Review: Outside In by Maria V. Snyder

**Small spoilers for book one**

Trella and the Force of Sheep have overthrown the Travas and disbanded the Pop Cops. Insiders now know that they're on a spacecraft travelling through space, on their way to some unknown destination. But they still don't know why, or where, and they're still plagued by the division between Uppers and Lowers. Trella does see herself as a leader but when Outsiders threaten the lives of everyone Inside, she must decide if it's time to step up to the plate. And most importantly, who to trust.

Such a twisty turny book! The plot does get confusing in places and I was mixing up Hank, Jacy, Sloan and Bubba Boom for a while there as characters kept changing their "good guy" hats to "bad guy" hats. There are lots of double-crosses to look out for. I didn't tie myself in knots going back and forth in the narrative and managed to muddle my way through it, mostly because I was just enjoying the ride so much. There's a lot going on in this book and it's all very entertaining. Action-packed and dialogue heavy, it was just the sort of thing to shake me out of my reading slump. Also, there's a bit of raunch. *Fans self* I'm rather fond of Riley, AKA Mr Love Interest, and there's a bit of hanky-panky in places. Nicely done too.

I was pleased to discover the Australian covers of Inside Out and Outside In while I was reading this book (gorgeous; shown above) and that Snyder is way popular downunder, and is coming downunder in August! In less sparkly news, though, Tez tells me there are no plans for a third book as yet because sales haven't been as promising as they'd expected. Sad face. Looks like it's up to Aussies to lift flagging sales and make another worthwhile! The frustrating thing is that there is SO MUCH scope for this series to continue on and on. Trella et al. are a LONG way from their destination. So long that unless they stumble into a wormhole, they themselves will never see it. If I don't find out what the major series climax is, I'll be rather miserable.

Maria V. Snyder Tour, New Books and Obligatory Cute Kitten Photo

It was revealed last week that Maria V. Snyder, the author of several of my favourite books including Poison Study and Inside Out, is coming to Australia and New Zealand in August. Massive huzzahs! I eagerly await tour dates and other info. I assume she'll be here for the Melbourne Writers' Festival. *Please* let there be evening events for those of us who have to work full time!

The Australian cover for Outside In. What do you think?

I'm almost almost done with Outside In by Maria V. Snyder. I left it at home the other day and took Del-Del by Victor Kelleher by mistake. Oops. I will finish and write my (glowing) review soon. Del-Del, by the way, is fantastic. Part one is like a YA version of The Exorcist.

I have passed the 12K mark in my sci-fi novel (!!! yay !!!) and the characters are starting to speak for themselves. I love when that happens and I can just relay the voices in my head instead of stopping every two minutes and going "Um..." It's no longer a chore to write a thousand words.

New books this week ... well, book. Just one. The Quarterly Essay: The Happy Life, The Search for Contentment in the Modern World by David Malouf. I was very fond of his short novel Fly Away Peter and am interested to see what he has to say on the subject.


We just came back from the shops and the kitten jumped into a green bag. I hung it up on the door (one handle only, so she could jump out when she wanted) and she thought it was just fantastic. Kitten hammock that doubles as an aerial attack position.


Happy Caturday!

Dystopia Challenge Review #1: Inside Out, Maria V. Snyder

Trella is a scrub on the lower levels of Inside. She's known as Queen of the Pipes, an epitaph that describes both her knowledge of the air ventilation system that supports Inside and her aloofness form her fellow scrubs. A prophet appears on the lower levels asking for her by name. Trella doesn't trust prophets; they spread propaganda for the Pop Cops and build false hope about the existence of Gateway, the way Outside.

I approached Inside Out with some trepidation. I adore Maria V. Snyder's Poison Study, but my last experience reading a Harlequin Teen book was utterly dismal. I was also nervous about a dystopian book being published under a romance imprint. Would it be stripped of all its misery, angst and pain in favour of a fluffy, happily-ever-after ending? I wasn't concerned about Snyder's ability to write a book in this genre as Poison Study has strong communistic/oppressive overtones.

Inside Out was sanitised in some repects--which I'll discuss below--but is a book that mostly lives up to its hype. The strengths lie in the world Snyder has constructed--the mystery of what Inside is, what it is for and its mechanics; the social levels and classes; and the authoritarian Pop Cops. I found the engineering the most interesting of all. Why, for instance, the very outer wall of Inside is ice cold. Snyder has put a lot of thought into how a structure like Inside could work and the details are fascinating. When it comes to setting, this book shines.

I was disappointed that Inside Out seemed to shy away from the fear, loss and pain that characters would undoubtedly feel when faced with their own and their friends' persecution, execution and torture. Some very extreme things happen in Inside Out and some truncated emotional responses jarred. Snyder is no stranger to describing pain, torture and incarceration more than adequately, and I wonder if Harlequin Teen required her toned things down.

There's always a romance in a Harlequin book and Inside Out is no exception. **Spoilers here but not really, we all know what's going to happen and the sexual tension is about zilch** I felt genuine affection for Riley. The "realisation" scene fell a little flat for me. I thought it would come with a few more bells and whistles, but no. Sigh. Is it just me who craves long, drawn out sexual tension these days? Make me wait until book two. Hell, make me wait until book SEVEN.

Inside Out is a surprising offering from Harlequin Teen--a pleasant surprise. This book will be enjoyed by newbie dystopian lovers and seasoned ones alike. I'm very curious as to how the series will progress as there's a massive barrier to what would in most scenarios be the climax of the series, and this fascinates me. Outside In is available March 2011.

Invisible discussion for those of you who've read the book: Maybe I'm incredibly stupid, but that teaser on the last page, "What's behind the door?!" was an editorial mistake, right? I mean, Trella opened the door and there were other levels there. Serious blooper.

This massive barrier to the climax that I mentioned is that they wont get to their destination until week one million, but that's about 800,000 weeks away and Trella etc will all be dead. They can't turn around either because they're too far into space. Where do you think this is going to go?

REVIEW: Poison Study, Maria V. Snyder

On the morning of her execution, Yelena is offered the job as food-taster to the Commander of Ixia. Assassination attempts not being uncommon, Yelena faces the possibility that her reprieve will be short-lived and end with a death by poison that far more painful than one administered by the hang-man's noose. She is trained by the Second-in-Command, Valek, a steely, proficient fighter who poisons her with Butterfly's Dust. She must stay close to him on order to receive her daily dose of antidote. Yelena dreams of escape and freedom from Reyad's ghost, the man she killed for torturing and raping her, but things aren't destined to be simple for her.

Maria V. Snyder has built an excellent world. Too often fantasy writers bewilder the reader with a slew of complicated names and social structures in the very first chapter (e.g. Anne Bishop, Daughter of the Blood), something I can't stand. But Snyder takes the softly, softly approach, coaxing her world into life alongside the characters, the grit and the dramatic tension. And what a world it is. Set post-revolution, Ixia has become a communist-like nation: everyone is assigned a job and a uniform (but not a vote), provinces are now numbered and called Military Districts (MD-1, MD-2 and so on) and no-one is allowed to travel without the right papers. Sounds pretty strict, right? And we all know that communism doesn't work, right? But in Snyder's Ixia, it's all going pretty smoothly.

Oh, apart from all the poisons. As well as the world itself, Yelena learning about poisons from the simmering Valek is pretty entertaining. There's no henbane and strychnine here; Snyder has created a cornucopia of amusing ways to shuffle off ones mortal coil, the most vicious being Have a Drink My Love, so called as it is favoured by disgruntled wives.

This is sold as adult fiction rather than YA, but as the writing style is (blessedly) uncomplicated and the protagonist is nineteen it really fits in both age groups. I do have one teensy grumble: as it is primarily for adults, and Snyder did such a good job at building up the sexual tension between Yelena and Valek, and because Valek is such a physical, earthly character, when the inevitable love scene came I was expecting a bit of, well, physicality. I don't expect porn. Just a hint of something that I can get my teeth into. What I got was two metaphorical paragraphs about air and magic and melding of minds. Radical politics and puritan sex. Pfft.

That said, I still highly recommend Poison Study. It's one of the most cohesive and satisfying works of fantasy that I've read in a long time. I'll be picking Magic Study up from the library very soon.

Editorial grumble: paragraphs after section breaks were indented rather than full-out (aligned to the left margin). This is incorrect but as it was done consistently, and my copy is a first edition, I won't hold it against the editor too much.