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This is Book Two of the Epic Tetralogy, The Four Lords of the Diamond. **** Aliens are spying on Earth from one of the four worlds that make up the Warden Diamond. But it is impossible to send agents to any of the four worlds because of unique microscopic symbionts that make it impossible for visitors to leave the Diamond. **** Seeking a unique solution, each of the four worlds making up the Diamond is sent a person whose mind has been stripped of everything and who is now controlled by an show more agent of the Confederacy. **** Cerberus is the second planet to be visited. Qwin Zhang is stripped of her personality and left naked on the planet with her mind now occupied by one of the Confederacy's best operatives. Can she/he survive long enough to find out the truth about the deadly planet known as Cerberus? show lessTags
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*cue music*
Transformers...
...Robots in disguise
*end music*
That actually pretty much sums up this whole book. Ok, maybe not QUITE, but where Lilith dealt with 'magic', Cerberus deals with mind switching. And we get some pretty cool ideas and actions that come from that ability.
And the Agent is being affected by his clones, which makes him more than just a mouthpiece for the story to be told through. Which is good :)
Transformers...
...Robots in disguise
*end music*
That actually pretty much sums up this whole book. Ok, maybe not QUITE, but where Lilith dealt with 'magic', Cerberus deals with mind switching. And we get some pretty cool ideas and actions that come from that ability.
And the Agent is being affected by his clones, which makes him more than just a mouthpiece for the story to be told through. Which is good :)
An agent with a mind-wiped body, Qwin Zhang, infiltrates Cerberus, a prison planet covered in water, to stop synthetic, AI-driven imposters from attacking Earth. He must navigate a society where unique, mandatory body-swapping technology is used.
On the diamond worlds, a microscopic invader guaranteed you'd never go beyond High orbit... and it also worked radically differently on each of the four worlds of the Diamond.
So Zhang goes to sleep as a man trapped in a woman's body - only to wake up as a whole man again. Can he learn to control the shifts or would he be randomly body hoping? How much knowledge of the future & past hosts would he gain, or would it only be his own knowledge?
So Zhang goes to sleep as a man trapped in a woman's body - only to wake up as a whole man again. Can he learn to control the shifts or would he be randomly body hoping? How much knowledge of the future & past hosts would he gain, or would it only be his own knowledge?
The second volume of the Four Lords of the Diamond quadrology. In this book, Warden organism affects minds of the colonists, allowing them to shift bodies. This of course makes the goal to find and kill the Lord of the planet a bit harder.
The style of the book is similar to the first book, [b:Lilith: A Snake in the Grass|981782|Lilith A Snake in the Grass (The Four Lords of the Diamond, #1)|Jack L. Chalker|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1327882026s/981782.jpg|571236], i.e. it is a loose diary of the protagonist. Sometimes it is a bit too detailed compared to modern novels but overall it is an easy reading.
The style of the book is similar to the first book, [b:Lilith: A Snake in the Grass|981782|Lilith A Snake in the Grass (The Four Lords of the Diamond, #1)|Jack L. Chalker|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1327882026s/981782.jpg|571236], i.e. it is a loose diary of the protagonist. Sometimes it is a bit too detailed compared to modern novels but overall it is an easy reading.
Not as good as the first one. Started off pretty good, but "the plan" was more of a hidden agenda and lost clear focus on why Laroo went for it.
These and the original Well World Series are not only my favorite Chalker books, but among my favorite scifi/fantasy books. And I'm not big on "favorites". Someday, I'll set aside some time to delve into more of the imagination of Chalker.
Chalker's imagination was amazing...
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Author Information
107+ Works 25,007 Members
Jack L. Chalker was born in Baltimore, Maryland, on December 17, 1944. He received a B. A. degree in English from Towson University and a graduate degree in English and history from Johns Hopkins University. Before becoming a full-time writer in 1978, he taught history and geography in the Baltimore public school system. He founded a publishing show more house, The Mirage Press, Ltd., which produces nonfiction and bibliographic works on science fiction and fantasy. He was the author of several science fiction series including the Well World series, the Dancing Gods series, and the G. O. D. Inc. series. He received numerous honors including the Dedalus Award in 1983, the Gold Medal of the West Coast Review of Books award in 1984, the Skylark Award in 1980, and the Hamilton-Brackett Memorial Award in 1979. He died of kidney failure and sepsis on February 11, 2005. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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- Canonical title
- Kaspar's Box; Cerberus: A Wolf in the Fold
- Original publication date
- 2003-04; 1982-01
- People/Characters
- Hurl Bogen (security coordinator); Svarc Dumonia (Doctor); Kerar; Dylan Kohl; Krega (Commander); Wagant Laroo (Lord of Cerberus) (show all 12); Zyra Merton (inventor of the Merton Process); Otah; Turgan Sukal; Sanda Tyne (member of the Motherhood); Qwin Zhang; Lewis Carroll (nom de guerre of the Agent with No Name)
- Important places
- Borough of MaDell, Cerberus, Warden Diamond; Tooker Compucorp, Medlam, Cerberus, Warden Diamond; Laroo's Island, Cerberus, Warden Diamond
- Dedication
- For Richard Witter, another unsung living legend to whom the SF community owes a great deal.
- First words
- There was not supposed to be fear in the structured and ordered society of the civilized worlds; there was some sort of law against it.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)I can't get you out of my head.
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