Never talked much, or even looked at each other, but it didn't matter, because we were looking at the same sky together [...] Anybody can look at you. It's quite rare to find someone who sees the same world you see.

Hello everyone! I decided to make another series in this blog, just in case you dunno yet please check out the reading list page for the series i've made so far. This time in this series i'll talk deeply about the author works, listing everything they've published and talk about it whether i've read them or not, how i like it and all that stuff.

This chapter I will talk about my favorite underrated author that worth your attentions : Maria V Snyder. I probably already rant it a lot about it in my bookstagram (if you are my friends in my IG you probably already know how much i love her books already. So let's get into it already shall we?

Maria V Snyder

I'm not gonna talk about her personal life or anything because i dunno anything and if i do explain her personal life i probably just copy paste it from wikipedia which is not a good move. So i will tell you how i met her works from the first time.

How I Met Her Works

I think i already talk about her a lot, in my bookstagram, in my podcast also, but haven't in this blog so i'm gonna talk about it anyway, again. So, i got a friend that working in Sydney. Me, living in a city that its bookstore didn't provide imported books (means no english book, all translated or from local authors) but i fell in love with non translated books (the original one) because of English is definitely has lots in vocab than my own language so when it's translated to Indonesian (which is my language) it kind of lost it's essence if it's translated. So i love the original (which the imported books) which i don't have access to, unless i go out of the city to the capital city, or going to the foreign country. 

So, long story short (which is already long for now, sorry.) my friend got back from Sydney for holiday before going back again to work there and he asked me what i want as a gift, i said i want book and he gave me links to the bookstore there, i choose maria v snyder books because it's fantasy (again, fantasy is my fave genre) although i dunno anything about her. He gave me two books, the Spy Glass and the Scents of Magic. Which is both from two different series and both aren't the first book of the series.

So i search more about her, i discovered that she wrote quite a lot of books and i decided to go read it chronologically.

Whole Series 

So she already worked on three different series at that time, it was back in my college life, so it's about almost a decade ago (yes, i'm that old everyone) but i'm gonna list them all to you.

1. Study Series

2. Glass Series

3. Insider Duology

4. Healer Series

5. Soulfinder Series

5. Sentinels of the Galaxy Series

6. Archives of the invisible Sword Series 

Disclaimer : these list above are her primary works, she also working on a lot of short stories, which the one that in one book with lots of authors in it, but i'ma talk about her own work this time.

1. Study Series 

This is the first of her works, she published the poison study which is the first book of the series back in 2005. This is the series that i think most least underrated. (all her works are underrated i think, i've seen some but not so much of her books in instagram, which is a bummer) I always find joy every time i see another account featuring her books because it's soooo underrated, like finding a gem kind of feeling you know?

The story set in IXIA, a city who doesn't allow magic and people with magic in it. Yelena, our main character is waiting for execution because she accidentally killed General Braziel's son out of self-defense.  She got "protection" from the execution by becoming the food tester of the Commander under his right hand slash assassin name Valek. 

Valek gave her the butterfly dust which is kind of poison that need antidote from Valek himself in return of her becoming food taster and not trying running away (because she need his antidote) each day she study all kind of poison and how it affects you at first if you consume it, so Yelena's job is to shout out the type of poison (in case somebody put it in commander's food) right before she collapses or even dead. So, that's kind of the same death sentence anyway just a bit longer, she also developed magic which is illegal in Ixia. 

This is one of the book with enemy to lover tropes and i really like this assassin whole kind of thing. This series include three books, and three short stories :

1. Poison Study 

1.5 Assassin Study 

2. Magic Study

3. Fire Study

3.5 Power Study

3.6 Ice Study 

I have read all this series including all the novellas, i definitely love it, i love Yelena and Valek, but personally i like Janco and Ari duo, Valek's best soldiers. 

2. Glass Series

This series contain 3 main works, Storm Glass (published in 2009), Sea Glass, Spy Glass and one novellas : Shattered Glass. I also have read this series, but except the novellas one i think i need to read it soon. 

3. Insider Duology 

I really like this duology, probably because it's duology which is a short for series but also because i really like the way the author introduce a new genre to me, i think it's the first dystopian / sci-fi i've read, i'm not sure whether i read this one first or the hunger games first. 

As i said it's duology, the first book is Inside Out, the second book si Outside in. I think by the title you probably know a bit of it already but yeah twist and turn here and there in this book just make it fun to read.

4. Healer Series

I would say we'll met a great megalomaniac villain (which, i always love a good badass villain)  a great discovery that i find a bit of shocking at first and kind of like "....WHaaatt???" kind of thing.  This series consist of three books, Touch of Power, Scent of Magic, and Taste of Darkness. 

5. Soulfinder Series

This is the continuation of Yelena's adventure. I haven't read this series yet so i can't really tell you what all about it but i highly anticipate this one because again, the continuation of Yelena and Valek adventures. I gotta say they are my fave couple through all of Maria V Snyder works so far. In the end they call it as The Chronicles of Ixia for whole Study series and this series. This Soulfinder Series itself consist of 3 main books, Shadow Study, Night Study and Dawn Study, also one novella : Diaper Study (i guess by the title of the novella i kind of can guess what is all about) 

6. Senitel of the Galaxy Series & Archives of the invisible Sword Series

The last two series are the newest series and still ongoing, so i haven't really read them so i can't really tell you what it's all about, but i highly anticipated these two tho because her works never disappoints me. 

All i know from the cover of it the Sentinels Of Galaxy series would be a sci-fi books.  Consist 3 books, Navigating the stars, Clashing the Shadow, and Defending Galaxy which will be publish in December this year (which mean i can start reading it finally) and gosh i love all of the cover of this series!

Archives of the invisible Sword Series is still on going series which from the cover  i think it's sort of diverse book based on some kind of dessert, magical included in this one, the first book The Eyes of Tamburah released in June 2019, and the next book The City of Zirdai will be released in June 2021. And i think this will be another trilogy, but well, who am i to tell? i don't even know what it's all about (because i hate reading synopsis, i count it as spoilers, just so you know)

 Again i said, she never fails me before, so i highly anticipate these two too!

She also wrote a standalone called Storm Watcher in 2013, also kind of a short story called E-Time but i haven't read it i probably gonna search more about her works after talking it a lot in this blog post. 

Why I like Her Works

I gotta say, she worked on a lot of type characters. First we got Yelena with her strong will, Opal with her unique character which i find it amusing for a main character, Trella definitely my type of main character that i'd fall for instantly, Avry is just amaze me. Apart from the main character she always have another characters that catch my attentions. I won't say much about it in case it might be a spoiler, but in conclusion i'd say she's great in creating different characters in her works.

The other reason is the world building, i really like her magical world, i also like her dystopian world the inside. Also plot twist is a must, the one that made you think "whoa i didn't see it coming" kind of feeling you know? I read her works long time ago and yet i love it, i got to say i love her writing style then, because it was the early days of me reading English books yet i enjoy them without a struggle, so yeah i really like her writing style.

A sad thing about her books is it's hard to get physical copy of it here in Indonesia,  i've never seen her books in literally any bookstore i've visited here. I only got the Inside Out by the big bad wolf event, but haven't see any copy of her second book Outside in, or any other of her book in any series! i search also in bookdepository yet i got nothing so far. So if you find her books somewhere please tell me.

 I guess i will wrap up my Author In Deep with Maria V Snyder episode now. I definitely can't stress you out more to read her works because she's one of the author that really catch my attention and yes for sure need more attentions! She deserves more. Tell me which author is your fave that you deeply fall into their works in comment. Ciao!

Just in case you missed it, read also  :

Feng Lu is dying, rotting from the core. There is no more time for beauty, for music, for closing one's eyes and feeling the clouds drift overhead. The heart and soul is being drained from this world, Jade, and its people feel the pain first.

    — Kingdom of The Blazing Phoenix

“Prince Cardan will be your last born child, he will be the destruction of the crown and the ruination of the throne.”

 Baphen ― Queen of Nothing

"I'm want to mean something to a great deal of people. I'm tired of being no one. As Empress, i would have the right to choose for myself. Guma could not command me, and Wei would not own me"
 ― Xifeng ―