Shapechangers (Chronicles of the Cheysuli, #1) by Jennifer Roberson

Shapechangers (Chronicles of the Cheysuli, #1) Reviews

• 
  Robin

  This is a re-read of the first book in a series I absolutely love. Unfortunately, I do not like this book. I'm not sure if this is Roberson's first book (and subject to the First Novel uneven-ness that can happen) or if I'm just reading it again with older eyes. After all, this book was first published in 1984. I've read many, MANY books since 1984 so I have more to compare it to. A lot of life has been lived between 1984 and now too, so a person's entire frame of reference can switch focus. It isn't so much when the book was written but the experience of the person reading it at that time. I was a tween (just barely) and in love with fantasy novels. I'm sure there was much I didn't get at the time, but I understood most of it and it fascinated me. Now, I focus less on the story and more on the words used to tell it; on characterization, and they both fall flat. Maybe, if this book were released today, it wouldn't be classified as an adult novel. Maybe the magic of it is at the YA level.
  
  I hated the heroine. She was spoiled and stubborn and incredibly ill suited to heroine-ism. She wanted what she wanted and to hell with the very real consequences. The hero was marginally better, even though he was supposed to be older and wiser than her. Secondary characters (who star in Book 2) were better, but don't quite reach three dimensional status until The Song of Homana (book 2 in the series) The plot? Not as thin as the characters, but this is really a set up book. There is A LOT of world building to do, and if anything about this book is excellent, that is it.
  
  Because, even though I don't have much good to say about this book, the fact is that it has been with me for over 20 yrs. Roberson created an entire world that has lived in the back of my mind; especially the language. I've always liked languages. It isn't to the point where I've translated Hamlet into Cheysuli, but a few words do stick out. Favorite characters from the series remain as well. The series is great, it just needed a better start.
• 
  Shaitarn

  This was one of the first fantasy books I ever read, so though by today's standards it probably doesn't deserve much of a score, it retains a nostalgic fondness for me. I loved the original cover, which sadly GR doesn't have on its database and as my ability to do anything with my laptop is laughably low, the best I've been able to do is provide a picture of the original 6 books (plus later editions of the last two) in my profile pictures. Go and take a squint if you're curious. They range from meh to pretty dire (number 5 is the worst; seriously, WTF?) but I liked this one: a girl on a horse, fully clad in decent clothing (although barefoot for some reason) with what looks like a sword hilt in her right hand with a wolf and a bird of prey - I mean, what teenage girl wouldn't be interested in this book?! Now I'm an adult I can see the problems: namely, the horse has no bridle, much less reins, and her saddle doesn't appear to be fastened onto the horse at all; the minute that horse starts running, she and that saddle are going to be lying on the ground wondering what happened.
  
  And perhaps that's a decent metaphor: as a teen, the problems in this book weren't so apparent.
  
  The basic plot: the Cheysuli are a race of magical shapechangers; originally living in relative peace with the other people of the land, the Homanas (normal humans like you and me), who arrived much later. But twenty five years ago the king's daughter fled a marriage she didn't want with her father's Cheysuli liege man and in revenge the king ordered the Cheysuli wiped out. Now the Cheysuli are regarded as demons, hated and feared in their own land, on the brink of annihilation. Our main character, Alix, is apparently a humble crofter's daughter who's kidnapped by a Cheysuli warrior along with the prince, and forced to deal with the shocking revelation of her own true heritage and her place in an ancient prophecy.
  
  The back of the book will tell you more than that, but maybe you have a different copy and don't want any surprises spoiled. I want to start with the things I liked about this book:
  
  The Cheysuli. I loved, and still love, the Cheysuli race. They are described as a tan skinned race, with black hair and yellow eyes ('beast eyes' they are often called) and live in tents in the forest. The men, who all seem to be trained as warriors, wear leathers and gold - an armring and an earring which shows their lir beast. So they may have an obvious Native American vibe, and the story has a distinct 'how the west was won brutalized' slant, but I find it none the worse for that.
  The lir. Every Cheysuli warrior has a 'coming of age' moment when they wander off into the wilderness and acquire a lir beast. This is an animal they can talk to mentally and shows the beast shape they can transform into - usually this seems to be a bird of prey or a wolf, fox or mountain cat. This beast is the other half of themselves; a man without a lir is regarded as only half alive and shunned. If a lir is ever killed, the warrior seeks death in a ritual suicide. Only men can have a lir (boo!); women are neither warriors nor lir bound.
  
  What I didn't like:
  Alix. Poor Alix; I'm sure if she was written today she'd be a feisty fantasy heroine who would discover her abilities and follow her own path, but this book was written in 1987, and as it has a heavy romantic vibe (as romance was written back then) Alix is stuck between three men, two of whom are a bit dodgy for various reasons (one of whom was planning outright kidnap and rape, so yay, romance!). Thankfully she ends up with the least rape-y of them, but the way she has her choices curtailed by the men around her and her reaction to her circumstances are incredibly frustrating and I can understand why a lot of readers find her whiny and annoying.
  
  The worldbuilding is also pretty poor, with only brief mentions of other countries and no clear idea of what's where. I think this improves throughout the series, though (including a map in the next book).
  
  If you are curious about this series but are finding the main characters in this book annoying, my advice is push through it quickly and move on to the next book in the series before deciding to ditch it.
• 
  Thomas

  There may have been some good plot underlying this book (and by good I mean a slight variation of most other sci-fi fantasy series I have read, one that over-uses the term prophecy and references to dualing factions of gods), but overall, this read to much as General Hospital with swords and magic than an actual science fiction fantasy book. The phrase "but I am carrying his child" was used by all three female characters in the book, often multiple times.
  
  I thought the author chose to dwell on some un-exciting aspects (the first 140 pages or so repeats the same conversation several times over, and would have had me putting down the book were it not recommended to me by someone I know), while then skipping years and months at a time and glancing over nations won in a matter of a few paragraphs. Not that I want the book to read like a list of military conquests one after the other (this would be boring), just that there was superfluous detail in some sections and an utter lack of detail in others.
• 
  Evanna

  When I was a teenager, I found all four omnibus editions at a used bookstore and snapped ‘em up bc I liked the covers. I loved this series from beginning to end and remembered crying with Alix. God, how embarrassing. This is awful. Alix is a spoiled self-righteous brat who flips allegiances like pancakes. There are all sorts of colloquialisms like “What do you say?” (Whaddaya mean?) and “I have ever loved him.” (I’ve always loved him.) that sound like lines from a bad ren fair scene. Not to mention the allusions to Cheysuli as Native Americans are so thinly veiled it’s actually kind of gross. Let’s also romanticize attempted rape while we’re at it and using a pregnancy to trap a man into marriage. Both of these things are positive(!) preludes to the star relationship of the book. I’d give the whole thing up as a bad rap, but all the reviews say the rest of the books are better. I sure hope so. I’m so mad at my teenage self right now. But those omnibus covers sure were purty.
• 
  Mir

  Alix has been raised as an ordinary country girl, but after she coincidentally becomes friends with a prince she is kidnapped by exiled shapeshifters and drawn into their struggle against oppression.
  
  I enjoyed the adventure/magic aspects of the story but had some serious problems with the attitudes toward women and sexuality presented in Roberson's world-building. I couldn't feel too indignant on behalf of the shapechangers expulsion from the kingdom since they themselves were kidnapping women and forcing them to bear their children. The couple later books in the series that I tried had even more rape and oppression so I gave up on it.
• 
  Mark Cameron

  I have been revisiting some of my old favorites and this series was one of them. While re-reading this first book, I remember that the series got much better starting with the second book. This isn't a bad book, but I think that this was the author's first book and it shows. She keeps reminding you of the same things over and over.
  
  If anyone has read this book and found it a bit lackluster, I would suggest that you give the second book a try regardless. This book was written in the period when the whole "people form magical bond with an animal" thing was popular. If you really hate that kind of thing then you might want to avoid this series.
• 
  Brianna

  This book will always be one of my favourites, and I will always revisit the world of the Cheysuli again and again and again.
  It may not be the best book, but it’s the first book in one of the best fantasy series’ I’ve ever read.
  Alix can come across as annoying & immature to begin with, but I love watching her grow into herself over the course of the book to become the strong female leader she is in the series.
  And the beginning of Finn & Carillon’s unbreakable bond.
  
  I will always recommend this series to people with the reminder to not judge the series based on the first book, just like you shouldn’t judge a tv show solely on the pilot.
• 
  Charmy

  Really enjoyed the growing storyline. The main female character is overtly selfish but everything else is great. Too few pages to develop a good supporting cast but I hope the rest of the series open the descriptive capabilities.
• 
  greeneyes9999

  Pure joy and wonderment!
  
  35 years ago I discovered this book in paperback as a freshman in high school as the clerk was putting them onto the shelf for the first time. I returned there many times to the same spot with different clerks waiting to get my hands on the next book in the series!
  This book and series enhances you and draws you in so quickly that next thing you know you are on the last page screaming for more!
  Strong feminine characters back then were rare but Alix fit the bill and gave girls a dream that they could follow a dream with determination and stubbornness. Add in gorgeous men, teasing brothers and a dashing prince and the beautiful lit, how can a girl resist? I highly recommend this author and series for all. It’s everything you’ll desire in a book to whisk you away to another world.
  I’m very thankful to Bookbub to have had this pop up or I’d never have rediscovered a first love a second time around!
• 
  Welwyn Wilton Katz

  I started this book at least three times, and finally gave it up. I felt the writing was awkward, uncertain, and the characters rather unpleasant. Because of this I didn't finish any of the Cheysuli books, though I have them all. What a waste. Sadly, I enjoyed Roberson's Tiger and Del series so much. I have since learned that the Cheysuli books were her first, or at least the first of her books to gain her some prominence. I have a first book; we all do. But I just couldn't find any life in this first book, and so I couldn't finish it. It's a pity, because no doubt she grew as a writer all the way through the series, given the quality of her writing in the Tiger and Del books.
• 
  Merilee

  The first fantasy series I ever read. I loved them!
  
  Looking back, I see how crudely they were written, Jennifer Roberson has definitely refined her writing style since then; but, all in all, it's a great series!
  
  It's been 15 years since I first read the series... I still remember it fondly.
  
  
  
  PG-13 : Overall Rating
  PG-13 : Violence
  PG-13 : Language
  PG-13 : Sexual Content **
  
  ** Other potential parental warnings:
  - There is premarital sex involved (but not in young teens; in adults)
• 
  Sunsy

  Als ich das Buch zum ersten Mal las, fand ich es herausragend. Dann kam ich aber irgendwie doch davon ab, die Reihe weiter zu lesen. Nun rücke ich meinem SuB zu Leibe und habe das Buch erneut gelesen. Dieses Mal bin ich kritischer, mag die Idee aber trotzdem und habe das Buch verschlungen. 08/10 Punkte und hier könnt ihr meine Meinung nachlesen:
  http://sunsys-blog.blogspot.de/2015/0... .
• 
  Eugenia aka Cinnea

  I actually first read this back in the 80's, but never finished the series thanks to no time and no money as a student. So, I'm going back and finally finishing the series.
  
  The basic plot is this: Young farm girl gets kidnapped by a shapechanger (one of the Cheysuli) and then learns that she's one of them, and has all kinds of superduper special powers. The problem is, they Cheysuli are being hunted to extinction by the Homanans (the people in the land where they used to live) and the people who raised her.
  
  The world is interesting, the plot's pretty simple and straightforward, and I defnitely can see why I liked it when I was younger. The protagonist is a young woman! She isn't just a doormat for the men (well, sort of)! I'd have rated it higher then. But as an adult, I can only give it an "it's okay" rating.
  
  Re-reading it now, as a grown woman, I can't ignore all the really problematic bits which I apparently wasn't as bothered by back in the day. I suspect it's because it was pretty standard fare for 1980's fantasy. It's definitely got a lot of Old Skool rapeyness going on, even though no one actually gets raped. There's a lot of threatening it, but it doesn't actually happen. And our heroine, Alix, calls them on it, which is great - at least for a while, then she decides she's in love with the hero (Duncan) and it's all good, even when he's a jackass. Which is most of the book. And she makes some pretty rash decisions, which endanger a lot of people she now claims to love.
  
  By the end, the only person I was really still rooting for was Carillon, the young Homanan prince. He seems like a sensible fellow, and not rapey. I'm afraid it'll go horribly wrong as the series goes on - I just cannot remember how.
• 
  Rolaka Pisarka

  Książkę przeczytałam po raz pierwszy chyba z 10 lat temu. wtedy naprawdę byłam nią zachwycona przez fantasy, romans, motyw zmiennokształtnych. Teraz wszystko się zmieniło... Zauważałam wady, których wczesniej nie dostrzegałam. Jestem świadoma, żę książka ma swoje lata i ma prawo posiadać cechy, które dzisiaj zniekształcają odbiór, ale kurcze... Książka jest pełna bubli, okropnych i niemal żałosnych zbiegów okoliczności (jesli książę spotyka się z jakąś wieśniaczką to na 100% musi być ona 1. zaginioną księżniczną 2. jego siotrą, no kurcze! Ale przypadek). Bohaterowie są nudni, ich rozmowy są nudne. Przez wiele stron przewijają się niemal te same zdania "ja nic nie wiem, ja nic nie rozumiem", "nie wiem, co robić" itd. Zaczyna, rozwija i kończy w sposób, który można przewidzieć po przeczytaniu pierwszych 50 stron. Slabe, naprawdę slabe. To jest książka jedynie dla osób, które chciałyby poznać klasykę, podstawy fantasy, może zaczynają dopiero z tym gatunkiem i chcą na początek coś lekkiego, bardzo bliskiego współczesnym książkom dla młodzieży... Ale na 100% nie dla fanów fantrastyki, bo ci się tylko wynudzą!
• 
  Bryn (Plus Others)

  I loved this series back in the late 80s/early 90s, but trying to reread it now was incredibly painful -- it is SO RAPEY. Roberson uses a mix of Sheik-style romance tropes (female protagonist kidnapped by rapey attractive man) and fantasy tropes (magical shapeshifters, imaginary kingdoms, evil sorcerers) and leavens it with a ton of doubtless unconscious misogyny and racism. There is some deeply awful worldbuilding that today reads as white supremacist, with the minority group -- the Cheysuli -- being the original bringers of civilisation and everything good, but since they are now being genocided they need to go around raping women so that there are Enough Cheysuli and their culture doesn't die out. Ugh, ugh, ugh. Will I try any more of these to see if they get better? Probably not, but I might eventually reread the one Roberson I remember adoring,
  Lady of the Forest, although if it is this awful I'm not sure I want to ruin my memory of it. [Jan/Feb 2022]
• 
  Colin

  Another book that has been sitting on my shelf for years waiting its turn to be read.
  I enjoyed the premise of the world that Roberson is creating and am looking forward to the continuing stories of the Cheysuli.
  My primary issue with this book is the way in which the characters behaviour seems to change drastically so many times (Alix in particular). I understand she is young and doesn't yet understand the world/life into which she is being thrown, but her inability to think ahead and stick with a course of action made it hard to sympathize with her as the main protagonist.
• 
  Kevin

  whew.
  
  So I read this as a ten year old and remember loving it but re-reading it as an adult was a struggle.
  
  I mean, I honestly don't even know where to begin complaining about this because honestly there is a lot here to unpack.
  
  Could you have envisioned a more terrible main character, just simpering and annoying and self-involved. Then there is seeming romance which just felt a little rapey to my mind. And like what is the point of all of this wonderful world building, if you are just gonna lay all the attention on Alix and her annoying point of view.
  
  And I think, possibly, the biggest issue was the Cheysuli. I am not sure what the term is for magical negro but for indigenous people. This novel was just so steeped in this idea of the proud and magical native people teaching and saving and always as servants.
  
  
  
  
• 
  Alia Tulloch

  The release of the Dark Crystal series on Netflix had me feeling a bit nostalgic for some of the great fantasy books I read as a kid. Sadly, adult me found this one a bit disappointing. If you're also rereading this series out of nostalgia, make sure to pick up book #2 in the series, which has much stronger writing and, for the most part, significantly less rapey romance.
• 
  Maeve Stone

  My favorite series from this author. I couldn't read it fast enough. I loved all the books and was so sad when the series ended. A beautiful love story and all the other elements that make a novel rich like awesome worldbuilding, plot, themes complex and well thought out characters. Imaginative shapeshifting but not your typical werewolf story. I am so bored with those.
• 
  Dawn Meyer

  3.5 as much as I did enjoy the story and plot of this book, there were troubling things in it. If those things were not in this book it would have been so much better. I may continue on with this series.
• 
  A. Hall

  I just can't stand it. It's very clunky and old. Nobody explains anything, using vagueries to stay mysterious. And I hate the dialect. "What do you say?" "What do you say?" "What do you say?" I don't care enough to continue. Very annoying.