What do You think about Mindswap (2006)?
Need your intelligence insulted, again? Here comes Sheckley! A great example of how Sci-Fi ages like goat cheese. It stinks and deforms until it's unrecognizable. Could this possibly be worse than "Status Civilization?" No, it's a hair better because it has more aliens and something that smells vaguely of plot. Reads like Young Adult, and I mean that in a condescending and smarmy way, but it was never intended to be such. Pulpiest dreck ever inspired by a want ad. (view spoiler)[ He should have written: Wouldn't it be cool to be an alien? What if you could have sex as an alien? Or maybe swap like one of those swinger mags? The end. And then promptly filed it in the circular. (hide spoiler)]
—Jay
A wonderfully zany SF romp, which you'd be tempted to dismiss as a rip-off of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy if it hadn't been written 15 years earlier. I see that some reviewers here object to Sheckley's style and dialogue, but to me it seemed clear that he was mostly parodying SF and other genre fiction - I found it very amusing.In this book, you travel the Galaxy by swapping minds with alien beings on other planets. There are many brilliant throwaway ideas, but the clear standout is "panzaism". Sheckley defines this as as the opposite of quixotism - Don Quixote looks at a windmill, and sees a giant. Sancho Panza, on the other hand, looks at a giant, and sees a windmill. So the hero of the book may start a chapter with his mind suddenly occupying the body of a mole-like creature burrowing in pitch darkness miles under the surface of an alien planet; after a few pages, the panzaism has set in, and he just feels that he's a commuter on his way to work.As artists are always reminding us, the world is far more bizarre, dramatic and interesting than we think. I think Sheckley found a great way here to present a real phenomenon, and once you're used to the concept of panzaism you'll notice it everywhere.
—Manny
Empezar un libro de Robert Sheckley es como entrar en un bar y descubrir que, aunque tus amigos aún no han llegado, el tipo que está dándote conversación en la barra es de esos con los que te quedarías charlando entre cervezas. Desde el anuncio clasificado que abre la novela, en el que un marciano «tranquilo, estudioso y culto desea intercambiar su cuerpo con un respetable habitante de la tierra», entran ganas de quedarse sentado en el taburete y pedir otra ronda.La premisa la novela es sencilla: en un futuro que el escritor imaginó en 1966, la forma más barata de viajar por el universo es intercambiar el cuerpo con un habitante de otro planeta. Marvin Flynn, un terrícola que quiere escapar de su tediosa vida, responde a un anuncio en el periódico y transfiere su mente al cuerpo de un marciano. Para su desgracia, pronto averigua que (1) el marciano es un estafador que se ha forrado ofreciendo su cuerpo a varios huéspedes a la vez, (2) está utilizando el cuerpo de Marvin para huir de las autoridades y, para colmo, (3) Marvin ni siquiera tiene derecho legal a seguir empleando su cuerpo adoptivo… y las mentes sin cuerpo no tardan mucho en morir. Así empieza la epopeya de Marvin Flynn, entre absurda y trascendente, a lo largo y ancho del universo.Trueque mental es un libro de los de ceja en estado de alerta, media sonrisa y consultar bibliografía al final, porque quieres otro libro que te lo haga pasar tan bien. Esta Guía del autoestopista del País de las Maravillas se lee en cuatro ratos y deja con ganas de más.(Reseña más larga, con fotitos y tal, en Fantífica.)
—Manu
