REVIEW: Fire Study

Maria V. Snyder
Fire Study (book #3)
Mira
ISBN-10: 0778325342
ISBN-13: 9780778325345
Fantasy, March 1, 2008

Warning: If you’ve not read the series, or one or more of the books therein, you may be slightly spoiled by this review, though no important details of this particular installment will be spoiled.

In a lot of ways, I just cannot believe this is the conclusion to the fantasy series that got me re-hooked on my breakthrough reading craze. I do credit Snyder with reeling me back into fantasy mainstream, my first reading love and passion. After watching my sister gorge on Piers Anthony like harem girls on rich delicacies as a kid, I wondered why I had such an aversion to reading. I asked her for suggestions and soon I was a rabid fan of greats like Anne McCaffrey and Mercedes Lackey. Reading Yelena Zaltana’s journey’s from Poison Study and now through her culmination in Fire Study has been, quite simply, an amazing journey. What a great, awe-inspiring series to reintroduce myself to one of my biggest passions in reading. For that, Ms. Snyder, thank you.

One thing I just do not get about this series though? It’s touted as a romance by many an internet site/reviewer/whoever. And I do believe we’re all entitled to those opinions, but this series is just not a romance in the sense that I read actual romances. The romance isn’t even secondary. It’s not even third. It’s more an afterthought and a bit of a relaxer when things have gotten a little heavy, but her relationship with Valek, while as sweet as it can be between an assassin and his lady magician, isn’t detailed enough to earn the series the title of romance. (BTW, do you feel differently? I would love to hear why.)

At the end of Magic Study, we finally discover the driving force behind the tipsy-topsy snake path that’s been Yelena’s life from the moment she was kidnapped and stolen into Ixia as a young child. Snyder does an admirable job of detailing the previous two books enough so that we get a gist of Yelena’s past as a child and as the former food taster to the King of Ixia, but without bogging down this latest installment with unnecessary info. It’s woven seamlessly into the story…although there were a few points that were never resolved that I’d looked forward to reading, the main one being Yelena’s family discovering the torture she underwent as an enslaved child in Ixia. I suppose it’s possible that divulging it wasn’t really necessary and probably would have caused her mother and father undo pain, but I felt it would have aided everyone around her in understanding Yelena much better. Not for sympathy’s sake, but to see that her choices had always been taken from her, even at that young an age. And what an amazing person she came to be, still capable of mistakes and error, but stronger for having undergone the abuse and pain. I feel her family would have grown to appreciate that just as much given the time to weather the shock.

The first few chapters were a bit slow to start and as a result a little difficult to get into. They pick up seamlessly where Magic Study leaves off, with Yelena seeking out the Sandseed clan once again, whom she’s related too. But fortune is ever unsmiling on this newly discovered Soulfinder (which she still has no inkling of what one can do), and her studies are exchanged for intrigue and danger–an all too reoccurring pattern. Yelena’s still not completely in her skin yet, but she’s as tenacious as ever and takes on challenges with the air of of a natural leader that everyone around her begins to look up to. Thank goodness for her small circle of supporters too because Sitian and Ixian relation are as unbalanced as ever and a new threat is on the horizon. Outcast Sandseeds, known as Vermin, have joined forces with the villain form the last book, Ferde the Soulstealer, and Cahil, resident sorta-sorta-not–lost-heir-to-Ixia, who just won’t give up the bone to rule that he’s latched onto. Something stinks in the Sitian council too when Yelena and her brother are denounced as traitors, their arrests called for by Roze Featherstone, first Master Magician. Chaos ensues and suddenly Sitia is on the brink of declaring war with Ixia and as always, it’s up to Yelena and her merry band of rag-tag magicians and her assassin lover to resolve the multiple dilemmas. Add in a diabolical and ancient Sandseed magic and suddenly a Fire Warper is out to make Yelena his. From the plains and Magician’s Keep of Sitia, to the northern military ruled territories if Ixia, Yelena’s got her hands more full than ever.

There’s a lot going on in this book! There’s no other way to put it and at times it was a bit confusing. Snyder’s world building, while seemingly flawless, does get a bit hazy as Yelena struggles to discover her identity as a magician and Soulfinder. There’s non-stop action from the first page till the last, as seems to be the norm now after two prior books, and it’s not really till the end that we see once again that it’s all actually vital to the climax of the series as a whole. Were there holes in the plot? Honestly – there well may have been, but this reader eventually was able to bypass the more muddled beginning and by about the fifth chapter or so, I was as hooked as I’ve ever been in Yelena’s upside-down life. If there were holes, I blithely overlooked them in favor of a thoroughly intriguing story.

Yelena…what can be said that hasn’t been already in past reviews? She definitely experiences almost a full circle of development. Again, the issue of her family still not knowing what she went through in Ixia, I believe, slightly hindered this. It’s mentioned a few times that she will tell them eventually, but now wasn’t the right time. *snort* Like there’s ever a “right time” for anything within Yelena’s life. Fa gosh sakes, she never catches a break with all the non-stop danger! danger! (That’s not a complaint, BTW. The conflict does keep it uber interesting after all.) Her first person voice, no matter how tricksy things become, is so matter-of-fact and rational. And maybe that possibly blunts some of the more horrific aspects that she deals with, but it also helped portray her as the leader some eventually look up to her as. I could go on and on (but I hear you groaning), but well, Yelena rocks and the books are the evidence. If you enjoy first-person POVs then this here’s the gal that can lead you on one interesting adventure after another.

The book has a very satisfying ending, with Yelena discovering, FINALLY, who she really is and what her purpose is – and there’s even an HEA of sorts –, but it did not really feel like the end of a series. So, good ending for this particular book, but I am left in major wanting of more from Yelena and her cohorts. Much more! Maybe, for a series ending, it was a tad too succinct and abrupt, not to mention too convenient. Yelena has finally come into her own, but Cahil is still wanting control of Ixia, Yelena’s determined to be a liaison between the two neighboring countries, and dang it I can’t say much more or I will spoil this book too much! Grrrr, let’s just say I was NOT ready to move on after Fire Study. IMO, there’s still so much that could be done with this series. Geeze, maybe yall couldn’t tell my feelings?

In conclusion, GAWD I LURV THIS SERIES! The protags are conflicted, flawed and wonderfully brave; the baddies are sick, depraved and wonderfully eeevil. It’s pure, unfiltered keeper shelf material and I look very forward to pulling them off that shelf in the future for re-reading cravings. I could just weep though for wanting so much more. Snyder, loved it, just loved it…now please continue with it? Too, I cannot wait to see what you come up with next!

To keep up with Snyder and her work, visit her site here.

Rating: Four Scoops