several books and stories
{/20/}
[The Black Beast:
Pocket; 1982; 0671441175; $2.50] [BB]
[BBT]
[The Golden Swan: Pocket; 1983;
0671452533; $2.50] [BB] [BBT]
[The Sable Moon: Pocket; 1981; 0671831577;
$2.50] [BB] [BBT]
[The Silver Sun: Pocket; 1980; 0671834967;
$2.50] [BB] [BBT]
[The White Hart: Pocket; 1979; 0671831488;
$2.25] [BB] [BBT]
- Can someone verify which of these stories have transformation? -Ph
[?]
- [Result: BX/GC/AR.] ...has a middle aged housewife
transform into a lithe, muscular gay teenager. It's rather well written and engaging. -122
[Tor, 1987; 0812554922; $2.95] [BB]
- Rating: 2 Cause: MA/MC Result: BX/AN Significance: 0
Description: + Saturation: 0. Sword-and-sorcery fantasy, this book is in the middle of
a series. The main characters are able to take animal forms, though Dannoc, the hero, is
seduced by a seal maiden and "permanently" turned into one. (He is made human
again, but only by a chance encounter.) Rad, his companion, was able to take a seal form
temporarily. Also seen are seal folk (who can take human-seal forms, as the maiden does)
and deer folk (who can do the same, and who turned one of Dannoc's friends into one of
them, apparently in a prior book). Nice if light read, although for some reason Dannoc
(from whose point of view the story is told) always seemed to me to have the voice of
Thundarr the Barbarian. -104 (98/02/06)
[1: The Werewolves of
London: Carroll & Graf; 1994; 0786701803; $?] [BB] [BBT]
[2: The Angel of Pain: Carroll &
Graf; 1995; 0786702869; $5.95] [BB]
[BBT]
[3: The Carnival of Destruction:
Carroll & Graf; 1996; 0786703334; $6.95] [BB] [BBT]
Beast trilogy {77/87,154/}
[1: The Orphan: Pocket;
1980; 0671829580; $2.25] [BB] [BBT]
[1: The Orphan: Pocket; 1983; 0671467581; $?] [BB]
[2: The Captive: Pocket; 1981; 0671413821;
$2.50] [BB] [BBT]
[3: The Beast: Pocket; 1982; 067141383X; $2.50] [BB] [BBT]
- [Cause: NA/AX? Result: BX/PE.] ...A variant on the
werewolf theme. They concern an extra-dimensional life form that leaves its young on
earth. The young alien has an extreme form of protective mimicry: it can assume the body
and personality of a recently dead human, like a hermit crab using an abandoned shell. The
assumed personality is human in every respect except that he knows that he can transform
to the alien bear/cat like form. There are conflicts between the alien and its human
personality, with the human knowing that the alien can drop the current personality and
adopt another. I'd recommend these, particularly the 2nd book, The Captive. -77
- This trilogy starts out as a really nifty shapeshifter tale, but in the third book they
turn out to be pre-pubescent aliens. The first two books are very good; the third book
reads like it was written by another person entirely (as it may have been - the last two
are credited to the estate of Robert Stallman). The first book may be hard to find due to
the explicit bestiality at one point. -87
- [Result: LY.] Lycanthropy. -154 (98/02/13)
The First and Last Men
{42//} [BBT]
[?]
- [Rating: 5 Cause: GM? Result: RM?.] One of the great sf
classics. The transformation is on the grandest of scales, as the human race keeps
redesigning itself over billions of years. -42
Lady El {103//}
[BBT]
[Penguin; 1992; ?]
- [Cause: AS Result: BT/IN.] Rating:
4 Significance: + Description: + Saturation: -. The protagonist, a black cleaning
woman, is killed in an accident at the beginning of the book. Since she filled out an
organ donor card, the military takes her brain to run a supercomputer with. Her brain was
never expected to regain conciousness, but it does. The scientist in charge of the project
helps her keep the secret, and she adapts well. I didn't like the ending, but otherwise an
excellent story. -103
[Del Rey; 1989; 0345274563; $4.95]
- Result: LY. One of the characters is a werewolf; it's
been too long since I read it for me to remember how important this was to the story. -Ph
- The werewolf is a priest who considers the lycanthropy to be due to his sinning, and for
him this is a big deal. The whole book is like that, written where a Medieval mindset
about God and the World is literally true. The priest is a relatively important character,
and has an interesting relationship with a lust-witch, who is later reformed, so you have
a mental/spiritual change also. I really enjoy this series, but not for the
changes.:) -109
[Schismatrix: Arbor House;
1985; ?; $?] [BBT]
[Crystal Express: ?] [BBT]
- [Cause: AS/GM Result: BX/RM.] Feature a human race
rapidly changing under the impact of new technologies and alien contacts. Genetic
engineering and cyborg implants are routine, and by the end of Schismatrix
the human race is diverging into weird clans: the Spectral Intelligents, the
Lobsters (with their integral spacesuits), the Blood Bathers, and the Lifesiders
reengineering themselves to live in the subsurface ocean of Europa; the implication is
that a Vinge type Singularity is imminent. Most of the Mechanist/Shaper shorts are in Crystal
Express. -77
[?]
[Fawcett; 1990; 0449214222; $5.99] [BB]
- [Result: LY.] A children's story, somewhat Beauty-and-the-Beastish.
The werewolf is the good guy. -87
- Lycanthropy. -154
[?]
[Archway; 1995; 0671894242; $3.99] [BB]
[Apple; 1996; 059067319X; $3.99] [BB]
- [Result: LY.] Lycanthropy. Young adult; multi-ending
choices. -154 (98/02/13)
[Apple; 1995; 059049449X; $3.99] [BB]
[?]
[Skylark; 1995; 0553482262; $3.50] [BB]
[TOR; 1991; 0812512774; $5.95] [BB]
- Rating: 5 Result: BX/AN/PE/MD Significance: + Description: +
Saturation: +. An extremely good man-into-wolf novel, with a great deal of attention
paid to the physical and mental aspects of the change and of life as a wolf. What The Metamorphosis would be if done
in the 90's by a horror writer. A must-read, if you won't be off-put by the graphic
violence and animal sex. -Ph
- An excellent man-info-wolf novel. -87
- It is the best novel of this genre I've ever read. Perhaps the chase through NY is a bit
too long. Remarkable: the ironic reference to Stephen King's super-intelligent, evil
fighting kids. Transformations: all thumbs up! Rating: 5. -114
- Lycanthropy. -154 (98/02/13)
[Avon; 1988; 0380704404; $4.50] [BB]
- Actually not a shape-shifter story, but with some references to the werewolf mythology.
The "wolfen" are a species of high intelligent, wolf-like predators. The story
is told from both directions and it is not easy to tell who's evil --- or what
evil is. Transformations: none. Rating: 5. -114
- [Result: LY.] Lycanthropy. -154 (98/02/13)
[?]
- [Cause: AX Result: BM/SC.] The misanthropic, insane
master of a carnival is obsessed by jewel-like alien lifeforms that can duplicate and
rebuild living things, planning to use them for his revenge on the human race. Unknown to
him, a small boy in the carnival is being restructured by the jewels (acquiring limited
telepathy, shapechanging and regeneration), and eventually foils his plans. (Any synopsis
of the plot sounds silly- it's a lot better than it sounds!) -77
[Dell; 1979; 0440193605; $1.95] [BB]
- ...A pretty weird story about a guy who wakes up in a very strange place, which is
inhabited by some very strange beings. There is a good deal of suspense as to whether the
story is about time travel, alien encounter, or neither, or both... -84
[?]
- [Cause: MA Result: GC.] There's some more minor
transformation in 'Loki's Flyting'; Loki and the gods are taunting each other, and one of
them reminds Loki about the time he was a girl in Midgard for several years, and nursed
babies. -75
[aka The Prose Edda] [BBT]
- [Cause: MA Result: BX/AN.] Loki and Odin are both
shape-changers, and Loki in particular has one very interesting change when he becomes a
mare in order to distract the mason's stallion; he succeeds in distracting him, so the
mason can't finish the job on time and has to do it for free, but he comes back several
months later with a colt... -75
[Random House; 1998; 0-517-18093-6; $9.99] [BB]
[Devil's Tower: Del Rey; 1996; 034540209X; $5.99] [BB] [BBT]
[Devil's Engine: Del Rey; 1997; 0345402103; $5.99] [BB] [BBT]
- Rating: 4 Cause: MC?/NA? Result: BM/MP/SP Significance: 0
Description: 0 Saturation: 0. These books are set in "an alternate history of a
West that never was." The Civil War (specifically, the battle of Shiloh) somehow
unleashed human magical abilities, called talents. As a result, civilization pretty much
crumbled and white settlements are withdrawing all over the West. Towns are protected by
powerful (usually talented) sheriffs. One of the types of talent (and the reason I am
including these books) is being a changer. Changers can voluntarily assume other forms,
some have only one alternate form and some have a repertoire. [...] These are fascinating
books, but changing is one talent among many. Cause: MC or NA? Since talent is inborn, the
distinction isn't completely clear. -144 (98/02/10)
[Avon; 1992; 0380715244; $4.50] [BB]
- [Cause: NA/MA? Result: RM/SC?.] On a planet where the
ocean level is about to rise by a kilometre or so, and most of the native life has
alternate marine and land forms, an unnamed bureaucrat is searching for a magician who
claims to possess (stolen, proscribed, possibly fictitious) shapeshifting technology from
offworld. -77
- [Cause: NA/NT/VR Result: RM/BM.] Transformation is the
major theme of this book, set in a part of a world where a very long cycle between wet and
dry has evolved animals (and sapients) who can alternate between land- and water-based
forms. Also features numerous other transformations based on nanotechnology and virtual
reality. -92
[Ace; 1988; 0441858767; $2.95] [BB]
- [Result: PE?.] ...Centers around the search for a
personality that will remain stable in a world where they tend to decay quickly. -80
[Ace; 1985; 0441790941; $2.75?] [BB]
- Rating: 4 Cause: MA Significance: + Saturation: 0
Description: +. A story loosely based on the old Irish fairy tale about children
turned to swans by an evil stepmother. Basically picks up the story of Lothar, one of
eleven brothers transformed who retained one wing after the curse was broken, several
years after. Told through the eyes of a traveling companion. A good story, told seriously
with the spirit of classic fairy tales. -78 (98/02/07)
Where to from here?
Copyright © 1993-2000 Phaedrus /
Books S (p. 2) 
Transformation Stories List
Larque on the Wing {/122/} [BBT]
Venus
Plus X {//84} [BBT]