The Healing Wars Trilogy
Nya is a Shifter, someone who can heal by shifting pain from person to person.She’s hunted by those eager to exploit her ability for their own purposes, determined to make her a weapon, a killer, even a symbol for the war that’s brewing.
Nya is a Shifter, someone who can heal by shifting pain from person to person.She’s hunted by those eager to exploit her ability for their own purposes, determined to make her a weapon, a killer, even a symbol for the war that’s brewing.
All Nya wants is to protect her family and regain her people’s freedom, but the more she’s drawn into the plans of others, the more she realizes how key to everyone’s victory she really is.
And how much she’ll have to sacrifice just to survive.
A fantasy adventure for ages 10 and up, The Healing Wars trilogy follows Nya, a war orphan with the unique ability to heal—or destroy—with her touch.
Book I: The Shifter
THE SHIFTER
by Janice Hardy
Young Adult/Upper Middle Grade
Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins, 2009
ISBN 13: 978-0061747083
Audio ISBN: B00797LMIQ
Available from IndieBound, Barnes & Noble, Amazon, FoxTale Book Shoppe, and your favorite local bookseller.
Nya is an orphan struggling for survival in a city crippled by war. She is also a Taker—with her touch, she can heal injuries, pulling pain from another person into her own body. But unlike her sister, Tali, and the other Takers who become Healers' League apprentices, Nya's skill is flawed: She can't push that pain into pynvium, the enchanted metal used to store it. All she can do is shift it into another person, a dangerous skill that she must keep hidden from forces occupying her city. If discovered, she'd be used as a human weapon against her own people.
Rumors of another war make Nya's life harder, forcing her to take desperate risks just to find work and food. She pushes her luck too far and exposes her secret to a pain merchant eager to use her shifting ability for his own sinister purposes. At first Nya refuses, but when Tali and other League Healers mysteriously disappear, she's faced with some difficult choices. As her father used to say, principles are a bargain at any price; but how many will Nya have to sell to get Tali back alive?
Read an Excerpt from The Shifter
Praise for The Shifter:
“First-time author Hardy has written an inventive coming-of-age tale about a likable young woman whom readers will cheer throughout her exploits. Her appealing narration chronicles her expanding worldview as she progresses from a self-interested survivalist to a reluctant heroine to a determined rebel. Fantasy fans and those who just love a good story will enjoy this fast-paced novel and eagerly await book two.”
—School Library Journal
“With her fierce independence and her snarky rebellious streak, Nya makes a compelling addition to the willful heroines of the fantasy genre. . .Hardy presents an intriguing society that has been destroyed by war and yet continues to barter in pain and violence, essentially mirroring Nya’s moral dilemma on a much larger scale while presenting an engrossing world history.”
—Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books
“Nya’s distinctive first-person voice, strongly personable with a wry sense of humor, draws readers in, while the (mostly) simple, hard-charging plot makes the pages fly by…Nya’s horror at the prospect of being used as a weapon will resonate with readers, who will eagerly await the next volume of the Healing Wars.”
—Horn Book Magazine
Book Two: Blue Fire BLUE FIRE
by Janice Hardy
Young Adult/Upper Middle Grade
Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins, 2010
ISBN 13: 978-0061747441
Audio ISBN: B007AH99IA
Available from IndieBound, Barnes & Noble, Amazon, FoxTale Book Shoppe, and your favorite local bookseller.
Part fugitive, part hero, fifteen-year-old Nya is barely staying ahead of the Duke of Baseer’s trackers. Wanted for a crime she didn’t mean to commit, she risks capture to protect every Taker she can find, determined to prevent the Duke from using them in his fiendish experiments. But resolve isn’t enough to protect any of them, and Nya soon realizes that the only way to keep them all out of the Duke’s clutches is to flee Geveg. Unfortunately, the Duke’s best tracker has other ideas.
Nya finds herself trapped in the last place she ever wanted to be, forced to trust the last people she ever thought she could. More is at stake than just the people of Geveg, and the closer she gets to uncovering the Duke’s plan, the more she discovers how critical she is to his victory. To save Geveg, she just might have to save Baseer—if she doesn’t destroy it first.
Praise for Blue Fire:
“Flashing and pushing pain into her foes, determined and seemingly fearless Nya catapults through the pages like a super-charged action figure, but her first-person narration reveals inner conflict when forced to use her healing powers to injure and kill. Again, Nya confronts impossible moral choices as she fights to find her beloved sister. Relentless, gripping adventure.”
—Kirkus
“BLUE FIRE is a really strong follow-up to THE SHIFTER, and even if you aren't an avid fantasy reader, this trilogy is worth reading.”
—YA Highway blog
“There is something about this series that I just connected with from the first pages. . . the world is original, the choices the characters have to make are difficult and yet you fall in love with the people in the books and you want to read more about them.”
—Beyond Books blog (Canada)
Book Three: DarkfallDARKFALL
by Janice Hardy
Young Adult/Upper Middle Grade
Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins, 2011
ISBN 13: 978-0061747502
Available from IndieBound, Barnes & Noble, Amazon, FoxTale Book Shoppe, and your favorite local bookseller.
War has come.
Nya’s the one who brought it. And the people love her for it.
With Baseer in shambles and Geveg now an impenetrable military stronghold, Nya and the Underground have fled to a safer location—without Tali. Nya is guilt-ridden over leaving her sister behind and vows to find her, but with the rebellion in full swing and refugees flooding the Three Territories, she fears she never will.
The Duke, desperate to reclaim the throne as his own, has rallied his powerful army. And they are on the move, destroying anyone who gets in the way.
To save her sister, her family, and her people, Nya needs to stay ahead of the Duke’s army and find a way to build one of her own. Past hurts must be healed, past wrongs must be righted, and Nya must decide: Is she merely a pawn in the rebellion, a symbol of hope—or is she ready to be a hero?
Praise for Darkfall:
Nya’s the one who brought it. And the people love her for it.
With Baseer in shambles and Geveg now an impenetrable military stronghold, Nya and the Underground have fled to a safer location—without Tali. Nya is guilt-ridden over leaving her sister behind and vows to find her, but with the rebellion in full swing and refugees flooding the Three Territories, she fears she never will.
The Duke, desperate to reclaim the throne as his own, has rallied his powerful army. And they are on the move, destroying anyone who gets in the way.
To save her sister, her family, and her people, Nya needs to stay ahead of the Duke’s army and find a way to build one of her own. Past hurts must be healed, past wrongs must be righted, and Nya must decide: Is she merely a pawn in the rebellion, a symbol of hope—or is she ready to be a hero?
Praise for Darkfall:
"A conflicted, complex heroine to the end, Nya anguishes over the potential pain and death she will trigger to preserve what she loves...the finale offers suspense, resolution of prior wrongs, the sweetness of first love and a battle-tested heroine who fights with her head and heart."
—Kirkus 
Eight Against RealityEIGHT AGAINST REALITY
Edited By Dario Ciriello
Man's Best Enemy by Janice Hardy
Adult
Panverse Publishing, 2010
ISBN 13: 978-0692008850
Available from IndieBound, Barnes & Noble, and Amazon.
The stories in this volume represent eight worlds crafted by strong new voices. From the depths of the underground civilization of Varin to a gritty, near-future Seattle; from post-apocalypse Atlanta to an India where technology is reshaping society; from a young girl caught in the struggles of the Aztec Gods to a story of demonic possession on the Yangtze; from neo-Shakespearian Space Opera to the cross-wiring of parallel universes.
Janice's story, "Man's Best Enemy" appears in this science fiction, fantasy and horror anthology produced by Panverse Publishing. "Man's Best Enemy" tells the tale of Shawna, a teen girl living in post-apocalyptic Atlanta, who steps forward when her brother falls ill, to hunt down the mutant dogs that are terrorizing her people.
