STORM GLASS

Author: Maria V. Snyder ISBN: 9780778325642 5/2009 FANTASY Publisher: MIRA

As a glassmaker and a magician-in-training, Opal Cowen understands trial by fire. Now it’s time to test her mettle. Someone has sabotaged the Stormdancer clan’s glass orbs, killing their most powerful magicians. The Stormdancers—particularly the mysterious and mercurial Kade—require Opal’s unique talents to prevent it happening again. But when the mission goes awry, Opal must tap into a new kind of magic as stunningly potent as it is frightening. And the further she delves into the intrigue behind the glass and magic, the more distorted things appear. With lives hanging in the balance—including her own—Opal must control powers she never knew she possessed...powers that might lead to disaster beyond anything she’s ever known.

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

STORM GLASS is another intense world-building experience from Maria V. Snyder. We are back in the universe of the “Study” series, but Yelena becomes a minor character as we focus on Opal Cowen. She’s a fourth-year magician student from a glass-making family, frustrated by her minimal magic skills.

Things are about to change though, as she discovers far greater magical skills than she ever knew she had. She also learns that she bears some responsibility for her lack of friendships among her students, as she begins to go on missions for the Masters and broadens her experiences. She meets two very different men, a Stormdancer and another glassmaker with minimal magic, and finds it hard to believe either of them might be interested in her.

Events have both local and global significance as Opal gets mixed up with thieves and smugglers. Her skills become more important than a girl with low self-esteem and post-traumatic stress could possibly imagine.

Lovers of fantasy, from teenagers on up, will enjoy this complex novel. Do you need to read the “Study” series first? I would say no, because there is plenty of information to orient you and the story is really about Opal’s coming of age.

Heather Hiestand