''Transfigurations'' is a novel by Michael Bishop published in 1979.

Plot summary

''Transfigurations'' is a novel in which an anthropologist studies the Asadi, a culturally and technologically undeveloped anthropoid alien race on a world named BoskVeld, who communicate through

bioluminescence Bioluminescence is the emission of light during a chemiluminescence reaction by living organisms. Bioluminescence occurs in multifarious organisms ranging from marine vertebrates and invertebrates, as well as in some Fungus, fungi, microorgani ...

. Egon Chaney, the original anthropologist sent from the Galactic Community ("Glaktik Kom") to Boskveld, disappeared six years before the events of the story took place, but his daughter Elegy Cather has taken over her father's mission, accompanied by a

genetically modified Genetic engineering, also called genetic modification or genetic manipulation, is the modification and manipulation of an organism's genes using technology. It is a set of technologies used to change the genetic makeup of cells, including th ...

baboon Baboons are primates comprising the biology, genus ''Papio'', one of the 23 genera of Old World monkeys, in the family Cercopithecidae. There are six species of baboon: the hamadryas baboon, the Guinea baboon, the olive baboon, the yellow ba ...

chimpanzee The chimpanzee (; ''Pan troglodytes''), also simply known as the chimp, is a species of Hominidae, great ape native to the forests and savannahs of tropical Africa. It has four confirmed subspecies and a fifth proposed one. When its close rel ...

hybrid, Kretzoi, who may be able to communicate directly with the Azadi. Cather and her associates hope to prove that the Asadi have developed

sentience Sentience is the ability to experience feelings and sensations. It may not necessarily imply higher cognitive functions such as awareness, reasoning, or complex thought processes. Some writers define sentience exclusively as the capacity for ''v ...

technology Technology is the application of Conceptual model, conceptual knowledge to achieve practical goals, especially in a reproducible way. The word ''technology'' can also mean the products resulting from such efforts, including both tangible too ...

and religious

ritual A ritual is a repeated, structured sequence of actions or behaviors that alters the internal or external state of an individual, group, or environment, regardless of conscious understanding, emotional context, or symbolic meaning. Traditionally ...

Reception

Greg Costikyan Greg Costikyan (born July 22, 1959), sometimes known under the pseudonym Designer X, is an American game designer and science fiction writer. Costikyan's career spans nearly all extant genres of gaming, including: hex-based wargames, role-playing ...

reviewed ''Transfigurations'' in '' Ares Magazine'' #8 and commented that "Despite its narrative flaws, ''Transfigurations'' is exceptionally well written, and Bishop is a writer whose work deserves close attention." ''

Kirkus Reviews ''Kirkus Reviews'' is an American book review magazine founded in 1933 by Virginia Kirkus. The magazine's publisher, Kirkus Media, is headquartered in New York City. ''Kirkus Reviews'' confers the annual Kirkus Prize to authors of fiction, no ...

'' states "Some intriguing speculations about behavior -- but Bishop's usually engaging curiosity blends poorly here with the traditional furniture of outer-space fiction."

Reviews

*Review by Tom Easton (1980) in

Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact ''Analog Science Fiction and Fact'' is an American science fiction magazine published under various titles since 1930. Originally titled ''Astounding Stories of Super-Science'', the first issue was dated January 1930, published by William Cl ...

, January 1980 *Review by Charles N. Brown (1980) in Locus, #230 February 1980 *Review by John Clute (1980) in Foundation, #19 June 1980 *Review by Joseph Nicholas (1980) in

Vector Vector most often refers to: * Euclidean vector, a quantity with a magnitude and a direction * Disease vector, an agent that carries and transmits an infectious pathogen into another living organism Vector may also refer to: Mathematics a ...

98 *Review by Theodore Sturgeon (1981) in Rod Serling's The Twilight Zone Magazine, June 1981

References

{{reflist 1979 American novels 1979 science fiction novels American science fiction novels Berkley Books books