Customer Reviews

The Healing Wars: Book I: The Shifter

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

When Healers lay hands on injured people they can absorb the injury and pain into their own bodies, and later move it from themselves into a stone called pynvium. At least they can in the medieval fantasy world created by Janice Hardy in her middle grade novel, The Shifter, due out in October.

The story centers around 15 year old Nya who is a Healer...but with a defect. She can only shift the pain and injury into other people, not pynvium. This little 'quirk' is something she and her younger sister, Talia, a normal healer, keep secret because they're not sure if the Duke would have Nya killed or use her as a weapon in his wars.

Talia lives at the League doing her regular healing stuff while Nya is left struggling on the streets, working when she can to keep from starving. Formally wealthy, the girls were orphaned and left penniless and alone when their parents were killed fighting during the last war. Talia helps her sister when she can but, for both their sakes, can't jeopardize her place in the league. The opening of the book finds Nya getting caught stealing eggs and I liked how the opening chase gets the story rolling with exciting action.

Soon Nya's secret is uncovered by a nefarious fellow and Talia is in eminent danger. Nya must use her gift in ways she dislikes in order to not only save her sister but other Healers in the league, and foil a political plot that could put the whole town in danger. In the process she also discovers abilities she never knew she had.

The Shifter starts out with a bang and, other than a few slow steps, keeps rolling quickly. Hardy covers a lot of ground. She touches on prejudice, moral choices, what should be given up for the greater good, family/friend loyalty, accepting yourself and others, personal sacrifice, and even throws in a pinch of romance between Nya and the young guard who chases her down in the first couple of pages. Every now and then the messages go to the brink of being too heavy handed but not too often and Hardy backs off just before becoming preachy.

Nya is likable and believable for the most part. She seemed to dither back and forth a lot. She'd have an epiphany but later rethink her position. That got mildly annoying about 3/4's into the book, but Nya and her little band of friends and family are characters you definitely care for and you're rooting for them to win in the end. Even the 'bad' guys had some depth and weren't simply two dimensional.

Hardy utilizes good description and some great lines. My favorite was when a ferry accident occurs during a storm and Nya can't get out into the water to help all the survivors. She says, "My heart reached farther than my hands ever could." How beautiful!

Good suspense, nasty political intrigue, a few surprises and a great twist on Nya's abilities. Overall The Shifter is a very enjoyable middle grade novel that is worth the read.

Although I haven't been a regular YA reader in decades, I picked up "The Shifter" on recommendation and read like I was under the covers with a flashlight again. I was impressed with the complex moral situations Nya faces. I loved the political backdrop--recently conquered island trying to find a new normal--and the intricacies of pain and healing in this world. Nya acts fast and does her best thinking on the move. The two cracks in the spine where I succeeded in walking away are when Nya has too much time in a safe room with friends. But with 25 years on the heroine, it may not be fair of me to begrudge her hang-out time. Eagerly awaiting book 2!

This story is a fast, fun read, with engaging characters set in a beautifully-wrought world.

The teenage heroine Nya is a feisty and street-smart war-orphan in the defeated city of Geveg. Intensely loyal to her friends, thoughtful about the hard choices she must make, she's nevertheless always in the middle of the action. Even when in danger and afraid, she's good company.

Nya has the ability to absorb a person's pain. But unlike the Healers, who can lift pain and move it into the fantastic metal, pynvium, she can only shift it into another person. It's pretty useless, but in the course of rescuing her sister Tali, she finds she has another gift - one that makes her a dangerous weapon that her enemies will want to control.

The world Hardy has created is fascinating, and described in just enough detail to drawn a reader in without slowing the pace.

I've had a hard time finding a good fantasy book in the YA genre. Some are too long winded and stale, some are too full of angst and drama, and others are just plain boring. The Shifter is unique and full of action. For once I actually care about the different backgrounds of the characters and the different factions. There wasn't a single thing I wasn't interested in in this book. I wish this book was more talked about and suggested. I stumbled upon it by chance at the library and I wish I had heard of it sooner! The magic system in this book is unique and well explained. I loved finding out more about Nya's powers and healing in general. The problems presented in the book are reasonable, believable, and actually make sense. Each character is dynamic and multidimensional. There are actually moral issues in this book as well. My only complaint would be that the bad guys are a bit one dimensional. They are the evil overlord type and driven by one thing-greed. I like my bad guys to be a bit more exciting, interesting, and sympathetic, but the rest of the novel more than makes up for it. The Shifter is nonstop action in a fully realized world surrounded by great characters. You can't go wrong reading this book, I would definitely recommend it to any fantasy fan.

From the very first page, The Shifter draws you in--the scene opens with Nya discussing the best way to steal chicken eggs. Which to me is pure brilliance.

The first thing I thought? Boy, does Nya have a voice. A great voice. Within the first pages alone, by dint of wonderful dialogue, voice, and action, The Shifter promises to be a great read--and the rest of the book certainly lives up to and even exceeds this expectation.

I really liked the premise, since it is something fresh in fantasy. The idea of a girl with the power to take and give pain is just plain fascinating--and the decision she faces of whether to use her power for good or evil is equally intriguing. But Nya is desperate to hide her gift from people who might use her talent to hurt others. Even though Nya could easily have become heartless and uncaring because of the situation she's in, she isn't. Nya is just absolutely wonderful, with her humorous, charismatic voice and caring nature--helping anyone from her sister, a boy she meets, or people in need. She is definitely a strong female protagonist, which is something I admire.

I love the world that Hardy created--I thought it was well fleshed out, and the conflict between the occupying Baseeri and the Gevegians is very believable. Nya herself is Gevegian; a war orphan that has fallen on hard times since the Baseeri took over.

The Shifter presents some serious moral decisions: Nya is faced with many hard choices throughout the book--wealth and everything she wants versus using her power in a way that she knows isn't right. Of course, this is all expertly intertwined into a fast-paced, action-packed fantasy that had me flipping pages feverishly. And there was some cute-maybe-romance to accompany Nya's adventurous exploits.

I couldn't get enough--I wanted more Nya, more of her wittiness and charm, more of the world portrayed in The Shifter. This book is just pure enjoyment--it will transport you to a whole other, wondrous world filled with Takers, Shifters, and magic of more than one kind.

I really enjoyed this story. Nya was an interesting character with an incredibly strong voice. I loved her humor, as well as how she viewed her world. Watching her grow from a survivor, to a reluctant heroine, to a purposeful rebel was just wonderful.

The world that Nya lives in is just as intriguing as she is. I love the idea that the ability to heal others comes with a price. In Nya's case, it's mental anguish from knowing that, in order to heal one person, someone else must suffer the pain. She's presented with very difficult choices and does the best she can with them. She doesn't let her choices endlessly torture her (they bother her, but don't incapacitate her), which I found very believable since she's a survivor, and survivors quickly learn how to compartmentalize. The fact that she's always quick to make amends, and goes to a great extent to do so, shows how much she wants to make things right with the world.

The political aspects were sometimes confusing, and there were a few times where I had to go back and figure out who was connected to who and how/why. But that didn't detract from my enjoyment of the story. The villains were evil, but with a clear purpose, which kept them from being flat. Nya's friends were strong and likable, with plenty of flaws that kept them interesting.

Nya's gradual discovery of her skills upped the stakes in wonderful ways, and paved the way for the next book in the trilogy. Which I am very much looking forward to. Definitely recommended.

I didn't particularly like this book. I mean, it wasn't exactly bad. It just wasn't good. To tell you the truth, it kind of disappointed me. I was expecting to really enjoy this book, since it's my favorite kind of fantasy and the premise was very unique. However, I quickly learned that for me to enjoy a book, I have to fall in love with the characters, and it's hard to fall in love with a character that doesn't feel like a real person. There's nothing terribly unlikable about any of the characters in this book, but there isn't anything very likable about them either. They felt more like pieces being moved around on a very large, very unique chess board than actual characters. And it was told completely in first person, so I really should have felt like I knew the main character by the end of it, but I am sad to say that I didn't. And the secondary characters just feel like place-fillers. That being said, I could not put this book down while I was in the middle of it. It was very exciting and the plot did move at a very fast pace. And the premise was interesting. I think the main reason I kept reading after the first few chapters was to figure out just how Nya's gift worked and how her society functioned. The world building in this novel was truly fantastic. The main reason I bought this book in the first place was because someone told me mine sounded a lot like it. I agree that they sound the same the way I was describing it, but I was relieved to find they really are very different and not at all the same story. Anyway, I'm glad I read it because I learned that a good plot and an interesting premise can go a long way, but only lovable characters will have readers coming back for the next book in the series.

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If you're like me, you read a lot of fantasy books and are always on the look out for a good author--someone with a fresh outlook. I'm glad I found Janice Hardy. I first heard about her through an article in Writer's Digest. There she talked about her aha moment--the discovery of the right audience for her novel (middle graders). From then on an agent and a publisher quickly became interested in her series. I can see why.

First of all, I loved Hardy's desire to explore "the darker side of healing" as she mentions in her author bio. I loved the fact that Nya is a misfit who desperately wants to be a healer, but can't shift pain into pynvium (great invention) the way that her younger sister Tali and other healers can.

Hardy caught my attention with her first sentence: "Stealing eggs is a lot harder than stealing the whole chicken." But a good sentence isn't enough to sustain my attention, especially if the heroine is flat, humorless (a pet peeve of mine), and less than compelling. None of those descriptors fits Nya. I agree with Choco about her voice. She has the ability to laugh at herself, because she knows herself well. But the humor doesn't detract from the story or cause one to wonder if the author is taking the character or the situation seriously. (And I can name a number of books where that happened!)

I also appreciated the fact that there were never any easy choices for Nya and the people she meets. No matter what choice Nya made, someone was bound to get hurt. Many times that someone was Nya. When I started the book, I was afraid that Nya would turn out to be a Mary Sue--someone so perfect and wonderful you hope a rock drops on her and crushes her. But Hardy seemed to take pains to reveal Nya's faults and make her real. Even as she comes to new levels of understanding, there's room to grow. Also, life isn't a picnic for her. She's broke, often hungry, and often on the run.

The pacing is brisk and the tone and level of peril are great for a middle-grade audience and anyone else who loves a good story. Terrible things happen to people and Nya learns some really hard things about her ability to shift pain.

If you've reread the Harry Potter series for the thousandth time and are looking for something new, you might give this book a shot. Is this book perfect? No. Some of the characters (particularly some of the male characters) seemed less interesting and colorful than the female characters. One villain in particular seemed a tad bit "Nyaa-ha-ha-I'm-a-villain." But that's just my take on it. It didn't stop me from enjoying the book at all. Also, I wanted to know a little bit more about a boy Nya meets early on in a "meet cute" moment. (Loved that scene.)

Still, the evil is well defined and I appreciated the sequel setup. I'm looking forward to the next book in the series. I'm hoping in that book that we learn more about the political factions (Baseeri and Gevegians).

4.5 (I wish there were a half star!)

I thoroughly enjoyed this fantasy story. The protagonist is cute and feisty and faced with some tough decisions for such a young girl. Now to be honest I prefer my YA older and darker but this was a lovely reprieve from my usual reading material.

The world is fascinating, different and engaging. If anything I wanted to know MORE about the world and setting. I liked the characters and I'm looking forward to how they'll develop in book 2. As for the political intrigue, it was there but didn't bludgeon you over the head, which I think is great for the YA audience to which this book is targetted.

The colloquialisms in the dialogue were great - really anchored you in the world and made their situations more tangible.

I found it hard to put down and read it in about three sittings when life finally gave me a minute to pick up my Kindle. If you're looking for something dark and terrible, complex and twisted then keep looking. This story is for anyone who enjoys a romping fantasy with younger characters and sensibilities that leaves you feeling better for reading it

Nya finds herself in a world where things aren't black and white. Sometimes you need to choose the lesser of two evils. Or sometimes what is evil in one place might not be evil in another. This is what I liked best about Nya's story. She has to struggle with a power that is bigger than her understanding of right and wrong--much like we struggle with technology that has moved so quickly our ethics haven't caught up. Is it ethical to clone sheep? Would it be ethical to clone a human being? Is it ethical to produce embryos and plant several of them in a womb with the express intent of aborting all but two of the ones that take? What about fetal stem cell research?

OK, I'll quit. I don't want to give you the idea that The Shifter is a dry commentary on our times. It's not. It's a well-paced adventure story full of brave characters who risk their lives and make heavy sacrifices for others. It's got bad `uns and good `uns and conflict and love and reward. It's a wonderful story about an orphan girl who has to outsmart powerful, greedy men to save the sister she loves.

The underlying question of ethics gives the book depth, but the story is not preachy at all. It's a story about conflict and danger and courage that sucks the reader in. I really liked Nya. She is a strong character, struggling to do right. She loves. She's loyal. She's trying to grow up to be something worthwhile. She's looking for her place in the world. She's trying to figure out how her gift can do anyone any good. She's got a lot of conflict and a lot of courage and I liked her immediately and kept on liking her through the whole book.

I also liked the supporting cast very much-one fellow in particular makes me hope for a romance to develop in the next couple of books.

We'll see.

Four stars so I have room to go up to five stars if I get the romance I want. :)