Frolic of the Festive Furries

Tell me this wasn't illustrated by a painter who enjoyed recreational drug use before bed.

Before bed, upon waking, before and after every meal...

Weirdly gyrating big-eared musical gremlins -- particularly the one under the human's hand, with the weirdest pose and no instrument.

I've never read a Tepper book that didn't piss me off by the end, and this one's doing it with the cover.

Is the human Mavin, or -- being ManyShaped, is Mavin the white sloth or one of the dancing things, or even the tree or castle?

Also, because of the season, I can't help trying to sing the blurb and title to "Rudolph".

The one under her hand is particularly muppet-ish.

(Gotta say, that's quite an entourage. Most mages are content with a black cat or toad or maybe just an extra lizard or two.)

"The most famous shape-shifter of them all" - are we supposed to know who this is? Am I "not with it" in the fantasy community of... 1985?

Link broken. I'm missing all the furry goodness.

>4 TorMented: link broken
See https://www.librarything.com/topic/365996

LT has been having server difficulties with images recently, and there is work underway to fix it, but it looks like bad "image weather" today. The image in this thread is loading fine for me.

>5 paradoxosalpha: And now I can see it. I should be careful what I wish for.

>2 GSSex-noob: "Weirdly gyrating big-eared musical gremlins -- particularly the one under the human's hand, with the weirdest pose and no instrument."
Next to that figure, I initially thought there was a severed gremlin foot. Then I realized that this one has a weird pose and no instrument because it is dancing with a black gremlin who is easy to miss.

>3 bam2001: I have no idea, and I was indeed "with it" in SF/F in 1985.

Most famous shape-shifter, ya got me. Other than things like werewolves and gods and that guy with the deer horns in the cave paintings.

I'm going with Lon Chaney Jr.

Aw c'mon, you folks! (I was gonna say "you guys", but that's a mite sexist)

o/~The moooooost famous shape-shifter of all!/
Mavin the Manyshaped Muppet/
had a very fuzzy bod/
and since you always saw it/
you would always come away awed....o/~

Sorry, sorry. It's the "Christmas cheer"....

Bonus:

Funny, the blurb from Zelazny, seeing as how he'd done/would do stories involving chess.

Was he a chess nut boasting in an open foyer?

>10 Hammy_JLK: Excellent job with the terrible pun, and thanks for the lyrics I knew had to be there.

Happy whatever to all.

GSS, Hammy_JLK. Happy and a Happy New Year!