[Bantam; 1995; 0553482297; $3.50] [BB]
[NAL (ONYX); 1989; $?]
[Bantam Spectra; 1986; 0553248782; $2.95] [BB]
- [Rating: 1.] The protagonist finds himself on
a world of monsters, and survives by tailor-transforming himself into worse monsters. Hard
to believe that the author of Emergence could write such a bad book. -42
- Rating: 1 Result: BX/AN. I'm glad to hear that
someone else agrees with me on this one... Emergence was one of the top five
books I've ever read, and after about fifty pages of Threshold I came to the
conclusion that the cover must be a misprint--these two books couldn't possibly be by the
same person. I must admit there's quite a bit of shapechanging, though. -Ph
[Pocket; 1994; 0671787152; $5.50] [BB]
[Tor; 1997; 0312862857; $13.95 softcover] [BB]
- Rating: 4 Cause: AM Result: BM/PE Significance: +
Description: + Saturation: -. This book is a look at old-fashioned, British-style
colonialism with humans as the colonial power and the natives of Celestis as... the
natives. At least, that's what you think to begin with: Park gives it some very disturbing
spins. (This man's mind is very strange). Some natives of Celestis "humanize"
themselves physically (minor surgery) and mentally (truly awful drug treatments). One of
the main plot threads concerns a native woman from the "upper crust" ie. most
humanized layer of native society, who is kidnapped to the interior and deprived of the
drugs that keep her humanlike. She reverts. Again I'm only scratching the surface. [...]
The really interesting transformation is the mental one. It's not a transfer, or an
increase in mental power...(See Spoiler
Section for more information) -144 (98/02/09)
[Soldiers of Paradise: Avon;
1989; 0380705818; $?] [BB] [BBT]
[Sugar Rain: Avon; 1990; 0380711796; $?] [BB]
[BBT]
[The Cult of Loving Kindness:
Avon; 1991; 0380718197; $?] [BB] [BBT]
- This series is mind-boggling. Poul Anderson (I think) described it as "a trip to
somewhere else that's really Somewhere Else". The setting is a planet with very long
years, somewhat like the Helliconia
books by Aldiss. As a biologist, I found the Helliconia books very weak, and much
prefer Park. The seasons last roughly a human (?) lifetime, and as they shift the world's
creatures go through some fairly profound physical, physiological, behavioral, and in the
case of humans social and cultural changes. Only problem is, since these changes take
place from generation to generation, you really have to read the whole series to get the
idea of what's going on. Park's prose is dense, and you may find yourself at the end of
the first book going: "wha..?" I'm only scratching the surface of the weirdness
here. Park is not an easy read, but oh Lord is he worth the effort! Rating: 5 Cause: EC/CM Result: EA/MX/ST? Significance:
+ Description: 0 Saturation: +. -144 (98/02/09)
[104: Love and Death in London:
Bantam; 1994; 0553562274; $3.50] [BB] [BBT]
[105: Date with a Werewolf:
Bantam; 1994; 0553562282; $3.99] [BB] [BBT]
[106: Beware the Wolfman: Bantam;
1994; 0553562347; $3.99] [BB] [BBT]
[Avon; 1994; 0380765268; $5.99] [BB]
[Archway; 1995; 0671535293; $3.99] [BB]
[TOR; 1989; 0812548949; $3.95] [BB]
[1: Night Creature: Apple; 1996;
0590689509; $3.99] [BB] [BBT]
[2: Children of the Wolf:
Scholastic; 1996; 0590692402; $3.99] [BB] [BBT]
[3: The Wereing: Scholastic; 1996;
0590692410; $3.99] [BB] [BBT]
[DAW; 1973; 0879976497; $2.25] [BB]
[Bantam, 1976; 055308805X; $1.50] [BB]
- Rating: 3 Cause: AX Result: RM/SP Significance: +
Description: 0 Saturation: 0. In the far distant future humans have transcended Earth
and left it to a species of intelligent rats. Sheen, a fluid metallic being, is born from
a volcano and gradually absorbs most of the new world, promising (and giving) those who
become him their fondest dreams. These absorptions are mostly left off-camera but when
they are given attention they can be compelling. -104
(98/02/06)
[DAW; 1981; 0879976195; $2.25] [BB]
- Rating: 2 Cause: AX Result: BM Significance: 0
Description: 0 Saturation: 0. In the far future the world is dominated by the sentient
trees, and particularly two giant trees whose roots span most of the globe. The story is
about the humans who learn of the past and the effort to bring back humanity's former
glories. Along the way some humans are turned into trees or human-fungi, but not much is
told from this perspective. -104 (98/02/07)
[DAW; 1978; 0879974605; $1.75] [BB]
- A delightful novel about a somewhat delinquent juvenile who has the ability to transport
herself into alternate dimensions. Part of the ability is a transformation into a
life-form that can survive on whatever world she finds herself. -42
- Rating: 4 Cause: DT Result: BX/AN Significance: 0
Description: 0 Saturation: +. This dimension-hopping is through rings that only
certain individuals can see and use. One of the favorite novels from my childhood. -Ph
[Bantam; 1974; 0553232177; $2.75] [BB]
- Rating: 3 Cause: EC/NA/AS Result: AP/MT
Significance: + Description: + Saturation: 0. In the far future humans have evolved
into jaks, who have the ability to skip dimensionally through vast distances in space (as
well as having other mentallic powers), with the aid of their mounts (dogs who have
coevolved to this purpose). Some are trying to learn ways to bypass the need for the
mounts and skip through space by themselves, either adding the ability to themselves or
swapping bodies with the varks who can. A device is put on Jade that causes her to lose
these powers, which are so essential to her personality that it counts as a transformation
to me; and later, she (temporarily) swaps bodies with a vark, and a few acquaintances of
hers swap permanently. An enjoyable book with much to commend it. -104 (98/02/07)
[Bantam Spectra, 1991; 0553289500; $4.50] [BB]
[Tafford; 1993; 0962371270; $19.95] [BB]
- Rating: 4 Cause: AS/NT/VR Result: MR/MU
Significance: + Description: + Saturation: 0. A technique is discovered to transfer
human minds into a computer, allowing people to live out lives as gods of their own
worlds. The technique requires the person being transferred to die, however; an FBI agent
investigating it is transferred into the system against his will. Rather effective in
describing the shock and adjustment process to this new life. -104 (98/02/06)
[Bantam Spectra; 1986; 0553260642; $3.50] [BB]
[?]
[Del Rey; 1983; 0345307003; $2.75] [BB]
- [Cause: AS Result: MX.] Interstellar travel
and exploration is done by duplicative matter transmission. Bodies are edited in the
receiver to cope with the vagaries of the local environment. This is a marginal
transformation story, as it is more concerned with the fact that the duplicates are
expendable and they know it. The only significant bodily changes we see in the story are
some changes in bodily proportions and reflexes to cope with a low-G environment. -77
[Ace; 1992; 0441158668; $3.99] [BB]
[Ace; 1993; 0441084214; $?] [BB]
[Ace; 1983; 0441023827; $4.95] [BB]
- [Cause: MA Result: BX/AN/MU/ST.] One of the
bad guys, in an attempt to revive the long-dead Egyptian gods, gets in over his head and
is slapped with the 'mark' of Anubis, the jackal god -- i.e., he begins to turn into one.
He finds the gradual physical changes very annoying, but being a resourceful sorcerer he
devises a way of 'swapping souls' with other people. The catch is, the curse follows his
soul; the net result is that after a few weeks, when he is really starting to look
unhuman, he 'swaps' with an innocent person. He gets a new body, and the other person is
left in the body of a were-jackal. Of course, he usually sees to it that the body he
leaves does not hold out for very long... After a few weeks, he's messed up his new body
and has to do the whole thing again. Besides being an interesting concept, Powers turns it
into a powerful plot device which he employs in pulling off massive coups on the reader.
Made for some really good plot twisting, and since the book is primarily a time-travel
story it also lent itself to some interesting paradoxes. I highly recommend it. -30
[Avon; 1993; 0380715570; $4.99] [BB]
- [Cause: MA/MC? Result: MU?.] About, among
other things, a man who obtains new bodies for himself by playing poker (using Tarot
cards) with their former owners. He doesn't swap minds with them; he gains their bodies
without losing his old one. He shuttles about from one body to another, consciously
controlling one while the others run on automatic. -75
[The Colour of Magic:
Signet; 1985; 0451135776; $2.95] [BB] [BBT]
[Guards! Guards!: ROC; 1991; 0451450892;
$4.99] [BB] [BBT]
[The Light Fantastic: Signet; 1988;
0451152972; $3.50] [BB] [BBT]
[Mort: Signet; ?] [BBT]
[Moving Pictures: ROC; 1992; 0451451317;
$4.99] [BB] [BBT]
[Pyramids: ROC; 1989; 0451450442; $4.95] [RR] [BB] [BBT]
[Reaper Man: ROC; 1992; 0451451686; $4.99] [BB] [BBT]
[Sourcery: Signet; 1989; 0451162331; $3.95] [BB] [BBT]
[Wyrd Sisters: ROC; 1990; 0451450124; $4.95] [BB] [BBT]
- [Cause: MA Result: BX/AN.] Incidental
transformations are scattered throughout most of the books. A recurring character is the
Librarian of Wizard's University who was transformed into an orangutan and decided not to
change back. -50
[Workman; ?; 0894808532; $18.95 hardback] [BB]
- [Cause: MA Result: BM.] An angel and a devil
both in the guise of respectable businessmen, and a cute little, raggedy-haired mutt
that's really a hellhound put into this undignified form by the misguided preconceptions
of an eight-year-old antichrist. -50
[Dell; 1991; 044050354X; $10.00 softcover] [BB]
[Arena-Verlag Georg Popp, Wurzberg; 1971; ISBN 9060691288; $?] [BB]
- Young boy becomes an apprentice to a miller who has sold his soul to the devil (who
stops by every full moon to grind bones into flour) and teaches magic at his mill. This is
a children's book and ultimately is about The Power Of Love, but it has several
transformations in it. For instance, during class the miller's apprectices are turned into
crows, and the miller lets his apprentices pull off an interesting scam, involving one of
them being turned into a horse and sold. Rating: 4
Cause: MA/MC Result BX/AN Significance: 0 Description: + Saturation: 0. -141 (98/02/08)
[Del Rey; 1979; 0345284488; $1.95] [BB]
Werewolf! (anthology) {Ph/28,87,154/} [BBT]
[Harper & Row; 1980; 0060805048; $2.25] [BB]
[also printed by SFBC, though out-of-print there]
Where to from here?
Copyright © 1993-2000 Phaedrus /
Books O 
Transformation Stories List
Night of the Werewolf {/154/}
[??] [BBT]
The Lilith Factor {/11,94/} [BBT]
Farthest Star {//77} [BBT]