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THE SHIFTER by Janice Hardy

THE SHIFTER

The Healing Wars: Book I

by Janice Hardy

Pub Date: Oct. 1st, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-06-174704-5
Publisher: Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins

A teen with the power to shift pain from one person to another chooses between saving her sister’s life and her principles in this first of a projected series. Orphaned when the Baseer invade and occupy Geveg, 15-year-old Nya and her sister Tali live in an oppressed world where pain is controlled by a Healer’s League that trains “Takers” to transfer human pain into a substance called pynvium. The League charges to remove pain, pain merchants buy pain to enchant weapons and anyone able to “shift” pain is subject to “death, prison, maybe even experiments.” Nya suppresses her shifting power until Tali and other League apprentices mysteriously disappear and a pain merchant threatens to make her a pawn in his plot to subvert Geveg. In the tradition of strong-willed adventure heroines, Nya rallies, unleashing her powers as she faces complex moral dilemmas. Her first-person narration is suffused with the agony of deciding who will live or die. Timely ethical exploration in the guise of high-action fantasy. (Fantasy. 10-16)