Poison Study (Study, #1) (The Chronicles of Ixia, #1)

by Maria V Snyder

Choose: A quick death...or a slow poison...About to be executed for murder, Yelena is offered an extraordinary reprieve. She'll eat the best meals, have rooms in the palace - and risk assassination by anyone trying to kill the Commander of Ixia. And so Yelena chooses to become a food taster. But the chief of security, leaving nothing to chance, deliberately feeds her Butterfly's Dust - and only by appearing for her daily antidote will she delay an agonising death from the poison. As Yelena tries to escape her new dilemma, disasters keep mounting. Rebels plot to seize Ixia and Yelena develops magical powers she can't control. Her life is threatened again and choices must be made. But this time the outcomes aren't so clear...

• ISBN13: 9781408979839
• Publish Date: 2 March 2012 (first published 27 September 2005)
• Publish Status: Permanently Withdrawn
• Out of Print: 6 May 2021
• Publish Country: GB
• Imprint: Mira Books
• Edition: ePub First edition
• Format: eBook (EPUB)
• Pages: 312
• Language: English
• URL: http://harpercollins.co.uk

Reviews

[nitzan_schwarz]

Damn. Not one bad word about this. Why did I wait this long to read it? Need to sequel, ASAP!

[Nessa Luna]

Read this review, and many more on my blog October Tune!

I love this book. I really really do.

At first, I was reluctant to start it, because one of the main genre’s on Goodreads was ‘romance’, and y’all know how much I don’t like a book that revolves around romance. But when I read Poison Study, I found that there was hardly any romance at all, just some very good friendships and perhaps a tiny bit of romance near the end. (Note: I ship it).

That is what made me love this book so much. Okay, of course, I love this book because it was very well written, and because I just like the story a lot, but I just found the lack of romance very good, because the majority of the Young Adult books nowadays seem to always revolve around romance, love-triangles, instant love, etc.

Poison Study is about Yelena Zaltana (whose name, I suppose, is pronounced just like Helena (hee-lee-nah)). Instead of being executed for her crimes, she becomes the Commander’s new food taster, which means she risks getting poisoned (and killed) every single day. She is being trained by Valek (whose name reminded me of Dalek) who is a skilled assassin and the Commander’s personal security chief. Of course, Yelena is a convicted murderer, so no one in the castle really wants to talk to her, or be in the same room with her. Luckily that changes later in the book, and she gets some good friends who I all love very much!

We don’t really find out why Yelena killed the person she killed, until somewhere near the end of the book, and I have to say I fully understand why she did it. (Of course, that still doesn’t make it right that she killed that person).

There weren’t really parts that I didn’t like about the book, perhaps only the fact that sometimes the story was a bit slow (mainly just Yelena tasting the Commander’s food, having arguments with Valek and hanging out with her friends Ari and Janco (who are my favourites, honestly), but no ‘real’ action or anything). And sometimes I found the names a bit hard to remember, though in the end I managed perfectly.

I really like Maria V. Snyder’s writing; I had read Inside Out & Outside In before, and though I wasn’t a big fan of those two books (the second one mainly not because I read a Dutch translation which sounded very childish), but I liked the concept and I really wanted to read more of Snyder’s books.

In the end, I loved Poison Study a lot, and I really can’t wait to read the sequel, Magic Study. I wasn’t entirely sure if I should give this book four or five stars, until I remembered that there was not one thing that I actually really disliked about this book, so that is why Poison Study gets five whole Daleks from me.

[Chelsea]

Super happy with this book! It seemed like it was going to be really boring at the start but the action started coming and I couldn't put it down. Loved the way everything played out in the end. It was expected but surprising in the end.

[ladygrey]

This is an incredibly well evoked world with really good characters. It reminiscent of The Sword of Truth but maybe only because of its subtle brutality. But it is subtle and yet real enough that it blurs the line of whether this is actually a young adult book or not. Sometimes I'm not sure I can tell.

The interesting thing about Maria V. Snyder is that her romances aren't particularly romantic. It's almost like falling in love through sheer exposure in the two books I've read thus far. But it works. It's not flowery or impassioned but you can see it clearly in the characters and it's easy to believe.

And I liked Yelena as a heroine a lot. I liked the complicated dynamic she's caught in that is this plot and her ever precarious situation. And I liked that she wasn't foolish or making stupid choices for the sake of the plot. She was weak and she acted in spite of her fear and she was interesting. And Valek, however emotionless she tried to describe him you could tell there was so much thought and complexity under the surface. His self-control made him interesting.

Despite the magic and the intrigue, this is a book that feels very real which makes it a little bit awful, but bearable so, and helplessly engaging.

[Angie]

Yelena is an ex-acrobat, convicted of murder, the Commanders new food taster, and possibly a strong magician. How's that for different? I absolutely loved the concept of Poison Study! A food taster, not some supernatural being, just someone meant to check for poisoned meals. Yelena is a strong character, and she's also smart. She thinks about her options and chooses the one that has the best chance of keeping her alive. And staying alive is hard when you're faced with possible poisoning at each meal, have the father of the man you killed seeking revenge, and have a powerful magician (or two) after you. She learns to identify poisons by smell and taste from Valek, and self-defense from the castle guards. The only thing she can't control is her emerging magic.

There's plenty of action with Yelena constantly being pursued or grabbed by someone who's after her, or simply doesn't like her. But there's also some deep emotional scenes mixed in. Yelena did not have a happy past and the events that led up to her committing murderer are sickening. She's fighting with some strong emotional demons throughout the book, and at times is haunted by the man she killed. There's also the blossoming romance between her and the man who poisons her daily and literally holds her life in his hands. I loved seeing their relationship change from hostile to passionate throughout the book.

I had a hard time placing this book on a timeline. It seemed to take place around the 16th century, maybe. This is obviously not set in modern times anyway, but there's random modern objects popping up: switchblades, trampolines, and cinnamon rolls. Whenever one of these "modern inventions" were mentioned I tried to place the story in time, since it's entirely possible that these things were invented long before we think they were, but couldn't do it. I told myself it's simply fantasy, so it's set in a fantasy location at a fantasy time, and there's nothing more to it. That still didn't stop me from getting distracted from time to time.

Poison Study is fun, exciting, unique, and completely attention grabbing. It's full of action, espionage, betrayal, and a bit of romance. It's historical with a modern twist. It's just great, and I definitely recommend it to fantasy fans and anyone looking for something a little bit different.

Read more of my reviews at Pinkindle Reads & Reviews.

[Amanda]

Actual rating 4.5

Full review: http://onabookbender.com/2011/07/20/review-poison-study-by-maria-v-snyder/

Yelena’s life sucks. She has been condemned to death — whether by execution now or poisoning later, it doesn’t matter. The final result is the same. Reading Poison Study makes us wonder how this story could manage not to break our hearts. Death awaits Yelena as surely as she lives and breathes. How can there possibly be any sort of acceptable ending? And as if being food taster and risking death every day isn’t enough, mystery and other threats begin building with every new day.

Valek was an incredibly intriguing character, and even though I was not always sure what he was up to, I knew I liked him. I have a thing for enigmatic men who possess the skills to kill you but choose to…do other things with you instead. There was really no way to stop me from liking him. And I felt the draw between Valek and Yelena, though like Yelena, it was difficult to decipher Valek’s true feelings. Although the romance is not the main focus of the plot and is rather light, it still provides an integral thread to the story, and without it, I would not have enjoyed Poison Study as much as I did. And let me not forget the rest of the supporting characters — they were well-written as well.

While reading, I rocketed between being shocked the story was moving so quickly, thinking the story couldn’t possibly work out to my satisfaction with the amount remaining, and wishing there were more to read. If not for life getting in the way of my reading, I would have easily devoured Poison Study in a single day; it captured my attention right from the opening lines. Poison Study is the kind of book you remember long after you have finished reading it. And yes, in case you were wondering, Poison Study did manage to end to my satisfaction.

There is so much more I could say about this book, but it would give too much away, and I’d rather you just read Poison Study for yourself.

[Danielle Ackley-McPhail]

A wonderful, stunning world with detail and impact. Very satisfying.

[sstaley]

I finished Poison Study last night. It ended with a bang! I am so glad that I stuck with this book. It turned out to be a great story. In fact, I might have given this book 5 stars, if it would have had a faster start for me. I had a hard time getting into the book. A little over a 1/3 of the way through, it took off. The story starts slow, but builds up momentum like a steam train. You can guess some things in the plot, but I was happy there were some surprises at the end.

If you want to read more about my detailed review go to my blog:
http://whynotbecauseisaidso.blogspot.com/2009/06/review-of-poison-study-by-maria-v.html

[wyvernfriend]

Yelena has a choice, become a food taster or die. Her trainer gives her a poison for which he has an antidote that she has to take daily, if she leaves it a while she starts to feel ill, which reminds her of her daily dose.

As she learns her job she is also learning her place in the society she lives in, under martial law, she has to find a place for herself and keep herself alive. She killed the son of General Brazell and he wants her dead. There are also plots within plots.

It's an interesting read, one I enjoyed and I enjoyed reading about the crillio,I had guessed what it was from fairly early on but was still amused at it was a plot device.

I will look for more stories by this author and look forward to reading the sequel.