Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder

It's been a while since my last review. I've been reading a lot but fell so far behind on reviews that I decided not to bother until I was ready. Now I am. So for a first new review of a new book: Poison Study, the debut novel of Maria V. Snyder.

Poison Study is a fantasy novel with a unique focus: the main character, a young woman named Yelena, is freed from death row on the condition that she become the poison taster for the commander of her military-ruled nation. The premise alone was enough to draw me in. Poison tasting? A fantasy kingdom ruled by the military? This could be good. And it could have been.

Now we have to get to the nitty gritty. I stopped reading this book when I was about 1/3 of the way into it. I just couldn't continue. Most of the problems are common for first-time and amateur writers, but they were so severe that I couldn't keep up. Yelena had no personality and was a complete Mary Sue. She had a tragic past, a dark side, a strong sense of justice, unerring beauty and grace, quick wit and intelligence, and everything you would expect of a cliche super-woman. The world the story took place in was detailed and different from anything I had read before, but the detail largely came in page-long info dumps that had little, if anything, to do with the story or with Yelena at all.

Then we get to the story itself. I couldn't tell if it was supposed to be a serious fantasy epic, with its emphasis on politics and manipulation among characters, or a colorful, light-hearted yarn in which the cook invents cinnamon rolls and the idea of putting pudding in the cake mix. It took itself too seriously in places, and not seriously enough in others, so I never really knew how I should feel as reading it.

Don't get me wrong. Ms. Snyder has great ideas and could shape them up to be a bold and beautiful fantasy world, but it just needs more work. Two stars.

**000