Sea Glass
Sea Glassby Maria V. SnyderThis is how I was going to start this post:ZOMG! WTH!! THE NEXT BOOK ISN'T COMING OUT UNTIL 2011?!?! ARRGGH!!That is the reaction I had when I finished reading Sea Glass just after midnight and read that the adventure continued in Fall 2011. I was so sleepy when I finished the book that this shock jolted me awake. The first thing I did when I woke up in the morning was search the net and was happy to find THIS statement on the author's website:
Don't freak out at the end of the book. There is a major typo. SPY GLASS is scheduled to come out in 2010 NOT 2011.
Apparently Sea Glass was also published without the acknowledgements (which you can find here) and the maps were not credited (Christopher Phillips). Oopses all around.Ok, that being said... I started reading Sea Glass and had to stop and think because I had completely forgotten about the whole Ulrick/Develin soul switch thing and I was highly confused at the beginning. But I was also happy that Janco was there because Janco and his buddy Ari are some of my favourite characters from the Study Series.Poor Opal, I think she spends more time in jail cells than anywhere else and none of it is her fault. No one believes her about the soul switch, saying it's impossible and that she was tricked and therefore she's in trouble for trying to fix things. No matter what she says no one thinks she's telling the truth and even the few who do believe her say it's best they side with those who don't and she follows through with her punishments. They are scared of her ability to syphon a magician's power completely and therefore she's wrapped in a null shield and has a babysitter guard with her at all times. When she does manage to escape she ends up in someone else's jail cell or someone attempts to kill her.All of this is the reason for her attitude change and jaded, bitter sarcasm, but wow. I did NOT like Opal in this story at all. In fact, at one point I thought seriously about walking away from the book and deciding if I wanted to continue reading it. But I ploughed through only because I knew her attitude was a result of what was going on and since Maria V. Snyder is an amazing author I knew she wouldn't let me down. And I was right. I still don't think I like Opal very much, she's no Yelena from the Study series, but you can't have everything. This story was so full of deceit and trickery that it wasn't quite enchanting it was more mystery meets frustration because the READER knows that Opal is telling the truth and you want to smack everyone else in the story over the head and say "OH MY GAWD! Can you be so foolish as to fall for this?"And then of course you get to the end and read that you have to wait TWO YEARS for the next book for proper resolution to things and you want to die and tear out the pages and scream and stomp all over the floor. Or, you know, something akin to that.*deep breath*I am so happy that I discovered this author this year. I think she's probably one of my top finds of 2009. And the whole glass magic thing that this series is written around is fantastically original. I think glass blowing itself is very cool, though I would never try it myself. I don't do well with heat and things that can burn me. ;)EDIT: I forgot to mention that whereas I would classify the Study series as Fantasy for adults (though readable for teens) this series strikes me MUCH more as YA fantasy. The books have a stronger YA feel than Snyder's other series. Therefore I have posted it under both Fantasy and YA, though it's not officially YA.The Glass Series