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mackle13 's review for:
Shadow Study
by Maria V. Snyder
3.5
First let me say that this book is probably more justifiably a 3-star, for me. That extra star up there is pretty much predicated on the basis of "Yay, Valek backstory!" That said, I do wish Snyder would've changed up the presentation of the backstory a bit. Basically, ever Valek chapter* was like, "Something happens which gets Valek reminiscing... and isn't it lucky that these reminiscences are in linear order and tell a full story... and, oh wait, wasn't I doing something?"
My biggest issue with the book is - Actually, there are two things:
1) Nothing much seems to actually happen in this book. There's no resolution of any kind. There's some intrigue and secrets, and some revelations which lead to more questions, and a cliffhangery fuckery of an ending, and it's pretty much all set-up and no resolution. (I honestly can't remember if the first book of the original Study trilogy was the same, but I'm thinking it was slightly more stand-aloneish. Or at least that there was some sense of resolution of something.)
2) Despite these books picking up several years after the original trilogy, Yelena's MO is pretty much unchanged. Meaning she still
Anyway -
That said, I still did enjoy the story, overall. A lot of this, aside from the yay backstory, is because I like these characters and this world from the original Study trilogy. (I never read the Glass trilogy.)
It's written in a way in which you could probably pick this up without reading the original trilogy and being able to sort of follow along with what's happening - but I really wouldn't recommend it. A lot of it felt like you were already meant to know these characters, and I think it would be jarring, not to mention undeveloped, for people who didn't already have that basis.
Also, there's totally spoilers for the other two trilogies, so reading them out of order would be no fun on that account. (As I said, I hadn't read the Glass trilogy, and I got enough of what happened in those stories to understand its relevance to this story, but I also felt like I was missing stuff - which I was.)
So, yeah, I would definitely consider this a continuation to Study and not really the beginning of a new, separate trilogy. (I've seen it sort of listed as both.)
And so - now I have to wait until next year for the release of the next book, and I'll probably be annoyed with it for being more set-up, because middle-of-trilogies are ugh. Damned sure I'm gonna be there to continue the story, though.
* This book switches between three POVs - Yelena's, which is still first person, Valek's and Janco's, which are both third person. I'd've preferred the whole thing to be third person, but I guess since the original trilogy was all first person from Yelena's perspective, I'll take what I can get. That said, while I loved Valek's POV stuff (yay backstory), I found Janco a bit more irritating as a perspective character than he already was normally.)
First let me say that this book is probably more justifiably a 3-star, for me. That extra star up there is pretty much predicated on the basis of "Yay, Valek backstory!" That said, I do wish Snyder would've changed up the presentation of the backstory a bit. Basically, ever Valek chapter* was like, "Something happens which gets Valek reminiscing... and isn't it lucky that these reminiscences are in linear order and tell a full story... and, oh wait, wasn't I doing something?"
My biggest issue with the book is - Actually, there are two things:
1) Nothing much seems to actually happen in this book. There's no resolution of any kind. There's some intrigue and secrets, and some revelations which lead to more questions, and a cliffhangery fuckery of an ending, and it's pretty much all set-up and no resolution. (I honestly can't remember if the first book of the original Study trilogy was the same, but I'm thinking it was slightly more stand-aloneish. Or at least that there was some sense of resolution of something.)
2) Despite these books picking up several years after the original trilogy, Yelena's MO is pretty much unchanged. Meaning she still
Spoiler
runs off half-cocked, gets herself in trouble, and then either gets released by the bad guys for plot reasons (i.e. "She's the protagonist, she has to survive), or she gets rescued in the Eleventh Hour.Anyway -
That said, I still did enjoy the story, overall. A lot of this, aside from the yay backstory, is because I like these characters and this world from the original Study trilogy. (I never read the Glass trilogy.)
It's written in a way in which you could probably pick this up without reading the original trilogy and being able to sort of follow along with what's happening - but I really wouldn't recommend it. A lot of it felt like you were already meant to know these characters, and I think it would be jarring, not to mention undeveloped, for people who didn't already have that basis.
Also, there's totally spoilers for the other two trilogies, so reading them out of order would be no fun on that account. (As I said, I hadn't read the Glass trilogy, and I got enough of what happened in those stories to understand its relevance to this story, but I also felt like I was missing stuff - which I was.)
So, yeah, I would definitely consider this a continuation to Study and not really the beginning of a new, separate trilogy. (I've seen it sort of listed as both.)
And so - now I have to wait until next year for the release of the next book, and I'll probably be annoyed with it for being more set-up, because middle-of-trilogies are ugh. Damned sure I'm gonna be there to continue the story, though.
* This book switches between three POVs - Yelena's, which is still first person, Valek's and Janco's, which are both third person. I'd've preferred the whole thing to be third person, but I guess since the original trilogy was all first person from Yelena's perspective, I'll take what I can get. That said, while I loved Valek's POV stuff (yay backstory), I found Janco a bit more irritating as a perspective character than he already was normally.)