this series to end!,
By Hoping4More "Books=Love" (Pickering, Ontario, Canada) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Fire Study (Paperback)
Turns out there is something that Yelena is afraid to face...herselfAgain, I loved this one. Maria had me hooked 'till the last word. Set mainly in Sitia Yelena tries to discover her own powers while battling a seemingly endless list of people who want her dead. She starts to wonder if the Commander was right to try and destroy magic all along. Now that she had grown to love both Sitia and Ixia, can Yelena choose between them in the war that is brewing? With lots of twists thrown in along the way I couldn't put it down. This is the final book in the trilogy and it ends well enough that Maria could leave Yelena's story or come back to it after the Glass Series. Fantastic series! I'm so glad that I found it! I reviewed the whole series (and companion series) on my blog here: [...]
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