TRANSFIGURATIONS by Michael Bishop

Human colonists have arrived on the distant world of Bosk’veld, only to discover it is already inhabited…sort of. Deep within the rainforests live a species of alien primate the humans call Asadi. Silent, secretive, with eyes that shine like rainbows, the Asadi show signs that they may, once, have been an advanced species with a complex civilization. Anthropologist Egan Chaney decides to live among the Asadi in an attempt to discover their secrets. After months in isolation, he leaves the rainforest and publishes “Death and Designation among the Asadi”, a text that makes such remarkable claims (ritual cannibalism, bizarre symbioses with other species, a hidden temple full of strange science) that it is dismissed as the ravings of a disturbed man. Chaney promptly returns to the jungle…and vanishes.

Years later, Chaney’s estranged daughter arrives on Bosk’veld, determined to find her father. She brings with her Kretzoi, a bizarre anthropoid engineered to be an emissary to the Asadi, a living Rosetta stone…

I’d been hearing about TRANSFIGURATIONS for a number of years now; it holds the dubious honor of ‘cult classic’ among old school Science Fiction fans (it was published in the 1970s) so I was eager to give it a go.

How does it hold up? Well…that depends on which part of the novel you’re talking about. The first third of the book is given over to “Death and Degeneration among the Asadi” and it is excellent. Written from Egan Chaney’s POV, it is both a fascinating character study of a determined man haunted by guilt (Chaney witnessed the extinction of an indigenous people due to ‘civilized’ interference on Earth, and feels responsible) AND an alluring description of an utterly alien species. Chaney’s description of the seemingly incomprehensible Asadi intrigues as much as it confuses, and he expertly sustains the mystery during an extended, claustrophobic descent into what MIGHT be a remnant of ancient Asadi culture. Strange, uncanny and to the point, “Death and Degeneration among the Asadi” is first class SF.

And then the rest of the book happens.

It’s not that it’s BAD, precisely. It’s just that one spends several hundred pages waiting for these new characters (Chaney’s daughter Elegy and her friend Benedict) to crawl back to the point Chaney left off, and it at times seems more like elaborate padding rather than an organic extension of the narrative. A quick bit of research reveals that “Death and Degeneration…” was originally published solo as a novella, with TRANSFIGURATIONS being the author’s attempt to bring the tale up to novel length and…and, yeah, it feels it.

It also doesn’t help that the last two thirds of the book focus on what are undoubtedly the story’s dullest characters. Elegy and Benedict seem like nice folks, but all they do is follow in Chaney’s footsteps and have a romance and run around in circles a lot, tripping over various kinds of annoying subplots along the way. The whole time I was reading the book I was astounded that, say, Kretzoi wasn’t the main character because OMG HE’S FASCINATING. A unique being, neither human nor Asadi, forced to endure life as a stranger in one, and as a tool in the other. Wouldn’t hearing more from such a viewpoint be NEAT? Sadly, the author seems content to treat Kretzoi in the same manner his human minders do: as a means to an end. A waste.

So if you can find a copy, for sure check out “Death and Designation Among the Asadi”. The rest? Leave that mystery for the jungle. Me like books.