Book 15 Nov 2006 07:49 pm
Poison, Magic, Fire
Let’s return to fantasy, shall we?
Two things to start off with.
One, in my Tower of Shadows post I referred to a problem in fantasy writing. Too much romance. A lot of fantasy these days seems more romance fantasy, that just straight fantasy. It makes you wonder where all the strong heroines are, the ones that don’t put their man first… Here is one however. Yelena, in both books, takes her life very seriously, and does not make her decisions based on her libido, but on her strong intelligence and what is best for her in the long run.
Two, Ingram, which is the largest book distributor out there, is where my shop orders the majority of our books from. The book may originally come direct from the publisher, but almost all re-orders are through Ingram. That said, they put out a catalog, called “Advance” of books that are coming out in the coming months. It is mostly books that are not directly available through the mainstream pubs, or ones that we simply order directly through Ingram. The science fiction/fantasy/romance editions, sometimes do me in. Other times, I find true gems. Poison Study is one such gem.
Now, lets get back to my post topic. Maria V. Snyder has written a trilogy. Two books have been released, and the third will be coming out March of 2008. Her books are Poison Study and Magic Study with the the finale to the trilogy being Fire Study.
Poison Study is the first book. It follows a woman named Yelena as she becomes the official food taster for the leader of her country. This book was amazing. She becomes friends with the greatest of people, and becomes very close with her “jailer” Valek.
From the SF Reviews.net review
Yelena is an impressively realized character, mostly in that Snyder has her reacting to her circumstances in a way I found believable. In every instance Yelena makes choices, as well as careless mistakes, that I think a real person actually in that situation would make. At no time does Snyder fall into the trap of turning her into some superhero, even when we learn that Yelena, in her youth, developed quite a skill as an acrobat. I can see lesser writers using that as a launching pad for all manner of improbable wire-fu silliness. But even the scene in which Yelena thwarts some pursuers by traveling treetop to treetop never smacks of implausibility.
Further on in this review, there is a reference to a slight lack in backstory (which is usually a big problem in almost all fantasy, either too much or not enough), but it also says that you get so involved, that you really don’t notice.
Additionally, PW said of Poison study, “This is one of those rare books that will keep readers dreaming after they’ve read it.” Thats the truth! Spoken by one who knows!
On to #2.
Okay, Magic Study follows Yelena on her quest to find her family, and to master her magic. She is still an incredibly strong character, and her magical powers (which she does not understand) are explored more fully in the magic-friendly Sitia (as opposed to the magic-hating Ixia). There was a stronger emphasis on her romance with Valek, but it was dealt with so well! He is a beacon of strength for Yelena, one for her to draw from, but they both have responsibilities that they take very seriously. Another intresting point is that Luna-Books and Mira Books are her publishers and Luna especially is well-known for their strong heroine characters, which Yelena certainly fits.
Additionally, this book has mind talking with horses, and yeah, you cannot get better than that.. Spoken by someone who has a horse that likes to get annoyed by every little thing, being able to talk to your horse, yeah that would be great.
This book kept me up until 1:00 am, at which point I emailed Maria to say “you are wonderful, great, etc etc, and please write more NOW.” And THEN I went back to bed, and read random sections over again, just because I wanted to. She actually responded to my email, which made me all kinds of happy, and she is just the nicest lady. A real pleasure to chat with.
So, Poison Study is available in paperback, and will be released in a new TRADE paperback (with a new cover) in March of 2007. Magic Study is still only available in hardcover. Fire Study (#3) will be released in march of 2008.
I must say that making me wait another YEAR AND A HALF for book three is just cruel. I am going to have to see if I can finegle an advance from one of our reps as we get closer.
Go out and grab a copy of Poison Study (it is available in the $6.99 mass market size paperback) from your local independent bookseller and try it out! Let me know what you think!
Tags: advance, advance magazine, books, evil, fantasy, fire study, hardcover, horses, ingram, ingram book company, luna, luna-books, magic study, magicians, maria v. snyder, mariavsnyder.com, mass market, paperback, poison study, publishers weekly, romance, trade, valek, yelena
on 21 Dec 2006 at 10:43 am 1.Book Embargo » 500 Loads!!! said …
[...] I have posted about some free items that we recieved at the bookshop. One was the metal 13th Tale bookmark. (The letter opener is not included in reference to this post though). There was another post on the fabulous Maria V. Snyder and her lovely Study books. I wrote to her and she sent signed bookplates. And they are not just her signature, she wrote really funny little lines like, “welcome to my study hall!” Very cute! There is other stuff that we get at the bookstore that I do not post about here. Random bookmarks, pencils, stickers, etc. [...]