Skip to main content

story identification - Book: Brain swapping, alien conspiracy, space cruise


I'm trying to find the title of a book I read sometime between 85 and 95 in German. It could have been written much earlier, and it was most likely translated from English. I think it had a "book to the movie" sticker on the cover, but all googling for the movie or book failed so far.


What I remember:



  • brain transplants are safe and affordable enough to rent a body for a holiday. This is achieved with a robotic surgeon removing the brain and spinal cord from the old body and reattaching all nerves in the new body.


  • an overweight guy leaves his dominating mother to take a holiday on a space cruise, renting a new body for the trip. I think through a bribe he manages to rent the body belonging to an assassin that was held in storage while the assassin was on an assignment. At some point a small alien is revealed to be living in one of the legs.

  • the assassin returns from the assignment and gets the body of the overweight guy to follow him onto the cruise to get his body back. He later discovers that the body contained an implant producing a permanent feeling of guilt.

  • overall villain is a human-alien hybrid that has a robotic container attached to his spine that contains four additional brains. He owns the cruise ship and I think he tries to crash / blow it up somewhere. Though details are getting fuzzy, there.



Answer



In case anyone was wondering:


Star Fall (1980) by David Bischoff, the first in the "Star Fall" series. (ISBN: 0-425-04524-2)


Book cover



It has taken the combined genius of Human and Morapn civilization to create Star Fall, the vast interstellar liner with luxurious accommodations for every type of intelligent life in the known galaxy, now booking for her maiden voyage. This historic cruise will take her to the legend-shrouded center of the universe itself, old Earth, where her arrival will usher in a new era of peace and understanding.



Or so the brochure said. But someone, or something, hadn’t read the brochure. For hidden on the Star Fall is a box of anti-matter.


Just a small box ... one that is just large enough to implode Earth.



I finally found the right combination of keywords to find it in Google. :)


Per ISFDB, it has a sequel called Star Spring (1982).


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

futurama - How much time is lost in 'Time Keeps on Slippin''

In time Keeps on Slippin' , Farnsworth creates a basketball team which he matures by abusing Chronitons. This leads to time skipping forward by random, but ever increasing amounts. How much time was skipped in this way? Answer Unfortunately, I don't think a good estimate can be made for this, for two reasons: Many of the time skips move forward by an indeterminate amount of time. At one point, the Professor mentions localized regions of space skipping forward much more than others. We then see two young boys on the street below complaining about having to pay social security, only to suddenly become senior citizens and start complaining about wanting their money. Thus, each individual could have experienced a different amount of time skippage.
Post a Comment
Read more

What is Tolkien trying to say in this letter?

In a draft of a letter, later recorded as #246, Tolkien makes a strange statement. I am interested in the first few sentences of the letter, but I will include the remainder for the sake of context. In the 'Mirror of Galadriel', 1381, it appears that Galadriel conceived of herself as capable of wielding the Ring and supplanting the Dark Lord. If so, so also were the other guardians of the Three, especially Elrond . But this is another matter. It was part of the essential deceit of the Ring to fill minds with imaginations of supreme power . But this the Great had well considered and had rejected, as is seen in Elrond's words at the Council. Galadriel's rejection of the temptation was founded upon previous thought and resolve. In any case Elrond or Galadriel would have proceeded in the policy now adopted by Sauron: they would have built up an empire with great and absolutely subservient generals and armies and engines of war, until they could challenge Sauron and destroy ...
Post a Comment
Read more

tolkiens legendarium - Was Galadriel's temptation of Boromir instrumental to his fall?

We know Galadriel tempted the members of the Fellowship, did she tempt Boromir with visions of taking the Ring and saving Gondor? In the books, Boromir willingly accepts the judgement of the council that the Ring should be destroyed, but after the meeting with Celeborn and Galadriel his personality seems to change. Was the temptation offered by Galadriel in some way responsible for Boromir's fall? Answer It's likely, but not certain I believe it is likely Galadriel tempted him with the ring, and in doing so re-ignited a pre-existing idea to take the ring, but to be clear lets break this down into three parts. Boromir at the Council of Elrond Boromir after setting off Boromir after being tempted Boromir at the Council of Elrond Boromir pleas for the ring to go to Minas Tirith, to help Gondor in its defense against Mordor. “ Why should we not think that the Great Ring has come into our hands to serve us in the very hour of need? Wielding it the Free Lords of the Free may surely...
Post a Comment
Read more

harry potter - What is the difference between Diffindo and Sectumsempra?

In the Harry Potter books, Diffindo is called the 'Severing Charm' and it’s most commonly used to cut ropes and the like. However, in the last book Hermione uses it on Ron but misses, creating a 'slash in his jeans' and his knee gets cut, causing him to 'roar in pain'. We've only seen Sectumsempra used once on screen when Harry directly uses it on Malfoy in the sixth book, but there it's mentioned that he is 'waving his wand wildly'. Wouldn't Diffindo, if used in such a fashion also cause a similar effect? Similarly, if it was able to cut Ron, it would also be able to, say, chop off an ear (George's)? In that case, how are these two spells different, except for Sectumsempra seemingly used exclusively to hurt humans? Answer While Diffindo and Sectumsempra both can be countered by other spells, Diffindo is far more easily countered. Reparo, a relatively common spell, can completely reverse its effect when used once. “He pulled the old cop...
Post a Comment
Read more