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50 in '10: #1
Right, going to give this a try again this year....
Title: Storm Glass
Author: Maria V. Snyder
Length: 488 pages
This is the first book in what I assume will be another trilogy in the same universe as Snyder's previous "Study" book series. It's a fast read, mixing romance novel format (and publisher) with a well-built fantasy world. The emphasis is slightly more on the fantasy elements, but make no mistake, the romance stuff is there too. Unlike the Study books, though, here Our Heroine is torn between two guys. *rolls eyes* Ever notice how in that scenario, the one she should and eventually will choose is incredibly obvious? I digress, though; Our Heroine this time around is Opal, who was a secondary character in the previous trilogy. She makes me want to smack her, though in a different way than I wanted to smack Yelena. Yelena never had self-confidence problems, whereas Opal is almost completely made up of them. She is fortunately not quite as Mary Sue-ish as Yelena, and as always, it's evident that the author did a lot of research on her subject. So much so, in fact, that I want to reread Tamora Pierce's "Shatterglass" (another glass magic book) for comparison. And in addition to solid world-building, one thing Snyder writes well here is the interaction between her female characters, particularly Opal and her classmate Pazia. They feel real in how they deal with and react to one another. There's also just enough cameo appearances from the first-trilogy cast to satisfy the longing to see what's happened to them in the few intervening years.
This book is a fast read but is not utterly inane. I now quite want to pick up "Sea Glass," the second book in the series. So, in short: recommended. But you'll want to read the Study books first because knowing that background is rather important.
Title: Storm Glass
Author: Maria V. Snyder
Length: 488 pages
This is the first book in what I assume will be another trilogy in the same universe as Snyder's previous "Study" book series. It's a fast read, mixing romance novel format (and publisher) with a well-built fantasy world. The emphasis is slightly more on the fantasy elements, but make no mistake, the romance stuff is there too. Unlike the Study books, though, here Our Heroine is torn between two guys. *rolls eyes* Ever notice how in that scenario, the one she should and eventually will choose is incredibly obvious? I digress, though; Our Heroine this time around is Opal, who was a secondary character in the previous trilogy. She makes me want to smack her, though in a different way than I wanted to smack Yelena. Yelena never had self-confidence problems, whereas Opal is almost completely made up of them. She is fortunately not quite as Mary Sue-ish as Yelena, and as always, it's evident that the author did a lot of research on her subject. So much so, in fact, that I want to reread Tamora Pierce's "Shatterglass" (another glass magic book) for comparison. And in addition to solid world-building, one thing Snyder writes well here is the interaction between her female characters, particularly Opal and her classmate Pazia. They feel real in how they deal with and react to one another. There's also just enough cameo appearances from the first-trilogy cast to satisfy the longing to see what's happened to them in the few intervening years.
This book is a fast read but is not utterly inane. I now quite want to pick up "Sea Glass," the second book in the series. So, in short: recommended. But you'll want to read the Study books first because knowing that background is rather important.