Snyder, Maria: Fire Study
Fire Study
Writer: Maria V. Snyder
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 441
So I think it's finally time to admit I'm biased. Maria Snyder is a graduate of Seton Hill's Writing Popular Fiction Program, and I had the privilege of spending two terms with her. I know that she wrote Poison Study before coming into the program, and once it was accepted for publication, she applied and worked on both Magic Study and Fire Study during her time in the program.
Snyder's books are the kind that I know I can kick back and relax with. It's fun reading. I don't think too hard and I'm able to immerse myself in the characters and the world Snyder has created. I can't do that with all fun reading, but somehow, Snyder hits the magic button that turns most, if not all, of my critical voices off.
So I'm biased.
With Poison Study, we met Yelena and learned about her life in Ixia, where she was a food taster for the Commander. In Magic Study, we learn about Yelena's life in Sitia, where she goes to meet her family and learn to hone her skills as a magician. In the final volume of the Study trilogy, Fire Study focuses on Yelena's loyalties to both countries and the people in them. It also picks up, plot-wise, where Magic Study left off, and the conflict Yelena must face is far fiercer than the Fire Warper who's making his presence known, but rather, Yelena must face herself and her growing fear of her own magic.
There will be spoilers. Oh yes, there will be spoilers...
Since I’m having a hard time focusing on the manner in which to write this review, let's focus on Yelena. That makes sense, since each book has been from her POV and she's the main character.
One thing about Yelena, she's grown and changed, but not so much that we don't completely recognize her from the first book. She's still stubborn and still has a tendency to dive in without thinking things through, but above all else, she seeks to protect the people she cares about. In this book, this reaches a crucial point because suspicion, frustration, and fear all cause her to push those people away one by one, which forces her to make mistakes and act more rashly than not.
But it was good to see her in a leadership position, as well as having her recognize how being back in the Commander's castle put her back into a prisoner's state of mind. I could also sympathize with her frustration with Moon Man's cryptic remarks and answers. In fantasy, having such a cryptic mentor is certainly a stereotype, but Snyder plays into that with Yelena's frustrations and blunt demands for answers. When she doesn't get them, she turns to another Story Weaver, Gede, who claims to teach her what she really is, but whose actions don't take into account the safety of her or anyone else.
The relationship with Valek also hits a crucial point in this book. In her frustrations, she lashes out at him, calling him a magician-killer (hey, that's what he does for the Commander), and he clams up, shutting her out. It's not until she's finally taken by the Fire Warper and returns that she and Valek mend their differences, and Yelena is finally able to come to terms with what's really bothering her: her magic.
Her role as a Soulfinder is met with suspicion and hostility. With good reason: through-out history, Soulfinders have been known to make soulless armies to ravage upon the land, and First Master Magician Roze wants to make sure Yelena doesn't go down that path. But what's interesting is that in this book, Snyder touches on a problem that had been bothering me from Magic Study: up until Yelena finally learns what being a Soulfinder means, all of the descriptions of a Soulfinder sounded very much the same as a Soulstealer, which is was Ferde was, and I couldn't understand what made Yelena different. Her magic allows her to connect with living beings over inanimate ones, and she can also take over the body and shred a person's mind (something she does to Ferde, which casts more suspicion on her by the Council). We've seen her bring souls of the dead back to their bodies, but we learn in this book that those people change afterwards. It's because the souls aren't meant to go back, but released into the sky, where they contribute to the blanket of energy that surrounds the world and gives magicians their magic.
That was a nice touch. A really, really nice touch. Soulfinders are meant to restore magical energy and balance to the world, and the supposed Soulfinders recorded in history weren't Soulfinders at all, but Soulstealers. Great touch.
This book is about Yelena learning what she can and cannot do with the powers she has. She doesn't gain any new skills, and she utilizes all the ones she worked hard for in Poison Study. I especially enjoyed her connection to the bats, and I'm amused beyond all means that Snyder chose a bat to be Yelena's--crap, what was the term? I don't have the book in front of me--totem animal. By the end of the book, because of Yelena's defeat of the Fire Warper and the releasing of all the souls in the shadow and fire realms, she becomes a Master Magician, something which even she protests, since she doesn't possess all magical skills.
The book ends with Yelena keeping her position as a Liason between Ixia and Sitia. Subplots are tied up rather nicely: Cahil manages to pull his head out of his ass and decides that ruling Ixia isn't his right. He's going to keep trying overthrow the Commander, but he's finally going to be smart about it. He's going to earn that throne. We learn that the Commander has two souls, which is why he's both male and female, and the true reason he fears magic (though the only magic he need to truly fear is Yelena's who can see the two souls and offers to free the one, if that's what the Commander wants-he's left to think about it, and we don't get an answer either way, which is a nice, ambiguous way to tie that up. I hope he keeps both souls or if he doesn't, we don't find out). We find out why Valek has an immunity to magic.
A little annoying--something Valek actually comments on--is Yelena's sudden ability to understand everything once she returns from the fire world the second time. I agree, but the specific observations Yelena made did make sense within her understanding of her powers. And it's fun to see an author poke fun at her own characters once in a while.
Fire Study brings the trilogy full-circle. We go back to old places, meet old people, and move forward. I believe that this is the final Yelena story in this world, and Snyder's next novel (one of them) is Storm Glass, which still takes place in the Study universe, but focuses on a new character we meet in Magic Study and who has an important role in Fire Study. As much as I love Yelena and Valek, I'm definitely looking forward to this new trilogy/series. Snyder's work, as I said, is something that's easy to curl up with, easy to enjoy. It's fun reading that I plan on picking up whenever it's released.
Fans of the Study books will definitely be happy with this volume. Those who haven't started, well you sure as hell don't want to start here. Pick up Poison Study and work your way through. They're fast reads, as Snyder employs a more casual, modern voice to the epic fantasy setting, and Snyder's talent obviously grows with each book (no wonder, considering when she wrote the latter two while in the SHU program).
Next up: Unwelcome Bodies by Jennifer Pelland