Product Description

Yelena is a survivor. Kidnapped as a child, held prisoner as a teen, then released to act as a poison taster, she is now a student of magic. But these magic skills place her in imminent danger, and with an execution order on her head, she has no choice but to escape to Sitia, the land of her birth.

But nothing in Sitia is familiar. As she struggles to understand where she belongs and how to control her powers, a rogue magician emerges—and Yelena catches his eye. Suddenly she is embroiled in a situation not of her making. And once again her magical abilities will either save her life...or be her downfall.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #11289 in Books
• Published on: 2007-09-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 352 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Family betrayal, a power-mad serial killer and a potential diplomatic crisis threaten the independent-minded heroine of Snyder's fine sequel to Poison Study (2005). With the overthrow of the royal family of Ixia, 20-year-old Yelena Zaltana, who was kidnapped as a child by the evil magician Mogkan, is now free to return home to Sitia. Her reunion with the family she hasn't seen in 14 years palls when her brother spreads rumors she's actually a spy from Ixia. At the Magician's Citadel, where Yelena enrolls to hone her prodigious magical talents, her powers raise concern that she might be a rare, powerful Soulfinder. Then a string of ugly murders reveals the presence of a rogue magician in the area. As Yelena joins the hunt for the killer, complications grow with the arrival of a diplomatic mission from Ixia—including her lover, Valek, a notorious spy and assassin, sure to be executed if anyone sees through his disguise. Snyder's lively, charming mix of romance and fantasy is sure to gain her new fans. (Oct.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review
"Poison Study is a nifty little tale of intrigue featuring a worthy protagonist that makes for a commendable debut." -- SF Reviews

"Poison Study is a wonderful and lively read. Highly recommended!" -- Kate Elliott, author of the Crown of Stars series

"Be prepared for an exhilarating adventure of danger and romance as our heroine battles for her life against rebel forces . . ." -- Dark Realms magazine

"Enchanting . . . I absolutely loved it. Poison Study is a wonderful trip into fantasy." -- Heather Graham, New York Times bestselling author

"Maria Snyder has created an engaging and entirely original new fantasy, fascinating in its rich detail." -- Mercedes Lackey, New York Times bestselling author

"Maria V. Snyder makes readers believe in her world and the characters she creates, a writer's form of magic." -- The Best Reviews

About the Author
Maria V. Snyder has been writing fiction and nonfiction since 1995. She has published numerous freelance articles in magazines and newspapers. Poison Study (LUNA Books, 10/05) was her first published novel.

Born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Maria earned a bachelor of science degree in meteorology at Penn State University. She discovered, much to her chagrin, that forecasting the weather wasn't one of her skills.

Her research on food-tasting methods with an expert chocolate taster, her husband, turned out to be a delicious bonus while writing her novels. Maria has a brown belt in Isshinryu karate, and enjoys playing volleyball and the cello.

Maria lives with her husband, son, daughter and yellow lab in Pennsylvania.

Readers are welcome to contact Maria by e-mail at maria@mariavsnyder.

Customer Reviews

An easy and addicting Read
While this book will never fall in to the same class as JRR Tolkien's LOTR, Magic Study (a follow up to Maria V Snyder's Poison Study) is a satisfying and addicting read. I should note however that it would be beneficial for you to read the first book in the series before you pick this one up. Where they give you slight details in this edition the first one is meatier and will make you long to read this one.

In this edition we rejoin Yelena-our Heroine from Poison Study- In the last leg of her journey to Sitia, she is accompanied by 3rd Magician Iris and the other girls saved from the previous story. Iris leaves her with her lost family and from there we see the many twists that explain why Yelena does the things she does. We also learn some of her history, and other questions that were had in the 1st book are answered (but I shall say that not all of the questions are answered); and as another reviewer stated Her relationship with Valek is reintroduced, but in this book she does seem a little more caught up in her romance with him where it was only hinted at before.

Valek as well as a host of other characters from the old book are brought back in this book; and a good selection of new ones are introduced. We still have the comedic entendres from Ari and Janco but there is also the addition of a fellow student in the Citadel named Dace. We also get a new enemy, a new Boss in First Magician Roze Featherstone, and new prejudices. This edition also gives us a firsthand account-if you can call it that- of Yelena experiencing other trying times, and glimpses of the sadistic and masochistic side of human nature, but she is better able to fight back in this one, than she was in the first.

This book still leaves some questions that were present in the first book as well as adds some more. For example, we never really find out why Valek is immune to magic, and we also do not find out what Yelena is capable of Magically, we only get a glimmer of a possibility of future greatness, I feel that this is an area that needs to be addressed by the author in the future.

All in all this is an easy read that will get you addicted; it is complex enough to make you long for more but easy enough that you don't have to reread every section to get what the author was trying to tell you the reader, and is a worthy book for lovers of Fantasy, and Romance alike.

I Hope this proved useful :D

Azzy

Very Good - for a sequel
I really enjoyed Poison Study for it's twists and turns, but particularily the fabulous character development. As a sequel, I found Magic Study to be good but the plot and characters were a little too predictable: Generic Heroine in trouble - said Generic Heroine rescued by star-crossed lover. No matter the situation, Generic Heroine always has the right tool right on hand. This plot was still full of twists and turns, but unlike Poison Study, Magic Study leaves no doubt that Good always wins versus Evil.

A must read series
Very enjoyable read. I read all three in the series in less than a week. Too bad there isn't a fourth.