alanajoli | Reading in the Right Order

So, I started reading Storm Glass by Maria V. Snyder not too long ago -- it had been on my TBR list for months (after Snyder was on Bitten by Books), and I finally checked it out at the library. But as I began reading, I had that feeling of having needed to read earlier books to really have a feel for the world. Some stories just jump into the middle without giving you a lot of story background. But when this is done well, those missing details keep you engaged in the story and draw you further in. When a story starts in media rae and manages to refer back to things you feel like you should know about but don't -- then it feels like you've started in the middle of a series, rather than just the middle of a story. Storm Glass is the first of the glass books... but after some research on amazon, I discovered it follows an earlier set of books set in the same world. The main character appears as a minor character in earlier volumes, as best as I can tell, and the whole world dynamic is set up in those volumes.

I feel much better now about not being pulled into Storm Glass immediately -- some of the descriptions, particularly of the glass work, are excellent -- and am less worried about feeling detatched from the world. I thought maybe I was just in the mood for more urban fantasy rather than more classic feeling fantasy (I can't tell whether the glass series is high fantasy or another subgenre inside of a fantasy world), but I think it's just because it really felt like I was starting in the middle of something, and I wanted to know what had gone on before instead of having it referred to. So, now I've put Poison Study on hold for a future read (my TBR pile isn't shrinking after all!) and hopefully I'll get back to Snyder's world soon, this time in the right order!

I do love the idea that the main character of Storm Glass is named Opal, especially in consideration of something Amanda Marrone wrote in Revealers: that the opal is trapped lightning. What a wonderful image! (It doesn't hurt that Opal is my birthstone, either. *g*)