Books with Transformation Themes

 

Rewind by Terry England (AR) - Science Fiction - Visiting aliens turn a group of tourists into 12 year-olds. Focuses on social consequences - victims are adults in child bodies. (Interesting, worth a read)

The Grey Horse by R.A. MacAvoy(TF) - Fantasy - An Irish phooka falls in love with a farmer's daughter and assumes human form to woo her. (Great description, good plot, interesting characters - and equine TF)

The Jargoon Pard by Andre Norton (TF) - A boy buys a special belt from a mysterious stranger, and discovers the ability to become an animal. Great reading - Norton is a master storyteller.

The Spirit Wood by Robert Masello (TF) - A young man inherits a mysterious old house, and slowly falls under the control of a Greek cult. Interesting and unusual.

The Stone and the Float by Hans Bemmann(TF) - An epic (that means LONG) tale of a boy's search for his purpose in life. Along the way, he meets an enchantress who turns people into beasts. She decides that he'd make a good goat.

Dark Prince by David Gemmell (TF) - Fantasy - Tale of Greek legend and myth. An unusual transformation where a man and a horse combine to become a centaur.

Web of the Chozen by Jack Chalker (TF) - Science Fiction - One of Chalker's earlier books. A space explorer visits a planet that should have human colonists on it, but finds only strange animals. Then he starts turning into one of the animals himself. One of Chalker's better efforts.

The Wolf's Hour by Robert McCammon (TF) - Horror? - A boy becomes a werewolf, and grows up to become a secret agent in World War II. Very different, with some graphic TFs.

Wolf Moon by Charles de Lint (TF) - Fantasy - A lonely werewolf tries to find love and friendship at an Inn. I enjoyed it.

Hasan by Piers Anthony (TF) - Fantasy - We all know Anthony's Xanth series. This is a different type of story with several types of TF and no puns!

Mythology 101 by Jody Lynn Nye (TF) - Fantasy - A college freshman discovers elves living under the university library. Minor TF involved, but a very good read.

A Wind in Cairo by Judith Tarr (TF) - Fantasy - The irresponsible son of a wealthy Arab merchant rapes a Wizard's daughter and is turned into an Arabian stallion as punishment. (Good plot, strong characters, and great transformation scene)

River of Dancing Gods by Jack Chalker (TF, TG) - Fantasy - Although anything by Chalker tends to be a feast of transformations, this particular series is my favorite. Joe, a trucker from Montana, is lured from our world to become a barbarian hero in a land of monsters and magic. (Good characters, great transformation scenes, interesting premise)

Knight Life by Peter David (TF, AR) - Fantasy - King Arthur wakes up in New York, with a 12 year-old Merlin at his side. Fun reading, with several TFs.

Moon of Three Rings by Andre Norton (TF, Body Swap) - Science Fiction - A young spacer is saved from death by a woman who puts his mind in the body of an alien dog. Excellent look at warring wills and instincts.

Well of Souls by Jack Chalker (TF, TG) - Science Fiction - Chalker's best-known series has the entire universe maintained by an alien computer that can alter form and function of anything by changing the math. Focused around the main character of Nathan Brazil, this series has pretty much every kind of transformation and species imaginable. (Good characters, great transformation scenes, interesting premise)

Magic in Ithkar 3 edited by Andre Norton and Robert Adams) (TF) - Fantasy - A collection of stories set in a D&D type world. Several stories involve some sort of transformation, and one features a stallion who transforms women into mares. All of the stories are good reading.

Downtiming the Night Side by Jack Chalker (Swap, TG, AR) - Science Fiction - An unusual book from Chalker in that it uses body sharing/swapping and time-hopping. The participants not only become different people as they travel through history, they absorb parts of those people into their own being, changing every time they hop.

Big by B.B. Hiller(AR) - Fantasy - Decent novelization of the award-winning movie with Tom hanks. A 12 year-old makes a wish on a Zoltan Fortune Telling machine, and wakes up the next morning as a 35 year-old man. The movie is better.

Tomorrow Bites edited by Greg Cox and T.K.F. Weisskopf - (TF) - Fantasy/Horror - Collection of werewolf stories ranging from science fiction to normal horror tales.

Black and Blue Magic by Zilpha Keatley Snyder (TF) - Juvenile Fantasy - Good book about a boy who is given a magic salve that makes wings sprout from his shoulders. Interesting, even if it is old.

The Orphan by Robert Stallman (TF, AR) - Science Fiction - An alien creature shifts form between a bear-like monster and a young boy as he attempts to survive on Earth. Interesting and different.

Godslayer by Mickey Zucker Reichert (Swap, AR) - Fantasy - Al Larson, a young soldier in Vietnam, is snatched from death to become an elven warrior in another realm. This is the first in a series of books which pit the Earthling against Loki and other godlings. Excellent and unusual..

Sight of Proteus by Charles Sheffield (TF, AR) - Science Fiction - An in-depth look at form changing and how society deals with it. One of several books by Sheffield which deal with some form of TF/transformation.

Blood Moon by Al Sarrantonio (TF) - Science Fiction - Werewolves are taking over the world, converting some and eating the rest. Can the remnants of mankind use science to defeat them before humanity is gone? Lots of gore and violence.

Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury (TF, TG, AR. AP) - Fantasy - A carnival comes to a sleepy little town and starts granting hidden desires for those who come - but not in the ways the people envisioned. Much better than the movie that came from it later.

New Dimensions 12 edited by Marta Randall (TF) - Science Fiction - A collection of different stories, including a dark tale of mythical creatures created by science (Elfleda).

The Island of Dr. Moreau by Joseph Silva (TF) - Science Fiction - Novelization of the 1977 movie version starring Burt Lancaster and Michael York. The book has the original ending that was changed in the movie when original audiences demanded a happy ending.