Scent of Magic by Maria V Snyder review.

This is the second of the Avry of Kazan series, and the second book I’ve read from this author. The first,Touch of Power was, I think, one of Big’s favourite books from last year. I bought it for her to enter one of MiraInk‘s review competitions, sadly she didn’t win, but she was hooked nevertheless.

It took me months to get around to reading it, I wasn’t nearly so tardy with this one 😉 They are ripping yarns that crack along at a great pace. Never wise to get too fond of any characters as they do have a tendency to get bumped off. Death isn’t necessarily as permanent as you might expect though.

Avry is a great lead character. Strong yet feminine, gutsy and by no means perfect. She makes mistakes, sometimes learns from them, and sometimes goes on stubbornly to repeat them anyway. There’s a strong strand of romance in the series, though largely unresolved in this particular book as the main characters spend it far apart. That doesn’t mean you get to miss out on any of the action as the narrative strand skips between them, sometimes rather confusingly. (Actually, that might just be a function of reading it as an ARC on the kindle. I’m hoping the layout is kinder in the printed version and at least starts a new line when the focus changes.)

There’s plenty of action. There’s potential genocide, war between realms, magical discoveries – all the facets of a really strong fantasy novel. I’ve a feeling there’s plenty that will stand a re read when I get round to getting it on paper, which I very much want to do.

For all that Big has read it too, we haven’t discussed it much yet, except to share frustration at the cliff hanger ending. I’m suspecting that that is a trademark of this author, and to be honest, I find it a little off putting. I do want to track down her other series – I think being able to start at the beginning and read to the end without months to wait between instalments might make the whole thing rather more enjoyable.

All in all, this is a great read, and it’s easy to see why Maria V Snyder is such a popular author.

Disclosure – we received this book on kindle via netgalley for the purpose of review. Links above to Amazon, including picture link are affiliate links – if you buy via them we get a small amount of commission.