Shattered Warrior by Sharon Shinn and Molly Knox Ostertag

I was never much of a graphic novel reader, but once I discovered a few that I liked, I’m pretty much hooked and want to read more of them.  When I was contacted about being part of the blog tour for Shattered Warrior, I was super excited, because I had recently finished reading Scott Westerfeld’s Spill Zone, and I fell in love with it.

I love science fiction, so when I saw that a science fiction story line was going to be combined with fabulous art in Shattered Warrior, I was incredibly eager to pick this up and have the chance to read it.  As predicted, I found myself reading the entire book in one sitting, and then going back and reading it again, because it’s just that amazing!

Our story starts out ten years after our main character, Colleen Cavanaugh’s, home world has been invaded and taken over by the alien race the Derichets.  They want to take over the world and make all of the humans mine the planet’s mineral resources, which they then export off the planet.  Colleen, who was the daughter of a wealthy family, needs money to keep herself fed and clothed, so she has to take a job in one of the mines.  She makes a few friends there, and together they try to stay alive while coming up with ideas of how they can possibly take down the Derichets and get them to leave their planet once and for all.

One night, Colleen meets Jann, who is a member of a violent group trying to oppose everything that is going on on the planet.  While Jann and Colleen should never become friends, they do – Jann finds himself drawn to Colleen, and although Colleen is wary of becoming a friend with a member of the Chromatti, she is lonely.

When Colleen receives the news that her seven year old niece, Lucy, is still alive and being held by the Derichets, she comes up with money in order to bring her home.  Getting Lucy to trust and feel safe is a difficult task, but she does well around Jann, and the three of them quickly become close.

“‘Every year, as the world revolves, the constellation dissolves.  And every year, when the stars realign, you can see the Shattered Warrior again.  Brought back to life by love.'”

When Colleen starts to fall for Jann, and Jann for her, she tries to convince herself it would not work out because of the situation going on around them, and how they must work together to form their own resistance to try and get the Derichets off the planet, but the two of them find themselves caught up in each other regardless.

As Colleen, Jann, and Lucy find themselves trying to make their lives as happy as possible, creating their own little family, Colleen and Jann are working with some others to try and plan something that will shock and hopefully get rid of the Derichets.

Shattered Warrior was a little bit of a lot of things, and those things mesh together wonderfully to create a brilliant story with illustrations that really capture the emotion of the book.

I loved all the characters in this book – I honestly felt like I got to know them and care for them, even if the book was shorter than I would have liked (I hope there’s going to be a sequel!).  While the ending kind of wrapped things up, I can see it being somewhat open to allow the story to be added on to in the future, which I loved.

Even if you aren’t really a graphic novel fan, Shattered Warrior is sure to wow you.  This book is complete perfection, all wrapped up in a gorgeous cover.  Colorful, engaging, and exciting, this book is sitting on my favorites shelf, where it is sure to be read over and over again.

Part romance, part science fiction, and a whole lot of action, this graphic novel deserves to be on your shelf!

Sharon Shinn has published more than twenty-five novels, one collection, and assorted pieces of short fiction since her first book came out in 1995. Among her books are the Twelve Houses series (Mystic and Rider and its sequels), the Samaria series (Archangel and its sequels), the Shifting Circle series, and the Elemental Blessings series. She lives in St. Louis, loves the Cardinals, watches as many movies as she possibly can, and still mourns the cancellation of “Firefly.”

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