Product Description

Choose: A quick death...or a slow poison...About to be executed for murder, Yelena is offered an extraordinary reprieve. She'll eat the best meals, have rooms in the palace - and risk assassination by anyone trying to kill the Commander of Ixia. And so Yelena chooses to become a food taster. But the chief of security, leaving nothing to chance, deliberately feeds her Butterfly's Dust - and only by appearing for her daily antidote will she delay an agonising death from the poison. As Yelena tries to escape her new dilemma, disasters keep mounting. Rebels plot to seize Ixia and Yelena develops magical powers she can't control. Her life is threatened again and choices must be made. But this time the outcomes aren't so clear...

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #345 in Books
• Published on: 2007-09-21
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 416 pages

Review
'Overall, this is an impressive debut and a strong start to what should prove to be a compelling new fantasy series.' --Rhianna Pratchett, SFX

'This is an excellent first novel, full of atmosphere, intrigue, and adventure with some interesting twists and a strong heroine determined to rise above her many problems.' --Locus Magazine

'Poison Study is an action-packed debut to a new fantasy series, involving intriguingly different forms of magic.' --Book Loons

About the Author
Born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Maria attended 12 years of catholic school before going to Penn State University to study Meteorology. Earning a Bachelors of Science degree in Meteorology, Maria discovered, much to her chagrin, that forecasting the weather wasn't one of her skills. She found employment in the environmental field as an air quality scientist, and it was during those years that she began writing. After writing many science fiction short stories, Maria started Poison Study, her first novel, about a food taster. Her research on food tasting methods with an expert chocolate taster, her husband, turned out to be a delicious bonus while writing Poison Study. Maria has a brown belt in Issinryu Karate, and has enjoyed acting out the complex fight scenes in her books. Playing volleyball, scrapbooking, and reading are her other hobbies.

Customer Reviews

Brilliant!
So what would it be like to be a food taster for a man of importance? Yelena, about to be executed for murdering the son of a General, is offered a reprieve - if she becomes poison tester for the Commander. Her training is hard and immediate - she herself is poisoned and has to receive the antidote daily, thus imprisoning her without cells and chains. Constantly in danger of revenge for the murder that she committed, with the risk of ingesting poison from the Commander's food, she tries to find her position in the castle, to be good at her job, to make friends, to experience a little of life and to try to come to terms with the murder and some other strange things that have been happening to her.

We learn gradually about Yelena's former life at the hands of General Brazell and his evil son Reyad throughout the book. We also see her learning to become stronger, both mentally and physically, and to take some responsibility for her safety and future. Her poison testing master, Valek, is an enigmatic man, a former assassin who leaves her in no doubt of her likely fate in her current role, and yet is he really as cold-blooded as he seems? Even the Commander has more to him than people initially see.

The society in which events are taking place is similar to communism, having overthrown a corrupt monarchy, but there isn't any annoying political subtext to this book - it just makes for a different setting than the traditional monarchy in a castle like so many other quasi-mediaeval fantasies. There's also an amusing appearance of a type of food which sounded suspiciously like chocolate to me!

This book is billed as a romance and there is a gentle love story in it but that's a minor part of the story - there is far more to Poison Study than girl meets boy. It's a beautifully written and interesting story of a harsh life in a harsh time where it's hard to know who to trust but where a girl can overcome her disadvantages and make something of herself.

There is a sequel, Magic Study, that I've ordered in hardback on the strength of this book (and I believe there's another to be released later in 2007). I can count on one hand the number of hardbacks I've bought in the last couple of years so this is a very high recommendation indeed.

A very unusual and compelling first novel
Poison Study is a genuinely different fantasy novel, which manages to create a fresh setting, give the heroine a novel occupation and have a compelling, emotionally charged plot.

The action takes place in Ixia, a country ruled by a fairly benign military dictatorship - headed by Commander Ambrose. The command structure and regimented approach to managing the lives of its citizens with uniforms and pre-determined job roles is well described and make an interesting change from all those books where the monarchy or aristocrats rule.

One of the features of the Commander's rule is a Code of Behaviour with specifies strictly applied punishments for every crime. Causing a death is rewarded with execution and self-defence or an accident are not permissible defences.

Yelena is an intriguing heroine, she's a condemned murderer who is saved from execution (or at least puts it off) by agreeing to become the food taster the the Commander, a risky position as many people would like to kill the Commander.

Yelena did kill someone, but her very good reasons for doing so are slowly revealed through the book. The book is written from her first person perspective and she has a very strong personality that really jumps out from the book. Her capacity for action and intelligence make her a very engaging lead character.

Yelena has a fascinating relationship with her immediate boss, Valek, the Commander's spy master. It's Valek who offers her the chance to be the food taster and as the threats on her life continue he becomes a sort of protector, but he is also the man who has to give her a daily antidote to a poison he dosed her with to stop her running away.

Valek is a curious character. He's an assassin who's fanatically loyal to the Commander, but the author slowly reveals that there is rather more to Valek than meets the eye, which make him all the more intriguing. And it's difficult to avoid being swept along with Yelena's evolving view of the man.

The Commander is another interesting character with an unusual secret.

There are some lovely minor characters like Ari and Janco, soldiers that Yelena befriends.

And there are a number of threatening characters, not all who turn out to be bad guys, but those who do are really, really bad.

I did find the casual brutality of parts of the book, in particular the frequent use of violence or threat of rape against Yelena, rather uncomfortable.

But overall this is a great book. Well written, compelling and different.

Fantasy Fiction for Women
I discovered this book quite by accident whilst out shopping in a bookshop with my mum, like you do. Sadly she was looking at the romance section, which is so not my thing, and the attractive coloured cover of this book caught my eye. When I saw the title 'Poison Study,' I thought that doesn't sound like a romance book and I became even more convinced of this theory when I read the blurb on the jacket.

Our heroine of the story, Yelena, is about to be executed for murder (which she does commit) when she is offered a reprieve as the food taster to the Commander. What follows is the simple but engaging story of why she committed the murder, and her subsequent fight for survival against enemies.

By this point I'm convinced the book has been filed on the wrong shelf and I buy it on a whim to see if my theories are correct. Worth every penny! So much so that after finishing it, I couldn't get it out of my head, and had to go back and read it again a week later.

Maybe I'm over-reacting because this book is no great literary masterpiece and is unlikely to win awards, but it's an easy read, the characters are engaging to the extent that you care what happens to them, and the love story, thankfully, develops slowly and doesn't overwhelm the main plot. It's also set in an interesting society which feels like the cuddly side of communism - but still not a perfect world. There is a sequel (Magic Study), which I have read and enjoyed, and now I'm eagerly awaiting the third in the series (Fire Study).

If you're female and you like Fantasy Fiction, then the chances are you'll love this. Fantasy Fiction especially for women? - It's about time.