Slave to Sensation (Psy-Changeling #1) – Nalini Singh
Hachette Livre Gollancz, 2010
334 pages
RRP: AU$22.99
ISBN: 978-057-509566-3

Reviewed by Kate Smith

I initially bypassed this novel as not a story that I would be interested in reading, however I am pleased that I took the time to read Slave to Sensation.  This does not mean that the story is a classic, but it is a good example of its genre.  Not having read the two further novels in the psy-changeling series, I am a little apprehensive that there will be repetition of ideas or premises with different names inserted, but hopefully Singh will be able to integrate three different stories smoothly, each supported by the others without being the same.

Slave to Sensation begins with a young woman, Sascha, trying to find her place in the world but also doing the right thing by her family.  In a world inhabited by three species – human, changeling and psy – Sascha, who is of the psy, has interacted little with the other two.  Sascha knows she is different from others of her species but fights against this in order to appear as everyone else does.  When the reader meets Sascha she is losing the fight to contain her emotions.  When a business deal puts her in the situation of working closely with a changeling she is confronted with a group of changelings who embrace their emotions as strength and this is something that Sascha finds difficult to accept.  The story explores Sascha coming to terms with who and what she is and that the family she chooses is more important than ties to blood relatives.

Considering the length of the novel Singh does a good job or defining the world her characters live in without giving long rambling explanations of the world as some authors have tended.  This allows her novel to be a compact read but still weave a picture for the reader.  Some will be held back from enjoying this novel by the fact that changelings appear similar in many ways to lycanthropes and psy in some (fewer) ways to vampires.  To me there are enough differences to make this not just another vampire/werewolf novel, but others may not agree.

The bottom line is that Slave to Sensation is a pleasant read for a rainy winter’s day, snuggled up on the couch with a big mug of tea.  Accept it for what it is – an enjoyable story.