Nya is a taker. She can take pain and injuries from others. Unlike the other healers, though, she cannot put the pain into pynvium containers or objects. She, instead, shifts pain from one person to another.

That is a very cool superpower, isn’t it?

Imagine what you could do with this gift? You could take pain from your friends and use it as a weapon against your enemies.

Nya, however, has learned that she is never to give pain. Healers take pain. They don’t shift it.

But 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.

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