Book Review - Shapechangers

Roberson’s style is rather hackneyed, with the grammatical torture that can occur in fantasy when an author is trying too hard to make her characters sound authentic.

The dialogue is therefore awkward in parts, and the attempts at developing an archaic mode of speech can make the distinctions between the main cast blur.

Nevertheless, Roberson does manage to inject some deeper issues, as one major topic of the book is genocide, which is a point in her favour. Unfortunately, another is the very clichéd concept of a main protagonist held firm by a ‘mysterious’ prophecy, and Roberson allows herself to stumble into the ‘noble savage’ archetype.

In general a rather average read, though in Roberson's defence this was written early in her career - no doubt she improved in her later books.