Customer Reviews

The Healer

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

First off, I am somewhat baffled why anyone would have trouble understanding terms and pronouns used in this book. I had no problem whatsoever.That said, the ending was a bit abrupt but I have no strong issues with that, either.This is a wonderful character study of a naive, idealistic young healer (called Grotesques or "Tesques"; not quite "Humans"). As he develops he loses a lot of his naivety but never his idealism . His is and remains throughout the book a likeable, positive character. Yet, he does question the civilization he is part of and tries to make sense of the way things are and in his quiet way tries to make changes.This is one of my favorite types of books...it is one that is meant to be read slowly, savored, and makes me think.Part of the nature of this book seems to be the relationship between the healer and the healed and fascinating issues are raised here, yet not in any heavy handed way. I was very pleasantly surprised and thoroughly enjoyed this book.

Payne is a Candide-esque innocent in love with the healing craft that makes him both a vital commodity and a third-class citizen in the world of humanity (his asymmetrical skull and the mouth-like orifice in his side identify him as a "tesque," which automatically ranks him second-class). In Healer, he strives to find his very particular place in a divided, troubled world much like our own.

Payne's journey pulled me in, and I found myself emphathizing with his struggles to find freedom within discrimination, charity in religion, relevance in activism, and love amid loneliness, confusion and treachery. Blumlein writes of passion with a restrained hand; his infrequent and subtle point-of-view shifts add a wry clarity to Payne's plight as outcast. At times I found myself shaking my head over the young healer's naivité; at other times I wanted to shake Payne himself. In one particularly memorable scene, when he appears before the woman he loves in new clothes, his hair carefully combed, wearing a bit too much scent, I cringed at his comically sad and all-too-human insecurity. What the author says, through his characters and his setting, is interesting and relevant; the way he says it is masterful. He uses fantasy lightly and well to highlight fundamental moral issues that bedevil our own lives.

The ending, another reviewer noted, was sudden. However, I found it a fitting climax to Payne's quest, beautiful and thought-provoking. I would recommend this book to readers, like me, who like their sci-fi more fi than sci, readers who might prefer the likes of Octavia Butler or Ray Bradbury over Michael Crighton.

Susan O'Neill, author: Don't Mean Nothing: Short Stories of Vietnam

This is a great read full of insight to the human condition. I won't go much further, but did want to recommend this to those in question.

At eleven years old Payne, a "Grotesque" shortened to "Tesque" is upset when they came for his older brother. Three years later, they come for him because Tesques are special as they have the uncanny ability to absorb disease from an ailing person into their body and then excrete the ailment as a "Concretion" from an organ on their side. For the next five years Payne is trained to become a healer. He feels good about his lot as he wants to help others, but also notices the bias against his race starting with his first assignment with the Pannus Mining Company being at the whimsy of his human overseers.

However, over time, humans and Tesques realize that Payne is unique. Unlike his healing peers who suffer and ultimately die young from "the Drain," he seems unaffected though overworked by even the slavish Tesque standards. He even tried to cure a peer from the Drain; of which there is no return. The pressure on Payne suddenly grows as everyone wants him; used to being told what to do Payne feels lost, but refuses any longer to be a puppet on a string pulled by humans or Tesques demanding freedom.

This science fiction novel is a terse character study of an idealist losing his optimism due to the demands on his skills from his handlers and his race with no one deeming him a person; THE HEALER actually even goes deeper than that with a powerful indictment of society's needs superseding the individual's rights including dying. The ending points that in darkest night, there remains a glimmer of the light of hope. Fans who enjoy a complex societal parable will appreciate this superb thriller starring a wonderful protagonist whose simple caring for the wellbeing of others becomes a burden.

Harriet Klausner

In the Bruce rating system 2 stars means, I read the whole thing, and it was lame. One cannot get any worse except one star, which means I did not even finish it, it was so bad.

I've become aware lately while reading that there is a certain point in a book where "things start to happen." My level of interest suddenly increases, enough background is digested, or whatever. Most books seem to hit that point about a third of the way in. With this one, a full 3/4 of the book went by before the bland cotton-wooliness of this nearly pointless and meandering story started to get kicking. What's really fascinating is that so many pages went by where so very little action or character development occurred. And yet the reading was inofensive enough, sort of blandly OK, half pointless but anesthetizing that I didn't mind going on.

That heightened sense of interest, even coming as late as it did, was woefully disappointed. Woefully, dear reader, O woe!

After what is laid out to be the supreme conflict is resolved (quite fittingly for this book, with the protagonist on his back lying down and not doing anything for a couple of days) the protagonist spends the rest of the book, too many pages as usual for this tome, wandering off into a sort of hyper mythic reality not at all consistent with the level of "reality" in the rest of the book from which no closure can be extracted except perhaps through prodigious metaphorical analysis.

To Kim Stanley Robinson and Ursula K Le Guin, two authors whose work I respect and love, who contributed endorsement blurbs for this travesty I say SHAME!

But wait, even this pointless exercise of a book had a wee wee wee tiny bit of insight. I present it for you here, so that you may be spared the pain of reading in order to extract this, the sole worthwhile nugget, found deep within on page 250:

"How humans could be swayed by fear and fantasy and fashion. For more than anything they seemed to love a story, and the ones they loved best seemed to be of threats that didn't materialize, imminent disasters narrowly averted, as well as illnesses that had some glamour to them and epidemics that turned out to be false alarms. Sometimes it seemed to Payne that the people he treated lived expressedly to be saved."

Yep, that's as good as it gets. And did you notice that the name of the main character was Payne, pronounced, I would guess, PAIN?

Let that, dear reader, be your final warning to stay away from this book.

Within a certain style of writing, the best novels often draw you in slowly, hook you onto the main characters, take you on a compelling journey and leave you at the end desperately disappointed that there is no more to read and looking forward to the next book from the same author.

Then there are books where the novelist attempts the same style but draws you in so slowly that you get frustrated, tries to take you on a compelling journey but leaves you feeling shortchanged and, if you make it that far, leaves you at the end thinking "what was the point of all that?"

Unfortunately this turgid, tedious and generally trite novel falls into the latter camp. The basic premise of the book has the potential to be woven into a compelling story. Payne, a "Grotesque", is a mutated human whose mutation, along with others of his ilk, allows him to become a talented healer. Unfortunately for Payne, in this futuristic land these healers, rather than being venerated, are nothing more than slaves. As he expertly sucks the sickness out of a procession of normal humans, his life is one series of painful episodes after another.

So Payne gets to feel his and others' pain! Get it? I have to say, the idea of calling the main character Payne is something my fifth grade son would find corny, and not something one would expect from someone with aspirations to becoming a serious author. (Incidentally, apologies if you had already figured this one out, however, there must be at least a couple of people on the planet who might have missed the subtlety of this message!)

In any case, back to the plot. Payne struggles with the injustice of it all, however, despite all the coercion is unable to turn away from his mission to become the best healer he can be. (A warm and fuzzy message that serves to remind the reader that behind every rapacious health insurance company is an army of noble self-sacrificing doctors. Right!)

So maybe not a bad idea for a novel, however, a good idea does not a compelling story make. That takes a talented author. The story starts slowly, gets slower and then practically grinds to a halt.

In books revolving around a main character, the successful and compelling development of that character is one of things that great writers pull off. By the time you have finished the book, you feel that you have lost something important, whether it be a friend, a lover or even an enemy. In this book, however, you are just left with a sense of the pointlessness of it all.

By the time I was halfway through the book, I couldn't wait to put it down and find something else to do. Like watching the Shopping Channel or an infomercial for...well anything. I'll confess I would ordinarily have abandoned this book after about 50 pages, however, I felt compelled to finish it as the author lives in San Francisco and I had made a commitment.

I understand that Michael Blumlein is a medical doctor. Well perhaps it is time for him to write himself a prescription to "quit writing." A case of taking his own medicine perhaps? I hope for his patients' sake, he is a better doctor than writer. Assuming this is the case, my respectful advice is - stick to your day job.

Its been a long wait sin Michael Blumleins last novel but it was well worth it.This is an innovative and well written novel that should be on both the Hugo and Nebula ballots at years end.If you like Ursul K LeGuin or China Mieville you will love the book.

Payne is a member of a segment of humanity called Grotesques, distinguished by deformity and gifted with the power of healing which can lead them into near-slavery. Payne is unaffected by the burnout all other healers experience, and his search for acceptance in a strange society changes his life in Michael Blumlein's The Healer, a futuristic story of the medical profession's relationship with mankind.

Michael Blumlein is clearly a very intelligent and creative writer. This book paints an interesting picture of a world where healers are second class citizens. The problem, however, is that the picture isn't very deep.

Blumlein falls into the habit early in the book of waiting until the last possible moment to explain a new term he's using. Yes, it's interesting that there are Unerrants and Orts and melis and musk, but it would have been MORE interesting if he explained it the first time he mentioned it rather than forcing me to reread the chapter.

He also tends to misuse pronouns, especially in dialog, (When you say "she said", tell me which SHE said it!) leading to confusing passages for the reader.

As for the ending, rather than finding it grand or mythical, I found it rather nonsensical and weird.

The concept of this book is very good and well thought out, however the excecution of it leaves something to be desired.

I think what bothered me about this story was that healers are second class citizens discriminated against. This novel was written by a doctor. I've met few doctors who wasn't arrogent, pompous creeps who treat their patients like idiots. Because of that, I couldn't enjoy this book.