Found: Sci Fi Body Swapping Initiated by Aliens

Original topic subject: Sci Fi Body Swapping Initiated by Aliens

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Found: Sci Fi Body Swapping Initiated by Aliens

1Wes_Librairianson
Mar 26, 2022, 10:24 pm

Picked up this paperback working nights at a switchboard in 1990. Reminds me somewhat of The Puppet Masters by Heinlein and some details may be from that instead. All from POV of main character, who starts as a man, but gets kicked out of his body by an alien avoiding capture and is dumped in the body the alien abandoned. I think most people can't survive this experience, so the main character is somewhat unusual. MC is captured, but after they determine that the alien isn't home, a government agency wipes MC's memories, provides a new backstory of memories, and parks MC in a brothel in Vegas. Later they decide they need MC for their special ability, restore memories, and take them on the road fighting the body-hijacking aliens. It seems like there is a scene on a Pacific coast cruise line and at some point MC meets a person who has been placed in the body of a Native American girl and they become partners. I think this person gets body swapped more than once, but most of the book is in a woman's body.

2keachachu
Mar 26, 2022, 11:34 pm

The Identity Matrix by Jack L. Chalker? I haven't read it but sounds like it might be it.

3DemetriosX
Mar 27, 2022, 6:10 am

The way the main character gets body-swapped and the part about forming a relationship with someone swapped into a Native American girl definitely sound like The Identity Matrix, but the rest doesn't. It's been a while since I last read the book, but IIRC everyone survives being swapped and I don't think there was anything with memory wipes. The brothel part is definitely out, since the main character's first sexual experience as a woman is part of the narrative. Definitely worth checking, though. There's enough there that lines up.

4Wes_Librairianson
Mar 27, 2022, 9:54 am

It's the Identity Matrix. I found a description that included all the details I had. Thanks!