Sunday, October 29, 2006

Review: Magic Study by Maria V. Snyder

Morning everyone :D

So how are you all? It's so windy at the moment, it's really scary. Anyway, it's been a very quiet week-end so far on blogland... so to perk things up, here is my review of Magic Study (I know, I know... I was planning to post it earlier, but it didn't happen).


Magic Study by Maria V. Snyder: 5.5/5

Yep, you see it right :D It's m0re than a perfect grade :D i mean, I thought, why not?

After 14 years, Yelena is finally coming home to the Zaltana's clan. Although her parents are estatic, her older brother Leif is less than happy. Unfortunately for Yelena, her family reunion is short-lived as she has to go to the Keep in order to learn and control her magic with the 4th Master Magician, Irys. On her way to the Keep, Yelena is captured by Cahil Ixia - Ixia King's nephew (the one who used to rule Ixia and that was killed by Valek). Cahil wants to overtake Ixia and believes that Yelena is a spy. After Yelena proved her honesty, she starts her apprenticeship of magic... but soon, her life will be disturbed again as a rogue magician is taking souls to increase his powers and at the same time, an Ixia delegation is coming to Sitia and Valek is there in disguise although every Sitian would take his life. Life is never boring with Yelena...

So Magic Study is a very nice continuation of Poison Study and in my opinion, even surpasses Poison Study. In Poison Study, I thought that its weak point was the description of the setting, but in Magic Study, you can really see and imagine Sitia. The action is still present and very well-paced. In addition, I love the characters. Yelena remains the same (as in, she is not out of character)... she grows and mature and is still very clever... but she's human. She's not the perfect and tough heroine. Bad things happen to her and sometimes, she can get out of it by herself, other times, her friends come to the rescue. What I mean is that she's not Super Woman... which makes her realistic. Valek is still the same: handsome and dangerous, moves like a ghost and he can really be sweet :D Ari and Janco are back too (actually, I thought they were going with her to Sitia at first), not with a predominent role, but their presence is welcomed and in my opinion, necessary. I really like their friendship with Yelena. The new secondary characters are good (might be a bit cliché, but still) and makes the story even more appealing and interesting (esp. Moon Man, Leif and Kiki). Anyway, you get my point: the book is good, very good :D and I like the fact that there's a bit (just a tiny bit) more romance between Yelena and Valek.

I can't wait for Fire Study and I really hope that nothing bad happens to Yelena and Valek and that the author will continue her amazing story-telling.

ps - Ain't the cover pretty?!?