Tag Archives: Maria V. Snyder

Anticipation (Booking Through Thursday)

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What new books are you looking forward to most in 2008? Something new being published this year? Something you got as a gift for the holidays? Anything in particular that you’re planning to read in 2008 that you’re looking forward to? A classic, or maybe a best-seller from 2007 that you’re waiting to appear in paperback?

I’ve got four new books I’m waiting for:

Dreamsongs Volume 2 by George RR Martin–more short stories and his novella “The Hedge Knight,” set in the same world as A Song of Ice and Fire.

Renegade’s Magic by Robin Hobb–the closing volume in her Soldier Son trilogy.

Fire Study by Maria V. Snyder–more in the adventures of the intrepid Yelena.

The Sweet Far Thing by Libba Bray–I haven’t blogged about the first two books in this series, which are set in an English girls’ boarding school at the turn of the century.

Plus, I still have an insanely huge TBR stack, with some classics like Moll Flanders and Daniel Deronda.

Magic Study by Maria V. Snyder

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Synopsis:
After finally returning to her homeland, having been kidnapped as a child, Yelena must tame the magic she never knew she had even as she’s suspected of being a spy and embroiled in the hunt to catch a nefarious serial killer.

Review:
It’s been a little exciting up in here lately, with new baby being WAY more interesting than any book in the world. Strangely enough I was between books when she made her arrival, having just finished Red Seas Under Red Skies. I don’t know when I picked up Magic Study, but it was at some point after the birth. Of course, I haven’t been totally word-deprived. I’ve been obsessively reading & rereading the Sears Breastfeeding Book, and Baby Book, as well as Aviva Jill Romm’s Naturally Healthy Babies and Children and Natural Health After Birth.

I really enjoyed Maria V. Snyder’s Poison Study, which offered a really fun blend of action-adventure, romance, and a dollop of the epic fantasy aesthetic. Magic Study, book 2 in a trilogy to be completed this spring with Fire Study, is just as good, developing Yelena’s story in a page-turning manner while keeping the same level of action and suspense. Snyder uses a serial killer plotline to keep things moving forward, successfully borrowing elements from the police procedural genre.

I think that’s all I can give you for now… hopefully as my energy returns and as Bea gets bigger and life gets more manageable I’ll be able to write longer posts. But for now, I’m exhausted! (In a good way.)

Superfast Birthday = Best Husband Ever

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My birthday was on Sunday, but it extended through today with a box of books that Superfast Husband bought for me! Check out this tantalizing list of books–I don’t know what to read first (after I finish The Fionavar Tapestry)!

  • The Axe, Volume 1 of The Master of Hestviken and Gunnar’s Daughter by Sigrid Undset
  • Empire of Ivory by Naomi Novik
  • Magic Study by Maria V. Snyder
  • Dreamsongs by George RR Martin
  • Come Along with Me and Just An Ordinary Day by Shirley Jackson

And Superfast Younger Brother added to the fun with Ray Bradbury’s Now & Forever.

Considering I’ve entered my “period of confinement,” as my friend Catherine puts it, I am very glad to have all these great books to read. Superfast Baby could show up any day between now and the end of the month (official due date is 11/18, but that’s really just an estimate). I am very motivated now to learn how to read while breastfeeding.