Book Review: Scent of Magic by Maria V. Snyder

Scent of Magic by Maria V. Snyder
Series: #2 in the Healer series
Release Date: December 18, 2012
Publisher: Harleqin MIRA
Pages: 414
Received: ARC from publisher, via NetGalley
Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars
Goodreads Page

WARNING! This is a sequel! 

I always try to avoid spoilers, but if you're afraid you can check out my review of the first book (a book I LOVED)?

Summary

From Goodreads:

As the last Healer in the Fifteen Realms, Avry of Kazan is in a unique position: in the minds of her friends and foes alike, she no longer exists. Despite her need to prevent the megalomanical King Tohon from winning control of the Realms, Avry is also determined to find her sister and repair their estrangement. And she must do it alone, as Kerrick, her partner and sole confident, returns to Alga to summon his country into battle.

Though she should be in hiding, Avry will do whatever she can to support Tohon’s opponents. Including infiltrating a holy army, evading magic sniffers, teaching forest skills to soldiers and figuring out how to stop Tohon’s most horrible creations yet; an army of the walking dead—human and animal alike and nearly impossible to defeat.

War is coming and Avry is alone. Unless she figures out how to do the impossible ... again.

Review

I heart Avry

Sike!

I couldn't stand Avry.

Scent of Magic made a valiant effort in trying to convince me that Avry was ten times more awesome than a rainbow sparkle unicorn and about a million times more lovable than a pile of puppies (which is scientifically impossible because nothing is more lovable than a puppy pile).

And by "valiant" I mean a mix of the sledge hammer approach and a focus on quantity over quality.

But that's ok, right? I mean it's a little unreasonable to expect actual, tangible reasons to account for Avry's magnificence. Scent of Magic works on a much more "take my word for it" level when it comes to character development, and I had an entire cast of characters exclaiming over Avry's awe-inspiring vague perfection to try to convince me.

Plus, I DID read  Touch of Power, so shouldn't the evidence in that book be enough to carry me through the rest of the series?

Except, NO. Because, not only is that totally unacceptable (characters are supposed to be on a continual journey of ever-deepening character growth and development!), it also doesn't even work given the fact that both Avry and Kerrick act completely different in this book.

Which, hey, on one hand it's pretty nice that Kerrick decided to ditch his grumpy and abusive ways ('cause hitting ladies is still unappealing!), but I had a hard time believing that these were the same characters I read about in Touch of Power.

Kerrick is nicer (if blander, and a potential new candidate for the Babysitters' Club), but Avry's changes were weird, and annoying. It felt like she OD'd on Pixie Stix as she gleefully bounced around the camp, her manic, shallow thoughts jumping and rehashing the same (boring) subjects (I miss Kerrick! I am determined to make my sister like me again with oppressive cheerfulness! Look at how quietly I can walk!)  

Yeah, she CAN walk quietly

This quiet forest walking accounts for entire CHAPTERS of the book. Yes, plural! It may even be a quarter of the book. Or half. I don't even know. It was like I was stuck in a dream that kept looping around again and again and I'd never be able to wake up and get free of the loop.

First Avry demonstrates her walking abilities, then she trains some people. Then she trains another group. Then they praise her for walking quietly. Then they train another group. Then they praise her for teaching them this valuable skill. Then they train more.

Now, honestly, walking silently through the forest is a totally neat skill and I want it for sure, but enough is enough. I need a stronger plot than that.

Which brings me to my next complaint.

What happened to the political intrigue?!

 
To recap Touch of Power, this world is a post-apocalyptic fantasy where various factions are all gearing up for major battles with lots of political maneuvering going on as each faction tries whatever means necessary to wrest control for themselves.

And "whatever means necessary" meant reanimated corpses, Mengele-style experiments, biological warfare, magical seduction, and "I can suck the air out of your lungs with a thought" wizard duels. Which is all pretty badass. And that's only what ONE faction is bringing to the table.

So I was expecting book two, when we get a look into the inner circle of another faction, to really up the ante. Because if any other faction is going to have a prayer at winning the kingdom, they need to step up and fight fire with fire. Or, erm, zombie armies with...well, it's gotta be something awesome.

Except they don't. Avry needs to teach them how to walk quietly and THAT is their big ace up the sleeve.

The villain deserves to win.

Help me prince, you're my only hope!

Remember that prince Avry sacrificed her life to save because he's a master strategist and he's totally going to win this thing?

Well, he's kinda cool? He does do a few nifty things that made me unreservedly award points for cleverness (particularly that whole hiding thing), but Avry ultimately steals his thunder (of course, because she's perfection on earth, in case you forgot).

Even if she hadn't, his few cool ideas aside, he still hasn't done anything to convince me he's worth sacrificing one's life for (even if at this point I'd gladly sacrifice Avry's life for a peanut butter sandwich).

What happened to my flowers?!

I know I'm knocking on Avry a lot, but I should point out that the characters of this particular series were always eclipsed by my jaw-dropping love for Maria V. Snyder's ingenious peace and death lilies.

These flowers are the absolute coolest, not only because of their powers, but also because they're a total mystery with ties to both the rampant world-destroying plague AND the creation of healers. My mind practically explodes with win every time I think about them.

Touch of Power set the stage for the flowers and gave a peek into their connections and history, as well as a glimpse of some of their powers. So I was prepared to be swimming in flowery mystery and magic come Scent of Magic.

And I was! And I wasn't. There are definitely major reveals as far as the abilities of the flowers and the implications this has for Avry and pretty much everyone else. I LOVED this! I was disappointed that the history of the flowers' involvement with the plague and healers was largely ignored in Scent of Magic, but the new flower power info mostly made up for it.

What it didn't make up for was the fact that by the time I finally got to this good stuff I had already been slogging through pages upon pages of The Avry Love Fest mixed with Kerrick's Adventures in Irrelevant Babysitting and about 50% of my involvement had already checked out.

Bottom line

So. Where does this leave me? Do I read book three on the hope that it completely avoids the utter disappointment that was book two and brings me back to the amazing stupendousness that was book one?

Or do I cut my losses and ignore the existence (or, future existence) of book three while trying to blot out the memory of book two and somehow twist the ending of book one so I can forever think of it as a glorious standalone?

Oh conundrums.

So fellow readers, I am taking the easy way out and laying this one squarely at your feet. If, upon finishing Scent of Magic, you felt compelled to raise your arms and let loose with a Darth Vadar wail of rage and regret like *I* did, please do me the favor of reading book three and letting me know if it's any better.

Explanation of rating system: Star Rating Key 

Do you have any questions about Scent of Magic that I haven't addressed? 
Feel free to ask in the comments!

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Book Review: Touch of Power by Maria V. Snyder

Touch of Power by Maria V. Snyder
Series: #1 in the Healer series
Release Date: December 20, 2011
Publisher: Mira
Pages: 394
Received: ARC from publisher, via NetGalley
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Summary

From Goodreads:

Laying hands upon the injured and dying, Avry of Kazan assumes their wounds and diseases into herself. But rather than being honored for her skills, she is hunted. Healers like Avry are accused of spreading the plague that has decimated the Territories, leaving the survivors in a state of chaos.

Stressed and tired from hiding, Avry is abducted by a band of rogues who, shockingly, value her gift above the golden bounty offered for her capture. Their leader, an enigmatic captor-protector with powers of his own, is unequivocal in his demands: Avry must heal a plague-stricken prince—leader of a campaign against her people.

As they traverse the daunting Nine Mountains, beset by mercenaries and magical dangers, Avry must decide who is worth healing and what is worth dying for. Because the price of peace may well be her life...

Review

HECK YES

I love books like this. I don't even know where to begin with pointing out the awesome. Think specially made pom-poms and t-shirts just for this book so I can adequately fangirl over it.

I'll be your friend, 
and not just because it would be handy to have you around

Avry is almost perfect for me. Almost. I couldn't help but compare her to Yelena (I know, bad Small), and unfortunately she didn't quite stack up. But that's more an indication of how much I adore Yelena, not how little I like Avry.

Because I like Avry a lot. She's one of those characters who is stubborn to a fault and totally blind to the obvious when it comes to romance, but for some reason I like her anyway. She even did stupid things and I liked her because her intentions were always good, even if her execution was often wanting.

Her healing power is also pretty cool. How neat would it be to have her around? At first I thought it was a pretty straight-forward power, but that was such a silly assumption on my part because Maria V. Snyder is far too amazing to do simple.

My only real complaint about Avry is that her characterization is a touch inconsistent and just a little bit Mary Sue with people fawning over her in ways that made me happy, but were also a little unrealistic.

Ok, fine, I guess I'll swoon for you

And then there's Kerrick. Oh Kerrick, what am I going to do with you? I knew I was in love with Kerrick from page one, but that really had nothing to do with Kerrick. That was all residual love from Valek.

When I started getting to know Kerrick, I was surprised by how much of a jerk he actually was. And it's not like he had an excuse for it either (or, not a good enough excuse for me).

Slowly but surely and just like Avry, I eventually came around to swooning for Kerrick (albeit a little grudgingly). It's hard not to when he's all Strong Stoic Fighter who later admits how devastated he would be if anything happened to the MC. Plus I can't not fall in love with a hate-turned-love romance.

A part of me is still sulking over his jerkiness, but I wanted to swoon over him and if I block out his earlier behavior, then swooning comes pretty easy.

(Still, dude, you just don't tie a girl to a tree and slap her like that!)

Big family alert!

I fell in love with Yelena's band of friends in Poison Study, and the same thing happened in Touch of Power. Maria V. Snyder does an awesome job at writing a group of friends who dote on the main character and make me feel all fuzzy and warm inside. I'm a sucker for the "big family" element and Maria V. Snyder totally satisfied me on this. You'd think I was looking at puppy pictures with the amount of awwws they pulled out of me.

Now, ok, maybe it wasn't totally realistic, and maybe the dialog did cross over into full on cheesy, A LOT. But I'm mostly ok with that because it made me smile.

Don't even think about bedtimes

This book is like potato chips. Or popcorn. Or cookies. What I mean is, you can't stop at just one and even with the best intentions of eating just a few, you'll soon realize you've scarfed down the entire container and you're still looking for more.

Or maybe I just have no self-control when it comes to food.

Whatever. I'm warning you now, Maria V. Snyder is an evil genius when it comes to ending every single chapter on a GIGANTIC cliffhanger. Her chapters aren't super long either, so it's easy to give in to the temptation of, "Oh, just one more" in order to find out what happens next.

This genius tactic, combined with the fast-pace, high action, and ever-growing mysteries made this 400 page tome fly by in the blink of an eye. I balk at 350 page books for being too long, so this is high praise coming from me.

My new favorite genre

I'm a character girl, and so usually it's the characters that will make or break a book for me and command the majority of my attention. And it's true, I loved the characters here. But the world Maria V. Snyder created is, dare I say it, even better.

It's solidly placed in the "generic medieval village," but a few years back a devastating plague swept through the world and killed a significant part of the population. Rulers fell and civilization pretty much disappeared, making Touch of Power a post-apocalyptic fantasy.

Yes, post-apocalyptic fantasy!! How awesome is that?? Hands down, this is my new favorite genre. Can we get more of this, please??

The sheer amazingness of this world building is making me all misty-eyed

The world is set up pretty well in the beginning and I understood the basics of what went down.  But then, the more I read, the more details filtered through. Maria V. Snyder slowly introduced the different factions rising up to take control of the fractured lands, and just like Avry, I was never sure who I should place my loyalties with (if anyone!).

Then, partway through when Avry and I thought we understood everything, a bomb was dropped that totally shook us and had us questioning everything we thought we knew. It was marvelous!

Also, do you see those flowers on the cover? I admit, when I first saw them I thought they were kinda lame and I wondered if they even had anything to do with the plot or if they were just the floral equivalent to a pretty dress cover.

Well, let me assure you that one, they play a HUGE role in the book, and two, they are freaking scary (and, also, not so tiny!). All of the mythology and history tied up with these flowers was so filled with win that I actually got toe-tapping impatient when page time was spent on things like battles and swoony scenes. Totally crazy, right?

Oh, and to make things even better, the whole story is one giant QUEST!

WARNING!
(but don't worry, it has nothing to do with animals getting hurt)

Have tissues on hand. 

Why no Special Shelf?

Three reasons. One, my mixed feelings about Avry and Kerrick.

Two, the language. Avry narrates with a very modern style of speaking that didn't feel natural to me and sometimes pulled me out of the story. I wanted something a little more "fantasy world" and less "modern teen." The other characters didn't seem to speak like this either, so that made it feel even more out of place.

And three, it just didn't stack up to Poison Study. All of the characters were less developed and the writing seemed A LOT rougher (but I read an ARC, so maybe that's why?).

Bottom line

Hooo-leee cow. How long do I have to wait for the sequel now?? No, really, how long?? I don't want to wait another second. Sure the ending is wrapped up nicely (Maria spared me her genius cliffhangers and gave me a neat ending).

But do you know how many questions I still have about the world?! I KNOW there are more secrets to uncover and gosh darnnit I am going to find out what those dead people are hiding from me!

Yes, yes you do hear me petulantly stomping my foot.

I'm hooked. Sure I like Avry and Kerrick and their friends. And sure I want to read more about them doing pretty much anything. But those flowers! That history! The fight for power! The mysteries are killing me and I am desperate for more.

Explanation of rating system: Star Rating Key 



 

Do you have any questions about Touch of Power that I haven't addressed?  Feel free to ask in the comments!







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