christianreader | Kiwiria's September Sequels

Fortune's Dance - Audrey Faye, 4/5, 152 pages
This was definitely a book I read despite the cover rather than because of it. I'm sorry - it is UGLY! Fortunately, since it's an ebook, I've only really had to look at it on Goodreads.

That out of the way, I enjoyed this KarmaCorp novel just as much as the previous two :) I enjoyed getting to know Iggy, and her mission at Thess rang very true to me. It was certainly very different from the more active missions of the two first books, but though I hadn't expected it at first (which is why it took me awhile to get properly started on this), it worked for me.

I do recommend reading "Star Stories" before reading this one though, or there are some references that you won't get.

Søvnen og døden - A.J. Kazinski, 3/5, 490 pages
(Sleep and Death)
This was a surprisingly slow read. I liked it well enough, and thought the premise fascinating (man trying to kill and revive people in order to get answers from a dead relative), but it was just too easy to put down and not pick up again.

Niels' way of working annoyed me - it always bothers me when policemen in books and movies get an idea and decide to run with it themselves, instead of following policy and wait for backup. You know it's going to get them into trouble sooner or later - trouble which could so easily have been avoided.

Poison Study - Maria V. Snyder*, 5/5, 409 pages
One of the best books I've read in a very, very long time. It's a brilliant story that incorporates several of my favourite bookish ideas: Teaching of a craft - check. Latent magical abilities - check. Surprising romance - check. Friends among enemies - check.

Excellent book :)

Magic Study - Maria V. Snyder*, 5/5, 425 pages
I loved Poison Study, but had heard somewhere that the other books in the series weren't quite as good, so I'd been reluctant to pick this one up. However, I was challenged to read it in October, so I figured I might as well get started and loaded it onto my Kindle two days ago.

It TOTALLY lived up to the standards the first book set! This is one of the best fantasy series I've read in a very long time, and I only hope the last book can live up to my now very high expectations. I love Yelena and her relationship with Valek, Irys, Kiki, Ari and Janco... and even Leif after awhile. Maria Snyder writes those relationships really, really well. She does tend to fall into the trap of making (most) bad characters one-dimensional (Cahlil was an exception), but I hope at least Rose will turn out to be more than she seems.

Fire Study - Maria V. Snyder*, 4/5, 441 pages
Unfortunately not quite as good as the two first books in the series. I still really liked it, but I didn't love it, the way I did the two others. Still, as a whole it earns the place as one of the best fantasy series I've read since Tamora Pierce.

The threads are nicely wrapped up, and all the questions answered... although there were some of them where I thought, "Well, D'UH! I could have told you that 400 pages ago. Ah well, it still worked. My biggest problem with it was probably the conclusion of the Fire Warper / Jal story line. It seemed rushed and especially Jal's motivation wasn't quite fleshed out enough.

But that's a minor complaint to an otherwise excellent series.

Storm Glass - Maria V. Snyder*, 4/5, 504 pages
This series picks up where the Study trilogy leaves off. While not completely necessary to have read the Study trilogy first, I would definitely recommend it, as it gives a LOT of background which would only be implied or assumed otherwise.

"Poison Study" is still my favourite of all the Maria Snyder books I've read so far, but this one can definitely give the two other Study books a run for their money. I really like Opal and was intrigued by how her magic evolved.

It's very obviously the first in a series. While fortunately sporting no cliff-hangers, the ending is very open-ended and only a few of the threads (but happily the most important ones) are properly tied off. I'm glad I have the next one at hand to dive into right away.

Sea Glass - Maria V. Snyder*, 4/5, 472 pages
No doubt about it, Maria Snyder writes very readable books. Just like the first one, I read this in a day and enjoyed it greatly. Sure, it did get a bit old how Opal was constantly stumbling into one bad situation after another, but at least near the end it seemed as if she was starting to learn from her mistakes - I'm hoping that will continue in the last book as well.

There is some slight foreshadowing in this book, which typically annoys me quite a bit. Here, the event foreshadowed always ended up taking place already a couple of pages later, so I didn't have time to get too bothered by it.

Spy Glass - Maria V. Snyder*, 4/5, 535 pages
An awesome series :) Unfortunately this book does suffer from being the last in the trilogy though. Maria Snyder nicely ties up all loose ends from the previous books, but in doing so she attempts to do too much in too few pages... even though this is the longest book of the three.

I think she would have benefited from either leaving out some of the storylines altogether, or adding an extra book, or allow for enough pagetime for all the different storylines.

Minor nitpick though. In the grander scheme of things I absolutely adored this trilogy.

Ice Study - Maria V. Snyder, 3/5, 36 pages
You'll want to read "Ice Study" before reading the Soulfinder trilogy, as it refers quite heavily to the events of that short story. "Ice Study" is available for free at Maria V. Snyder's webpage.

Shadow Study - Maria V. Snyder, 4/5, 410 pages
Plot-wise, I enjoyed this book just as much as the books in the "Study" or "Glass" trilogies. Writing-wise Maria V. Snyder has taken to writing the story from several different POVs instead of sticking to just one. I can understand her reasons - it's easier to show the events of several places at once, if you don't have to stick to just one POV - but as usual it turns out that not all storylines are equally interesting, so some chapters just feel like 'fillers' until we get to the next person.

I did really enjoy it though! And have my guesses as to what's blocking Yelena's magic. It'll be interesting to see if I'm right.

Night Study - Maria V. Snyder, 4/5, 400 pages
Still not a huge fan of the changing POVs in this series, but I'm getting more used to it, and for once all storylines were equally interesting, which also helped quite a bit.

Lots of surprises in this one, and I'm especially interested in seeing how the relationship between the Commander and Valek will continue in the third book... and of course see if my theory about Yelena's magic loss is correct.

All in all, I'm really enjoying this series. Still can't live up to "Poison Study" itself, but nor could any of the other books in the original trilogy, so I'm not holding that against in. I'm looking forward to the third book coming out next year.

Performance in a Leading Role - MadLori, 4/5, 470
Yes, I know it's fanfiction, but it's novel-length fanfiction, so I'm going to count it here anyway.

I'll start by stating my bias - if MadLori wrote it, chances are, I'll want to read it. Doesn't matter if I'm actually into the fandom or not, her writing is so awesome that I'll read it either way. ("Brokeback Mountain", I'm looking at you. DULL book, awesome fanfiction!)

I've only seen 4-5 episodes of Sherlock, but since this fanfic takes place in an alternative universe anyway, I didn't think that would matter too much. I knew how Sherlock and Watson were supposed to look to my mind's eye, and that's really all that mattered.

"Performance in a Leading Role" is just as ridiculously readable as pretty much everything else MadLori has written, and I greatly enjoyed it. There wasn't nearly as much angst as her fics often contain (her Criminal Minds fanfic broke me), but just as much humour (I laughed out loud on a regular basis) and passion. She writes relationships SO WELL! Not only the sexy parts either, but also the every-day 'mundane' basics of living together with another person.

My favourite fanfic of hers is still "How to Fight Loneliness" (the aforementioned Criminal Minds fic), but this one was highly enjoyable as well.

The Woman in Cabin 10 - Ruth Ware, 4.5/5, 352 pages
Wow! That was quite a ride... and I had no idea what to expect when I first started it, which just made it even better.

"The Woman in Cabin 10" is the kind of suspense novel I enjoy the most - where the mystery is slowly unraveled, and seemingly inexplicable events turn out to have a very good reason indeed. No leaps of logic and - more importantly - no supernatural events, no dreams and no split-personality issues!

I liked the way the story unfolded, and loved that it took part on a cruise ship, as they have always fascinated me. Most of the book takes place inside Lo's head, so we don't get to know the other characters as much as I would have liked, but because of the way the story is written, it actually works, without becoming too 'navel gazing'.

Great book. I had a very hard time putting it down. People compare it to "The Girl on the Train", but personally I think this one is heaps better :)

Book of the Month: They were all excellent! I try not to pick rereads though, so will have to go with The Woman in Cabin 10
Biggest disappointment: Søvnen og døden. Not bad, just slow.