Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written,alt.horror From: phaedrus@halcyon.com (Mark Phaedrus) Subject: Transformation Stories List, v8, [long] [spoilers?] Message-ID: <1992Nov16.074241.28764@nwnexus.WA.COM> Keywords: Eighth release; more wanted Organization: Lycanthropes Anonymous Date: Mon, 16 Nov 1992 07:42:41 GMT Lines: 1027 [This contains all parts, concatenated.] This is the eighth release of the Transformation Stories List. This is also the first version of the list that will be made available on America Online as well as on the Internet (unless someone else has been sneaking it there behind my back :) ); hopefully showing it to a new crowd will bring in some new suggestions. Please note that my Internet email address has changed (there comes a point in every man's life when he must move from .edu to .com... :) ) WHAT THE LIST IS ABOUT About three years ago, I asked if anyone on the Internet could provide me with the names of books or short stories using transformation as a theme. Several dozen people could. :) Many others have added their contributions since, and the result is the list that follows. My profuse thanks to everyone who has contributed. The list includes books and short stories that feature physical or mental transformation. (By "transformation", I mean an abrupt and/or unnatural change; someone growing up isn't transforming, unless, say, they turn into a werewolf in the process. :) ) Currently, it's composed almost exclusively of science fiction, fantasy and horror stories, and that will continue to be the emphasis, but I'd be glad to list other sorts of works as well. In addition to listing these books and stories, each one has also been rated as to how much of a role transformation plays in it; this should give you a good idea of what works are most worth seeking out. This list includes a number of corrections to information in previous lists, so please use this version in place of any previous ones you may have. The list was originally created to gather research material for a project of mine, but the overwhelming positive response has led me to continue and expand it. I would very much like to hear from you if you find this list useful; I'll maintain the list as long as people are getting good use out of it. CHANGES IN THIS EDITION OF THE LIST New submissions and corrections, including many from the "TG SF List" maintained by Marge@coyote.cs.wmich.edu. Quite a bit more publication info added. My Internet mailing address has changed. This list will also go out to America Online (in a slightly different format). These instructions have been reorganized and rewritten to hopefully make them clearer. SPOILER INFO I've been told that some of these list entries constitute "spoilers". In a list like this, it's really difficult to sort out what constitutes a spoiler and what doesn't; and it seems to me that, given any list involving the presence of a specific plot element like transformation, if the plot element is intended to come as a surprise to the reader, you're basically providing a spoiler by listing the book at all, no matter what you do or don't say about it (and I want to list as many books as possible). However, I do recognize the problem, and I'd like to do what I can to solve it. Therefore, all the information that has fairly obvious spoiler potential has been moved to the end of the list. If the person giving me information on a book says that that information is a spoiler, or if two people send me email saying that certain information is a spoiler, that information will be moved to the spoiler section of the list. THE LIST FORMAT The list has two major sections; books and short stories. Within these sections, the list is sorted alphabetically by author. At first, the list may look a bit imposing, but it's easy to read once you know how it's laid out. An entry on the list looks like this: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ + Brandner, Gary The Howling 11/MP/ [Fawcett; 1977; 0-449-13824-0, $1.75] "Rating: 2 Type: L Significance: + Description: + Saturation: -. Horror; lycanthropy. Traditional werewolf story. Somewhat the basis for the original movie of the same name; definitely the basis for the fourth movie in the series. A reasonably good transformation description saves it from the trash heap." -11 [As a story it's fair at best, but as a transformation tale it's worth a look, though I wouldn't quite give it a +. -MP] ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The top line gives the author, the title, and a list of the people who have commented on this book. To save room, these people are listed by number; check the list of "Contributors" later on to find out whose number is whose. The people listed before the first slash (#11, Joe Huber, in this case) gave the book a "+" rating, meaning that someone interested in transformations should definitely seek out this book. The people listed between the slashes (just MP, myself, here) gave the book a "0" rating, meaning that the book is about average as far as transformation goes. The people listed after the slashes (nobody here) gave the book a "-" rating, meaning that the book uses transformation only incidentally. (If the slashes are missing entirely, it means that everyone gave the book a "0" rating.) Please take note that these ratings deal only with the use of transformations in the work, not with the overall quality of the work itself. The character at the far left margin (a "+" here) is a quick reference; a "+" if there have been more "+" than "-" votes, a "0" if the votes are even, a "-" if there are more "-" than "+" votes, or a "?" if the book's entry has critical information missing or if there's some question as to whether the book belongs on the list at all (many of these are books that I've gotten from other lists or picked up off the bookstore shelves, but haven't had a chance to read to confirm their transformation content; if you are familiar with these works, I'd greatly appreciate if you could send me the needed info). The second line is publication info; publisher, year, ISBN and price. Most of this information comes from my own collection, so the publication info given may well not be for the most recent version. If a "*" appears just after the publication info, it means that I don't own the book, which means I won't be able to answer any questions on it. If a "!" appears instead, it means that I don't own the book but it's on my list of Neat Stuff to Buy. :) After that, any specific comments people have made about the book are listed and identified by number. Joe Huber (#11), one of my best contributors, has devised a nice, compact format for adding lots of information to his comments. Here's his description of that format, which I'd love to see other contributors use as well: "The ratings are mine and mine alone. "4-5 : A multiple read book/series "3 : Worth a read "2 : Possible read, if it looks interesting "1 : I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. "[NR : not read] "Transformation Information is broken down into four categories: "(1) Type. I've broken this down as follows: "B - Body metamorphosis. An actual transformation of the body. "L - Lycanthropy. A subset of metamorphosis, where the type and timing of the transformation of the body is set by curse/magic/etc. "M - Mind transfer. Includes brain transplants, body- swapping, soul transference and the like. "O - Other. Anything I was to lazy to classify. "(2) Significance. Basically, the "interest level" rating you asked for. +/0/- scale, where: + : Story/Book/Series is about the transformations, or revolves around them. 0 : The transformations are critical to the story, but not the focus. - : Any transformations are incidental to the story. "(3) Description. Amount & clarity of description of the transformation itself. +/0/- "(4) Saturation. For those who like their transformations by the gross. The best way to describe this rating might be how pervasive the transformations seem to be. +/0/- "note: an X in any category indicates that I don't remember the story well enough to adequately judge the category, or (in 1 case) that the book was so awful that I couldn't even force my way through it." WHERE AND HOW TO MAIL FOR LIST STUFF Please send any mail regarding this list to phaedrus@halcyon.com. It would help me if you start your mail message's Subject: line with "Transformation", so I can process all the requests at once. ADDITIONS/CORRECTIONS/ETC. TO THE LIST: These will be added to the next list release. I do my level best to send thank-you notes to all submitters; if I fail, feel free to flame me mercilessly. :) (See below for more information on making additions/corrections to the list.) SPOILER COMPLAINTS: If you see information in the main portion of the list that you believe constitutes a spoiler, let me know. I will move such info to the spoiler section. A COPY OF THE LATEST VERSION OF THE LIST: I do my best to mail these out to Internet users within 48 hours. THE MAILING LIST: It's getting to be too much of a pain to deal with the umpteen zillion bounces caused by account expirations/mailbox overflows, so at least for now I'm doing away with the mailing list. I would still be happy to email a copy of the most recent mailing list to anyone on the Internet upon request. SUGGESTIONS FOR CHANGE: If you think you have a way for the list to be improved, please let me know about it (though if it involves a lot of extra work I'll probably draft you for the job :) ). QUESTIONS ABOUT SPECIFIC WORKS: I will do the best I can to answer questions about specific works (the plot, the specifics of the transformation, etc.), but I have to do so as time permits, which means it may take a while. You will probably get a faster and better response by posting your question to the net. instead. ENCOURAGEMENT: I'm always happy to hear that people are using the list, and how they're using it. Even if you have nothing to add to the list, if it's a useful resource to you, let me know about it; it helps me justify to myself the time I spend on it. :) HOW TO MAKE ADDITIONS/CORRECTIONS TO THE LIST I would also very much welcome additions or corrections to the list. Any story that has transformation in any form (lycanthropy, genetic engineer- ing, some forms of vampirism, magic spells, curses, whatever) as a theme is eligible. It doesn't matter if the story is any good or not, though it would be nice if you tell us if it's lousy so we don't go in with any false hopes. :) For each story you add, please give as much of the following information as possible: The title and author. The publisher, ISBN, publication year and price, if available. (These are a great help to people trying to find or order the work.). If the work is a short story, it would help others find the story if you give the above information on a book or magazine in which the story can be found. A brief description of how transformation is used in the story (who is transformed into what and how), and anything else you feel would be helpful to know about the story (such as whether or not it's actually any good :) ). If you feel that any of this information constitutes a "spoiler," please say so and that information will be put in the Spoiler Section instead of in the regular list. A "degree of interest" rating. If transformation is a major theme of the story (in other words, if this is a work someone interested in transformation should really seek out), give a "+" rating. If transformation is only incidentally involved in the work (in other words, if it definitely wouldn't be worth someone's time to track this down solely for the transformation content), give a "-" rating. If it's somewhere in between, give a "0" rating; this is what I'll assume if you don't give a rating. (Bear in mind that these ratings are trying to gauge the involvement of transformation in the work, not solely the number or degree of transformations present; a story where only one character is transformed before the book begins and that plays a key role in the book might well be a "+", while a book where a transformation occurs every page but nothing is ever made of it might be a "-".) Also bear in mind that the quality of the work itself should not go into this rating, though it can certainly go into your description above. If you'd like to be *exceptionally* helpful, you can add the additional information that Joe Huber has used in his reviews; his format is described up in "List Format" above. Please mail me your submissions at phaedrus@halcyon.com; I don't have time to follow all the Internet news (what a surprise :) ), so if you post it I probably won't see it. CHANGES I'D LIKE TO MAKE FOR THE NEXT VERSION I'd very much appreciate brief summaries for those works that don't currently have them (and those that do, for that matter :) ). Some works still don't have complete publication info; any information you can provide on these works would be most helpful. (Almost all of these works are flagged by a question mark where the publication info should be.) For those works with question marks by the left margin (meaning that I'm not sure whether or not they belong on the list), I'd greatly appreciate any additional information on these works that you can give me. Ideally, all the listed works should have at least a basic explanation of what is transformed into what and how. If you're familiar with any of the listed works that don't have this information given, I would *very* much appreciate your providing it (though be sure to let me know if it constitutes a spoiler). And of course, new works are always more than welcome too. :) CONTRIBUTORS I received suggestions and ideas from the following people, listed in no particular order. Once again, my thanks to each of them. 1. Jeff Jensen 2. Greg Alan Raburn 3. Gavin Steyn 4. Todd Haynes 5. Dave Schaumann 6. Paul S Shannon 7. Seth D. Kadesh 8. Janet M. Lafler 9. Michel Forget 10. Dan Bloch 11. Joe Huber 12. Andy Nelson 13. David Goldfarb 14. Marc Espie 15. Sonja Bock 16. Jim Kasprzak 17. (unknown) 18. Gavroche 19. Robert Fisch 20. Carlo Radovsky 21. Ellen West 22. John Whitmore 23. Michael J. Hennebry 24. Sam F Bullard 25. Alayne McGregor 26. Jim Winer 27. Robert White 28. Tom Talley 29. Marc Colten 30. Ron Hough 31. D. Jay Newman 32. Maurizio Codogno 33. Leslie DeGroff 34. The Humbug Wizard 35. Ryk E Spoor 36. Caroline Kierstead 37. Mark Gooley 38. David Fenger 39. Ben Cohen 40. Matthew P Wiener 41. Rolf Wilson 42. Dani Zwieg 43. Malcolm Mladenovic 44. Juri Munkki 45. Heikki Poso 46. Jason Comander 47. David Bennett 48. Stephen Carter Morgan 49. The Neuromancer 50. Michael Kerstetter 51. Derek Upham 52. Beth McCurdy 53. Cirocco Jones 54. Greg Schmidt 55. Ethan Miller 56. Teppo Jarvinen 57. Marcy Thompson