Storm Glass, by Maria V. Snyder

Storm Glass, by Maria V. Snyder
Adult Fiction, 2008

Opal Cowan is a glass maker, whose abilities to infuse magic in her pieces make her both useful to the country's magicians, and a student at the magician's training school. Her unique abilities seem small next to those with traditional power, but she is called on over and over to use her abilities to solve a variety of problems, including the Stormdancer's breaking orbs. While on these missions, she learns her abilities are much stronger and dangerously useful than she thought, and everyone is not who she thinks they are.
Overall, an interesting plot, but I was completely distracted by both the stop/start jumpiness of the book, and the onslaught of half a dozen plots. They do all come together in the end, but while reading them it made the book seem incredibly long and over done. Also, Opal is supposed to be 19, but frequently acts 15, and numerous references are made to Yelena and the Magic Study trilogy that Snyder has previously published. This was frustrating, because I felt this book should be a whole new idea, and not dependent on a previous book. I enjoyed Poison Study, the first book that Snyder wrote but felt she lacked the same focus for this book. Graded a B-.