Product Description

In the sensational sequel to "Poison Study" and "Magic Study", Yelena's apprenticeship is over - now her real test has begun. When word that Yelena is a Soulfinder - able to capture and release souls - spreads like wildfire, people grow uneasy. Already Yelena's unusual abilities and past have set her apart. As the Council debates Yelena's fate, she receives a disturbing message: a plot is rising against her homeland, led by a murderous sorcerer she has defeated before. Honour sets Yelena on a path that will test the limits of her skills, and the hope of reuniting with her beloved spurs her onward. Her journey is fraught with allies, enemies, lovers and would-be assassins, each of questionable loyalty. Yelena will have but one chance to prove herself - and save the land she holds dear.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #861 in Books
• Published on: 2009-01-16
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 432 pages

Review
'This third volume doesn't dissapoint…pulling the reader inexorably to its exciting conclusion. The plot twists and turns…and the story as a whole is peopled by convincing and well realised characters. Verdict: 9/10.' --Marie O'Regan, Total SciFi

'This is an impressive debut and a strong start to what should prove to be a compelling new fantasy series.' --Rhianna Pratchett, SFX Magazine on Posion Study

About the Author
Maria V. Snyder has been writing since 1995 and has published numerous articles in magazines and newspapers. She lives with her family in Pennsylvania.

Customer Reviews

Not Ready to Move On
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. 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.

The first few chapters were a bit slow to start and as a result a little difficult to get into. They do pick up seamlessly though 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 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. 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.

Yelena...what can be said that hasn't been already in past reviews? She definitely experiences almost a full circle of development. Again, some of those unresolved issues might have hindered this. Her first person voice, no matter how tricksy things become, is so matter-of-fact and rational. And maybe that 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, 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 through three satisfying books.

The book has a very satisfying ending, with Yelena discovering, FINALLY, who she really is and what her purpose is, but it did not really feel like the end of a series. So, good enough 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 there are too many of those unresolved issued with others like Cahil, the Sandseeds, and there's still a lot of turmoil to undo in the Fire Warper's wake. I was not ready to move on after this installment, though I thoroughly enjoyed it.

**Note** After posting a slightly different version on my blog, I received an update from a fellow blogger that Snyder has a spin off planned about Opal, the glassmaker that first made an appearance in Magic Study. Word is sometime next year.

Very irritating and so disappointing. Clarkson for audiobook.
I will start with the fact I loved Poison Study, and I liked Magic study... can you see it is already going down hill?

Fire Study is the severely disappointing third instalment of the Yelena series. I found the plot weak, and the characters glossed over- old and new, and there was definitely no spark between any of them- particularly Yelena and Valek, which I felt in Poison Study. There was just an overwhelming lack of depth.

Most importantly however, was the distracting 'voice' as I shall call it, of the author. With some first person narratives you can lose yourself in their account, but this was not the voice of the character Yelena. It is just so badly written with clunky sentences, often in an attempt at atmosphere and tension. On paragraph for example:
'Valek and I agreed to meet back in my room tonight. He left.'

Some parts of this book could have made me cry (I won't say which bits just in case you are still determined to read it) had it been written better, or by someone else. As it was I remained dry-eyed through the turmoil, fully expecting certain resoloutions, which made it even more of a let down when I was proved right.

The summing up at the end of chapters, particularly with the explanation of her surname showing she knew she had what it takes to save her family, grew increasingly annoying. Quite a few chapters ended in questions, which really did not make me desperate to continue reading for the answers.

I would recommend Jeremy Clarkson for the audiobook narrator, as in the end that was how it read; stilted, exaggerated and down-right annoying. His voice and intonation would be perfect.

If you must read it, look for it in a charity shop, or borrow it.

Final part in trilogy
This is the third story in Maria Snyder's series about the poison-tester turned magician Yelena Zaltana. The first book, "Poison Study", was simply brilliant and it's a book I return to again and again. The second book, "Magic Study", was also excellent and built well on the foundations of the first story as Yelena learns about her magical talent and that she is a special type of magician, a Soulfinder.

In Fire Study Yelena is sent to train under the Magician Roze Featherstone; the mutual hatred between them isn't very encouraging but right at the start of their relationship Yelena charges off to find Cahil and Ferde who have escaped the Castle. Ferde was the evil man from the previous book and Yelena is desperate to stop him killing any more girls. She takes her brother Leif with her, her Sandseed mentor Moon Man, and various other people join up on the way. Unfortunately Yelena's search for Cahil and Ferde opens up more problems and their task widens, possibly even to encompass preventing war between Sitia and Ixia. When the Sandseed clan are the victims of genocide and Yelena discovers she is being hunted by a mysterious and powerful Fire Warper she has to try to overcome her fear of fire and her lack of understanding about magic to solve the myriad problems that are thrown her way whilst protecting those she loves.

This third story was, unfortunately, a little bit of a disappointment to me. The main reason for this was that it felt a bit directionless at times. I couldn't tell where the story was going, events seemed to heap upon other events without all that much analysis, and Yelena herself turned into someone a little less appealing. Her main guide in her new life, Moon Man, seems to only speak cryptically which irritates Yelena - and also irritated me. It was hard to get into the minds and characters of people such as Moon Man, Tauno, even Leif in this book; characterisation played less of a part than it did in the first two books where it was excellent.

Despite these slightly negative points, overall I did enjoy the book. The cast of characters from the other books appeared in this one, including Valek the assassin and Yelena's lover, and it was good to meet up with them again. I did think it might be rather hard to understand this book if you hadn't read the previous two and it very much felt like part of a series but, as the series is so good, this is no bad thing.

One strange thing about this book was that the font used didn't make the character f a ligature when used with certain other letters (i, l, etc) so the words looked a bit odd when printed. I haven't come across this before and it was rather distracting. However the attractive cover art, quality of the printing and, far more importantly, the excellence of the story in these three books makes this a very worthwhile read. I will be buying anything that Maria Snyder writes in the future as she's clearly an author to watch.