Sight of Proteus

Sheffield, Charles. Sight of Proteus. 1978. Proteus No. 1. Orbit, 2013.
In his first novel, Sight of Proteus, Charles Sheffield (1935-2002) imagines a transhuman future in which transplants have become routine and have been combined with a computer-enhanced biofeedback and chemotherapy. These technologies have given humanity almost complete control over the form of their bodies. Like the mythological Proteus, we can all be shapeshifters. The process is not cheap or universally approved, and there are social inequities. Not all forms are viable, and not all are legal. A sizable proportion of the human population now lives in space, and babies that don’t pass a genetic humanity test are euthanized. Some of the forms people take are show more utilitarian, others simply whimsical. A mediocre poet, for example, changes her sex to male and makes herself look like Shakespeare, hoping it will improve her poetry. Our hero, Bey Wolf, and his partner, John Larson, investigate illegal form changes. Like many science fiction novels of the period, this one is a fix-up from stories originally published in a magazine, so don’t expect a lot of polished writing or structural coherence. Consider it a predecessor of Richard Morgan’s Altered Carbon. show less

This is a book written in the late 70's and it shows... its a cross between a 1950s science fiction story and an odd free for all. Its a bit jarring. The other thing is science. Bio feedback was just being researched (I wikipedia'ed it) and it was thought that this new science could work miracles. Sheffield take this to the extremes - where it can create changes in a body. It was very odd once I realized that this change wasn't done by drugs or chemicals.

The story itself is a simple detective story. And, at the end, there wasn't really a bad guy.

Sorry, just can't remember much of this series. I think I enjoyed it, and I did read the whole thing, but if it wasn't memorable, it wasn't wonderful, right?

ZB4