The Shape-Changer's Wife (1995)

Lovely book. Very much in her style of the Truth Teller's Tale, etc. It only took me about an hour to read, but I was very sorry to finish it so quickly! ( )

Beautiful.
A long time ago, I'd read Summers at Castle Auburn and was bored. I always wondered what all the fuss was about with Sharon Shinn. I just didn't get it.

I get it now, and I'm sad I put off reading this book for so long.

It is a bit predictable in that you can figure out what has happened just a quarter of the way through the story, but it didn't ruin the story.

The biggest quibble I have is that the epilogue dilutes the non-traditional ending. I think it does need an epilogue of some sort, just not that exact one. ( )

A young wizard, Aubrey, is apprenticed to a master shape changer, but gradually comes to see shape of things for himself.

The mystery here is a bit more serpentine that in the Treasure, but this is also a perfect book to greet spring.

There’s an insidious pull to the shapechanger, Glyrenden’s evil. The subtle horror of forcing things from their natural design. Imposing one’s will on the heart of things for amusement.

Aubrey’s journey into becoming himself and learning the price of knowledge is exactly what I would expect from Shinn. Complex, luminous, brilliant. ( )

Aubrey was a wizard in training and wished to learn the skills of shape shifting, so his mentor, Cyril, sends him to train with the wizard Glyrenden who specializes in shape shifting. He becomes friends with Glyrenden's wife Lilith, and learns much more than just the art of shape shifting.

This was Sharon Shinn's first book, and was very good for a first book. It was a fast, easy read, but a book you won't want to put down. ( )

Such a short book, but so well written and told. Even more delightful, it's a stand-alone book. Shinn has such a way of painting her story with words, it feels like it bypasses the eyes, and goes directly to the brain, without reading at all. ( )