Maria V. Snyder

I've been very curious about this book. Seeing it on Audible I downloaded it to listen to on the second half of our trip to South Dakota. I will start off by saying the audio book was done very well; very high quality production.

Yelena has been imprisoned with the ultimate punishment of death awaiting her; her crime is the murder of a man. As she takes what she believes to be her last steps before hanging by noose she is instead lead into the office of the Commander's head of security, show more Valek. There she is given a choice; she can go to the noose or she can go through training to become the Commander's food taster. Of course she chooses the second action. From this point on her live is full of the danger of food-tasting and of escaping the guards of the father of the man whom she killed. It is also filled with the kindness of a few special people and of Yelena's exploration of here own abilities.

I loved this book. This book was a breath of fresh air after all the mediocrity I've read lately. The characters had a lot of depth and were very intriguing. I loved Yelena's character and found her training as a food taster to be very interesting; I don't think I've ever read anything on this subject before. The character of Valek is close to the top on my list of male characters that I love. He is just awesome in his skill, his depth, his humor and his loyalty. The Commander is another character with great depth and great interest. You really want to know all of these characters better; you want them to be a part of your life.

The book is exquisitely written and full of lush detail; yet there is wry sense of humor throughout the book that keeps the story from taking itself too seriously. The plot starts off simply and becomes more convoluted and intriguing as the book continues. There are many layers of political intrigue here that really keep your brain thinking and active. The characters are constantly evolving and surprising you. Yet somehow the book is an easy read (or listen). I found myself unable to leave the car because I needed to know what would happen next! This is one of those books that you will think about; I couldn't wait to start the second one in the series.

A great book. I am very happy that I picked this one up; definitely one I will re-read. I will have to go and by the hardcover book just to have it in my collection of books that I absolutely adore. show less

This was a great follow-up to the first book. I really thought I was going to miss Valek in this one because they were separated, but there was enough going on, especially since their romance was so peripheral in the first anyway, that I didn't even notice the absence. Besides, Snyder cleverly brings Valek back around sooner than anticipated, and in a sneaky way that is quite fulfilling.

The ritualistic plot point in this one is hard to handle. Once again, we have a man committing terrifying show more and grotesque sexual assault, but this has a motive outside of desire or revenge, which is disturbing.

Cahill was actually an interesting character in my opinion, to where the end made me so disappointed in him. Approving of rape is never okay. I hope Yelena kills him and the rapist next book.

I also liked the random moment where Yelena is suddenly accosted by someone wanting revenge for the murder she committed. It's interesting to see how her past can continue to haunt her, even as justified as it was.

Leif was pretty intolerable most of this book, but I appreciated that he and Yelena finally worked things out, and that she feels some connection to her family despite the lost memories. The setting of Sitia is rich and inviting in a wild sort of way that trumps traditional European fantasy settings any day, in my opinion.

Lastly, I didn't "like," per se, but I did appreciate that Yelena fails. We even see that she would have failed worse had she stayed, but the irony is horrible while also serving as a good dose of reality. I know there is a companion series based on the sisters, and I'm interested in reading it now.

I give Kristin Atherton 4.5/5⭐. I only docked the half point because I have to listen on 1.5x speed in order to not feel like the performance is dragging. Otherwise, I've grown to love her narration. show less

Touch of Power ranked among my very favorite books I read last year. Needless to say, I wanted Scent of Magic like my cat wants deli meat. With such high expectations, it's perhaps not surprising that the book fell a bit short. This is definitely not her best book, but still ensnared me. Scent of Magic may not be as beloved to me as the first book in the series, but there's plenty of action and powerful women.

One of the best thing about reading Snyder books is that they will always be chock show more full of incredibly strong, sassy women. Avry, the heroine, of course, has healing powers, which can also be used to fight, in addition to being well-trained with weapons. On top of that, she's incredibly bright and willing to do just about anything to help friends, and almost as much to help people she does not even know. What I love about her is how little vanity she has; at one point, she offers to heal a friend's facial injury to save her from the scars, even though then Avry would have to bear them instead. She also prefers practical clothing to beautiful dresses.

However, Avry's not the only strong woman in the book. Jael and Celline are varying degrees of bad guys, but are incredibly powerful. Even better, women fight in the armies of this world and can even rise to positions of authority. Women like Leah and Wynn do not have any powers to aid them, but they still kick so much butt. A lot of novels have strong heroines, but, in order to emphasize her uniqueness, otherwise contain only meek female characters.

Snyder also gets the villain just right. Tohon ranks pretty high up on the list of villains that horrify me. He has insanely powerful magic, which he can use to make zombies and to make Avry weak in the knees (I did not like what happened with that at all btw). Aside from that, he's crazy. He goes from friendly to murderous in no time; his moods are unpredictable. Not only that but Tohon's the brilliant kind of crazy: he pretty much equals Ryne for military strategy. Basically, he's terrifying because it's very easy to imagine him winning.

Sadly, I didn't feel the same love for this installment as the previous. I think a lot of that had to do with the separation of Kerrick and Avry. At the end of the first chapter, Kerrick and Avry part ways to accomplish different things in the war against Tohon. One of my favorite things about Touch of Power was the dynamic between the two of them, which obviously can't happen if they're not together. Plus, now that they're a couple, they don't have the same sexy banter that they did before even when they're together.

The other issue with the two of them being apart for most of the novel is that Snyder changed the narrative style. All of Touch of Power was from Avry's first person perspective, even when the group separated from what I recall. In this one, Snyder added relatively brief chapters from Kerrick's perspective. Avry's perspective remains in first person, but Kerrick's bits are in third person limited. This device might have worked better for me had his sections been counted as chapters (only Avry's are numbered, while his are headed merely Kerrick) and been written in first person as well.

These next couple of points will reference spoilers, though without specifics. While I love these characters and want them all to survive, you guys know how much I appreciate an author that will make their characters really suffer. Snyder can do this, I know she can, but she doesn't exhibit that ruthlessness here. Everyone freaking kept coming back to life! It's to the point of absurdity. Sure, a few people Avry cares about dies, but the main characters can apparently not be killed. That really lessens the impact of the plot.

Despite those issues, I was still debating between 3.5 and 4 for the rating, since I did really enjoy the book and get caught up in it. The deciding factor ended up being the ending. The fact that she ended this installment on the exact same cliffhanger as book one makes me want to throw all the things. Avry and Kerrick are once again united and temporarily safe, but one of them might die of a disease! Oh noes! Goddammit! Obviously neither of them is going to die permanently, so why even bother? Plus, this is so incredibly redundant. I hate everything about the ending.

In spite of everything, I did still quite enjoy reading Scent of Magic and will be eagerly awaiting book three, and really anything Maria V. Snyder chooses to write. I need to find time to read her first series, because I've heard it is worlds better than this one, which I like a lot.

More of my awesomeness can be found at A Reader of Fictions. show less

Trella, a scrub and Queen of the Pipes, has agreed to humor her only friend another time and listen to a new prophet babble on about Gateway in hopes that she can prevent Cogon from getting into trouble. Only this time the prophet doesn't seem to be a Pop Cop ploy or completely delusional man. The prophet asks Trella to break rules restricting the scrubs to the lower levels and steal back important computer files, files that possibly prove Gateway's existence. If Trella gets caught or it show more turns out to be a trap, she faces death but hope in the lower levels is something worth fighting for.

If you like Maria V. Snyder, read this book. If you like dystopians, read this book. If you like young adult, read this book. Hell, if you even sorta kinda find reading a little bit fun, read this book! If I hadn't already been a fan of Snyder's Glass series, there is no way you would have been able to convince me that she hadn't been writing YA dystopians her entire career and this was simply the pièce de résistance. As soon as I finished Inside Out I checked to make sure my local bookstore had the sequel in stock for pickup later that day.

I don't want to say much in this review as I don't want to spoil anything for future readers. I will say that this reading this book has resulted in dystopia being my favorite genre and in having a new book that I plan on irritating all my friends until they read. Often times I love a story for either their characters or the story, I fell in love with both of those in Inside Out. I fell in love with the cleverness of the writing, the emotional response each page drew from me and the sheer pleasure of reading. Inside Out will be something I reread every chance I get.

See my blog for quotes and my thoughts as I read: http://www.bittenbooks.com/2011/05/review-inside-out-insider-1-by-maria-v.html show less