Sea Glass

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1. 

   Bookaholics Reviewer @ 3:04 pm

   Sea Glass by Maria Snyder
   
   Fantasy- Sept 1st, 2009
   
   5 stars

   Sea Glass is another magical triumph by the amazing talented Maria Snyder. Her books have the ability to transport me into a world that seems both magical and familiar. Her finely crafted novels pull me into her story and I feel as if I am one of her characters! In Sea Glass, Maria Snyder begins the 2nd installment of her Glass series involving the student magician Opal. What I found so exciting about this story was how the author seamlessly builds tension and thrilled me as the stakes in Opal’s life change dramatically.

   Opal is a magical apprentice who has already gained fame when she helped save her country of Sitia. But as a result she has discovered deadly powers including one that allows her to drain the magic from another magician. Now she is being commanded by the Council to return under their custody. Opal is willing to turn herself in because she understands that people are afraid of her powers but she also realizes that once she does her skills maybe manipulated or used against her. Either way she knows the Council plans to keep close tabs on her and any independence will be cut severely short. To trouble her further, she has discovered that her friend Ulrick was tricked/forced to swap bodies with an evil blood magician, named Devlen Devlen tortured and manipulated Opal and she fears the destruction he will cause in his current disguise as Ulrick. Unfortunately, no one believes her claims. To prove the truth, Opal is determined to find and rescue Ulrick and prove to the Council and her friends that the impossible is possible before disaster strikes.

   I highly recommend this extraordinary fantasy. The boundless exuberance of characters like Leif and Janco and the suspenseful storyline will keep you at the edge of your seat! Opal and Janco’s adventures as they try to find the real Ulrick, were well worth the price of the book. I love Maria Snyder’s endearing characters, their bonding and lighthearted banter made this story a fun filled quest. But Maria Snyder also brings a darker more sinister side to her story that brims with incredible tension.

   Opal’s admirable force of will and core of decency as she combats seemingly insurmountable obstacles are truly enthralling to read. As Opal tries to prove the truth of Ulrick’s true identity she is tested by difficult circumstances. She no longer knows who are her real allies and friends. This adversity transforms Opal into a newer, tougher and more cynical heroine who still manages to keep a good heart. I was captivated by the difficult struggles and sacrifices she had to make to find the truth. And Opal gets much more than she bargained.

   This story does resolve the mystery behind Devlen and Ulrick but ends with surprises and changes for Opal that can only lead to a more turbulent and exciting 3rd book. Even though Opal faces an uncertain future, I was happy Opal had friends and family to support her.

   This was a fabulous book from start to finish. An indomitable heroine and endearing characters combined with a spellbinding plot make this book a treasure! I can’t wait to find out what happens next!

   Reviewed by Steph from the Bookaholics Romance Book Club

   
2. 

   Julie T. @ 3:11 pm

   Opal Cowen has been summoned back to Sita’s Magicians Keep by the high council. Never a good sign. After an unsuccessful trip to find her lost friend Ulrick who has switched souls with her long time enemy, Opal heeds the summons and returns only to be put under house arrest. Her new found power of siphoning the magic of others has the Keep on high alert and she must earn back their confidence.

   At the same time, Opal is determined to prove that Ulrick is no longer himself, and becomes entangled in a plot to steal control over the glass messengers Opal creates for Sitia. Unless Opal can figure out who is behind the plot, all of Sitia may be in danger from something much worse than just some stolen magic…

   You know the old saying that sequels are never as good as the original? Well Snyder has proved that saying wrong. I enjoyed “Sea Glass” much more than I liked its predecessor “Storm Glass.” I found that Snyder developed her characters a lot more than in “Storm Glass” and therefore I found them to have more depth and were more enjoyable to read about.

   While I found “Sea Glass” extremely entertaining and exciting, I couldn’t give it a five-star rating for several small things. First, “Sea Glass” was an extremely slow starter. I was on page 252 before I really started to become interested in the plot and wanted to find out if Opal would succeed in the end. I’m not saying that the first 250 pages of the book were horrible or boring, I just found this part of “Sea Glass” to be very reminiscent of “Storm Glass.” Opal gets either lured into a trap or abducted, and fairly easily finds her way out of it again. It definitely gave me a feeling of déjà vu.

   Second, I really didn’t understand the title. Only more than half way through the book do we understand why the title is “Sea Glass” at all, and just as quickly as the topic comes up, the sub-plot around the “Sea Glass” is dropped like a molten slug of glass. Perhaps there’s some sort of metaphor Snyder was going for that I missed completely when titling her book, but if she’s going to continue with the “Sea Glass” sub-plot in her next “Glass” book one would think she would have waited and named that book “Sea Glass,” not this one. I would have called the book “Blood Glass” but without giving away any of the plot, I won’t go into detail as to why.

   “Sea Glass” also had a tendency to weave in several sub-plots into the main storyline that to me didn’t make a whole lot of sense. I get that Snyder is setting us up for the next book in the series, but it seems like she could have been a little more subtle in her placement of these plots. Instead of finding them interesting and intriguing, I found them a little on the annoying side for two reasons: First, they distracted from the main storyline, and second, they were never resolved in any way so I found myself let down and a little confused.

   Now, I can’t bash Snyder too hard for the sub-plot thing as I understand this is a second in the series book, and therefore to make her final (I’m assuming it will be a trio) book more climatic she had to put in some “teasers.” Thing “Empire Strikes Back” kind of disappointment. You know, you’re all into the story and you are on the edge of your seat and then the credits start to roll and you’re like: “WHAT? It’s over?! No way!” For that I have to applaud her.

   Overall, Snyder has crafted yet another magical book and has taken readers into a wonderful land of enchantment. Her characters are deep and stirring, and she has an uncanny ability to make the magic of the characters come to life. For those reasons I can overlook the small complaints I may have formed throughout “Sea Glass” and will be very excited to read the third installment. Too bad we have to wait until 2011. Sad.
   

   
3. 

   Taylor Corbet @ 5:36 pm

   A long time fan of Maria V. Snyder’s books, I noticed that some of the charm from Poison Study began to fade in the later books. Well, it’s back now, and I couldn’t be happier. It’s wonderful to once again immerse oneself in the rich and vivid world that the author keeps expanding on. It’s also great to see cameos from some old friends from previous books. I can’t wait for the third one!

   
4. 

   Dianne S. Tetro @ 7:35 pm

   Sea Glass – by Maria V Snyder

   Sea Glass is the second offering in this trilogy about Glass Magician, Opal Cowan, who was introduced to us in Storm Glass. The third Glass novel should be on the shelves autumn of 2010. Opal Cowan is a Glass Magician is able to infuse her glass baubles with enough magic so that if you have any magic you can us these baubles as magical…errrrr…cell phones, I guess you could call them. At the end of Storm Glass we learn that Opal has found a new and horrific talent; she is able to siphon magic away from another magician and claim it for her own. Opal is deemed by the Council of magicians, (the same exact plot devise as in Ms Snyder’s first trilogy!!!) to be a danger to herself and others. Thus she must be kept a prisoner for her own good. Throw in some evil Blood Magic users who have found the ability to switch souls in people and there you have it! Actually so much of this “Glass Magic” trilogy is like the first set of books that I am really disapointed and disenchanted. I expected something new and fresh yet that isn’t what I feel that I got.

   This Fantasy novel is filled with wonderful tidbits of glass making trivia, some mystery and a very, busy and somewhat confusing plot. If you haven’t read at least the first in this trilogy you will most likely put this down after the first few chapters. For that matter I read the first book and still had a bit of trouble following along. You may even want to read Ms Snyder’s first trilogy just to be on the safe side and to know who is who and get a better grasp on this writer’s type of storytelling.

   What this book does seem filled with (as does the first book in the trilogy) are excessive scenes of Opal up on her horse, running to try and do a job, being tortured, being betrayed, being held hostage, running for her life, fighting and losing, assassination attempts, back on her horse running hither and yon, having her blood stolen, some more torture and betrayal and very little else. This is a very bleak book in my opinion. There is a kind of romance thrown in for good measure too. Opal can’t trust anyone and as I said is betrayed by just about everyone she knows and that level of tension throughout the book made for a very uncomfortable read for me.

   Opal comes off as the proverbial TSTL heroine. (To Stupid to Live) Although stupid is perhaps to strong of a word, perhaps naive might be better but it`s still not what I`m looking for.. This book reads more like an old time bodice ripper where the heroine constantly puts herself into danger and into the evil villains clutches, than a fantasy novel with a strong female lead.

   
5. 

   M. Garrison @ 7:52 pm

   Going into it, this book had a lot of things going for it, for me as a reader. It’s set in the same world — with some of the same characters — as Snyder’s earlier trilogy, Poison Study / Magic Study / Fire Study, which I absolutely *loved*. Those books pull me in again and again with how much I truly like the characters, with the sizzling tension, and the vivid settings. This next series is truthfully missing out on some of that, but I still really enjoyed the first book, Storm Glass. And although that book didn’t pull me nearly as much as the original trilogy, I still found myself really growing to like Opal, the main character. And both Storm Glass and Sea Glass do a great job of really building on the unique ways in which magic works in this world, and I love the creativity with which Snyder approaches this.

   But the things that bothered me in small ways about Storm Glass more or less explode in Sea Glass — enough so that I really wish I had never picked this book up. For while Sea Glass certainly isn’t *all bad* (hence the 3 star rating), there are parts of it that bother me so much that it has probably ruined the series as a whole for me. Yes, kidnap, rape, and torture are often part of the plot in fantasy novels like this. And it’s not unheard of in these novels for the perpetrator to start developing romantic feelings for the heroine — “You held up longer than any other women I’ve ever tortured!” is something I’ve seen more than once. But here, it’s the heroine’s response to this that really left me feeling sick.

   That said, this is a relatively small part of the book as a whole — for me, it was still enough to flavor how I felt about the rest of it, but I’m guessing from the other reviews here that it doesn’t hit everyone that way.