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Title: Magic Study
Author: Maria V. Snyder
Genre: Fantasy
Year of Publication:2006

Snyder's Magic Study picks up where we were previously left off in Poison Study. After rescuing the other kidnapped girls from General Brazell, the protagonist Yelena follows Fourth Magician Irys to the southern land of Sitia to be reunited with her family and to learn control of her magic. Once in Sitia, Yelena receives mixed responses about her return. While her parents are absolutely exhilarated, her older brother Lief is hardly pleased. In fact, her own brother wants her dead! Soon Yelena meets up with Cahil, nephew to the slain Ixian king, who wants to rebel and regain the throne. Meanwhile, a mysterious man is murdering girls and Yelena must put a stop to him before any more innocents die.


Despite my previous shining review for Poison Study, the first book in the Study series, I found Magic Study to be a disappointment. Reading this book has also caused me to review the first book again, making me realize the many existing flaws there are.

I do, however, have to note that Snyder certainly is doing a better job at conforming with the time setting in the novel by masking modern inventions with more primitive solutions. One of Esau's inventions (spinning flower blades) can easily be recognized as the modern fan. However, many of the items (particularly when it comes to Valek) still leaves me unconvinced that such an item could exist in the novel's setting.

Snyder still also focuses on sexual intercourse to hide the plot of the story. Yelena has intercourse with Valek every single time they see each other. It should be quite obvious to the readers that the two are really in love and miss each other; further sexual intercourse is not needed to emphasize their love. Countless, unmentioned victims are also raped during a crime spree. Snyder uses such incidents with such frequency that one cannot help but feel that she's using these to hide the fact that there really is not plot.

Magic Study has been a major disappointment for me. Now knowing magic, Yelena solves everything with magic, and that just leaves no real suspense for readers if we know that the problem will be solved with magic. All it takes is for Yelena to go into the mind of her attacker, control him, and Voila! no more attacker. The fact that she's the only one with this ability in the novel is also more annoying. Yelena isn't the "strange, outcast" here; her magic is called "taking the easy way to solving problems".

One of the more recent books I read was Poison Study by Maria V Snyder. It is the first book in the Study series. The next two books are Magic Study and Fire Study. Poison Study details the life of Yelena who goes from a murderer about to be executed to the palace's food taster. Every times she tastes the Commander's food she'll be at risk of dying from poison. Not only that but the Chief of Security Valek has given her a poison called Butterfly's Dust. Yelena will need to see Valek every morning for the antidote or else she will die a slow and painful death. Along the way, Yelena meets several friends in the palace, from Rand the prodigy cook to Ari and Janco the power twins, as she runs errands for Valek and soon uncovers a plot that her old nightmare plans to use to take over the kingdom.


I really enjoyed this book, giving it about four and a half stars out of five. It is a perfect blend of adventure, fantasy, suspense, and romance. There's humor along the way too, to lighten up the mood when necessary. Snyder does a good job of characterizing the silent killer Valek (who, by the way, is my favorite character) but I find Yelena to be quite annoying. All she can reminiscent are her childhood acrobatics. The brief mentions of rape are not necessary. We already know just how evil a man Reyad is without emphasis on rape. These things set aside, I do plan on finishing the stories. The next book is Magic Study.