The Healer

Payne is a Candide-esque innocent in love with the healing craft that makes him both a vital commodity and a third-class citizen in the world of humanity (his asymmetrical skull and the mouth-like orifice in his side identify him as a "tesque," which automatically ranks him second-class). In Healer, he strives to find his very particular place in a divided, troubled world much like our own. Payne's journey pulled me in, and I found myself emphathizing with his struggles to find freedom within discrimination, charity in religion, relevance in activism, and love amid loneliness, confusion and treachery. Blumlein writes of passion with a restrained hand; his infrequent and subtle point-of-view shifts add a wry clarity to Payne's plight as outcast. At times I found myself shaking my head over the young healer's naivité; at other times I wanted to shake Payne himself. In one particularly memorable scene, when he appears before the woman he loves in new clothes, his hair carefully combed, wearing a bit too much scent, I cringed at his comically sad and all-too-human insecurity. What the author says, through his characters and his setting, is interesting and relevant; the way he says it is masterful. He uses fantasy lightly and well to highlight fundamental moral issues that bedevil our own lives. The ending, another reviewer noted, was sudden. However, I found it a fitting climax to Payne's quest, beautiful and thought-provoking. I would recommend this book to readers, like me, who like their sci-fi more fi than sci, readers who might prefer the likes of Octavia Butler or Ray Bradbury over Michael Crighton. Susan O'Neill, author: Don't Mean Nothing: Short Stories of Vietnam

This is a great read full of insight to the human condition. I won't go much further, but did want to recommend this to those in question.

First off, I am somewhat baffled why anyone would have trouble understanding terms and pronouns used in this book. I had no problem whatsoever.That said, the ending was a bit abrupt but I have no strong issues with that, either.This is a wonderful character study of a naive, idealistic young healer (called Grotesques or "Tesques"; not quite "Humans"). As he develops he loses a lot of his naivety but never his idealism . His is and remains throughout the book a likeable, positive character. Yet, he does question the civilization he is part of and tries to make sense of the way things are and in his quiet way tries to make changes.This is one of my favorite types of books...it is one that is meant to be read slowly, savored, and makes me think.Part of the nature of this book seems to be the relationship between the healer and the healed and fascinating issues are raised here, yet not in any heavy handed way. I was very pleasantly surprised and thoroughly enjoyed this book.

Payne is a member of a segment of humanity called Grotesques, distinguished by deformity and gifted with the power of healing which can lead them into near-slavery. Payne is unaffected by the burnout all other healers experience, and his search for acceptance in a strange society changes his life in Michael Blumlein's The Healer, a futuristic story of the medical profession's relationship with mankind.

Its been a long wait sin Michael Blumleins last novel but it was well worth it.This is an innovative and well written novel that should be on both the Hugo and Nebula ballots at years end.If you like Ursul K LeGuin or China Mieville you will love the book.