Woman without a Shadow

War Minstrels #1

by Karen Haber

Kayla, a gifted young telepath, is on the run in the galaxy with a price on her head, and a spaceship seems a safe haven until she is caught between two deadly forces ready to sacrifice anything for victory. Original.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy

304 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published March 1, 1995

About the author

Karen Haber is the author of nine novels including Star Trek Voyager: Bless the Beasts, and co-author of Science of the X-Men. In 2001 she was nominated for a Hugo for Meditations on Middle Earth, an essay collection celebrating J.R.R. Tolkien. With her husband, Robert Silverberg, she co-edited Best Science Fiction of 2001, 2002, and the Best Fantasy of 2001 and 2002 for ibooks and later, co-edited the series with Jonathan Strahan through 2004.

Her recent work includes Crossing Infinity, a science fiction novel of gender identity and confusions. Other publications include Exploring the Matrix: Visions of the Cyber Present, a collection of essays by leading science fiction writers and artists, Kong Unbound: an original anthology, an essay in The Unauthorized X-Men edited by Len Wein, and Transitions: Todd Lockwood, a retrospective of the artist's work.

Her short fiction has appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction magazine, the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, and many anthologies. She reviews art books for LOCUS magazine and profiles artists for various publications including Realms of Fantasy. She is currently at work on a major survey of fantasy and science fiction artists to be published in 2011.

Reviews

[Tina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Teenaged Kayla is a mindstone miner on planet Styx. Her parents die in a cave-in and based on some crappy circumstances she is forced to go on the run. Kayla is a powerful Empath, with abilities like mind-reading and Jedi persuasion. She uses these skills to sneak off-world, avoid a bounty-hunter, and get a job with smugglers. The story follows her adventures.

This book is a lot of fun, but unfortunately, it goes off the rails a little in the final third. Kayla turns into some sort of action hero with psychic abilities, which I found far less interesting than when she was either on her own or living with the smugglers.

Kayla herself is a good character, although she doesn’t have a huge arc. She begins the story resourceful and strong and stays such. It would have been nice to see her have more inner turmoil, but I appreciated a no-nonsense teenager who doesn’t spend most of the novel fawning over some boy. There is a boy, but she’s less interested in him than he is in her.

The other characters are nowhere near as fleshed out – they have personalities, but we don’t get to see inside any of their heads. And while there are a few antagonists, there was no central one, leaving the final chapters rather forgettable.
I did like how Kayla was referred to as a “woman” without a shadow rather than a “girl”. The common usage now in book titles of the latter to refer to grown women annoys me.

The tech is rather flimsy. Kayla is supposed to be navigating space, but instead, she logs into some sort of virtual reality that reminded me of that secret jet game you could play in Excel 97. She also refers to it as “cyberspace” at one point, but I have no idea whether that's related to the internet as we know it now or just a coincidence. It also wouldn’t be a sci-fi book without null-g chairs, video cubes, and laser knives!

Overall, it’s a fun book that I enjoyed reading; it just isn’t overly memorable. I may read the sequel eventually. A good book to give to my daughter if (when!) she's interested in sci-fi as a teenager.

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[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

(I just had to librarian edit the first two books in this series because GoodReads had this listed as book 2, and The War Minstrels listed as book 1. FYI.)

I had never read anything by Karen Haber before (hadn't really heard of her, either) and I thought it was a little weird how Robert Silverberg's blurb referred to her as his "favorite science fiction writer..." Sure enough.... they're married.

The premise was interesting at the beginning, but by the end of the book the plot had gone completely haywire with politics, terrorism, and the main character evolving into an action hero (or something). The writing itself wasn't bad, but by the end I felt like the book should have ended about 50 pages earlier.

I'm not sure I'll continue with the series, because they continue on with the crazy political action hero stuff and the new stone-cold-action-hero Kayla.

[Matthew Futter · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was the perfect blend of some expected sci-fi elements and a plot that was anything but formulaic! I was impressed with how the protagonist, a young woman whose life was completely upended at the very beginning of this book, allows herself to grieve but not to wallow, and she's always trying to figure out her next move (as we all are in life), even if the universe seems determined to pull the rug out from under her more than once. The plot made sense, we got a good taste of several characters who might develop further if I can ever get my hands on the other two books in this series, and yet the story stands alone as a good tale (as long as you like spacefaring futuristic science fiction, and you can appreciate characters and mannerisms recognizable from the current age despite their future setting, which I was thought was a good writing choice). Overall, a very good read that I did not want to put down until I drank in every page.

[Heidi · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting thing about browsing the ebook store on an eink reader is the lack of covers. This book cover gives a much better idea of the book than I had going in - this is a rollicking space adventure with psychics, magic semi-intelligent creatures, and smuggling to space stations. I enjoy it - it would fit right in with the world building of The Expanse, but in a more lighthearted way. If you like this style, this is a good book, it definitely has a few familiar tropes.

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[Farah Mendlesohn · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice enough read but it's the kind of straight adventure that lacks the sf bite for me.

[Justine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well written, I liked how the story built it all up. Don't think I'll continue with the series though as I am satisfied with how this book ended.

Also the cyberspace description was just so 90's

[Guillaume · Rating 2 out of 5]

Katya est une jeune empathe, résidant sur la planète Styx, seul endroit de l'univers on l'on peut miner les rares et précieuses pierres-psi. Lorsque ses parents meurent dans un tremblement de terre, elle va devoir fuir sa planète et rejoindre incognito un navire marchand un peu louche, ou elle deviendra adulte.

C'est clairement un roman jeune adulte. C'est lisible, il y a deux trois passages intéressants et suffisamment d’ambigüité pour que ça ne soit pas stupide, mais au final, il n'y a rien de transcendant dans ce roman.

[Sophie · Rating 2 out of 5]

a 2.5 - average sci-fi book.