I’ve recently finished reading Shadow Study by Maria V Snyder. The start of this new series differs from her original Study books in that the story is not told exclusively by Yelena. In Shadow Study we also get narratives by Valek and Janco in addition to one of my favourite fictional heroines. What I love most about this book is that we finally get into the history of the takeover of Ixia, how Valek becomes an assassin and meets the Commander. We get brief bits of information about this in the original series, but now we have the benefit of Valek’s memories.In this book Yelena faces the loss of her magic, similar to Opal and Devlen before her. The difficulty here is that she has many enemies on both sides of the border. She survived before the discovery of her magic, but now she’s embroiled in the world of Sitian politics and has several assassins on her tail.
We encounter events that are already past in the world of the books, but were not yet written about in Snyder’s previous works, such as the incarceration of Ben Moon and the execution of Owen Moon. We also come across events that cause some questioning as to where loyalties lie. The Commander takes some interesting paths in this book, though they are not officially confirmed as Valek only finds out about them at the end. I’m curious as to where things will go, if, when and how Yelena regains her magic, the relationship between Sitia and Ixia and the future of Yelena and Valek.
I have the next book, Night Study, sitting on my shelf awaiting me, so I will report back shortly 🙂
Thanks for stopping by!
-Erin