The Shapechanger Scenario

Psychodrome #2

by Simon Hawke

When humans arrived at Draconis 9, the only life on the planet was docile race of mammals. Humans do what they always do when they arrive on a new planet; they begin to kill things. It turns out the mammals were tasty. Little did the colonists know the animals were actually a race of telepathic shapechangers. Faced with being hunted for food, the shapechangers took the form of humans and began to learn how to face their new predator. The race was docile no longer.

Genres: Science Fiction, Gaming, Fiction

202 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published June 1, 1988

About the author

Also published as J.D. Masters.

He was born Nicholas Valentin Yermakov, but began writing as Simon Hawke in 1984 and later changed his legal name to Hawke. He has also written near future adventure novels under the penname "J. D. Masters" and mystery novels.

Reviews

[Betsy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book holds up surprisingly well for having been written 30 years ago. It requires a lot of "willing suspension of disbelief", but that is true of a lot of sci-fi. It is a compact 200 pages which is a welcome relief from the overblown tomes of 500+ pages that are being written today. The story is fast paced and internally consistent. It is particularly timely in the discussion of media manipulation of reality and the difficulty in telling the difference between what is real/news vs. what is entertainment/fake news. I am not sure how I missed this author when I was younger, but I will be reading more of him.

[Robert Kline · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book much more than the first in the series. This sequel was 1980’s pulp sci-fi fun that was much more focused and had some interesting world building going on. I rather enjoyed the addition of the new alien races, especially the paranoia inducing shape changing Animorphs and the Nomads.

Was it perfect? No. The characters had a tendency of talking… a LOT. And many of the same things were rehashed over and over. But overlooking some of the sections that wandered off a bit, the structure was a solid story that held my interest.

Now I am sucked in and HAVE to see how the trilogy ends.

[Jim Wrigley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Arkady O'Toole (Ar-kah-dy) is half Russian, half Irish, and completely in the proverbial.
It's a good fast pace trashy sci-fi book with some good characters and an entertaining plot.
The segues and asides as Hawke delves into motive and ponders life and our actions make the book well worth reading, same for the first book.

[Jamie Cooper · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book

[Sean Randall · Rating 2 out of 5]

If Hawke wasn't an author I'd already enjoyed, I would have regretted picking this book up - simply because the story is left even more wide open than at the end of the first novel. It also seems that the introduction of a new alien species herein serves a single, filling-wholes-in-the-plot purpose.

Still, the characters are well done, the dialogue snappy (if stilted in places and sometimes repetitive from the prior story) and the writing engaging. Despite this, a let-down - I'd call it OK at best.