Please help me find this scifi book - this has been bothering me for 3+ years
September 23, 2010 2:55 AM Subscribe
Please help me find this scifi book - this has been bothering me for 3+ years
I vaguely remember reading a sci-fi book about 10 years ago, and it's been driving me crazy that I can't remember the title.
The basic story line is that aliens come visit Earth. Then the protaganist (human) somehow transfers his mind into an alien's body and travels for a long time on one of their ships.
A few specific details/scenes that stuck out:
-The aliens were roughly humanoid - but they had big, heavy, armor/spikes. There is one scene in particular where the human scientists compare the ratios of brain size to body mass. Humans are the leader by a huge margin. When they redid the calculations after removing the aliens' exterior plates' mass, the aliens had a much higher brain/mass ratio than us. The scientists also posited that the aliens were telepathetic, so their intellects were somehow aggregated.
-When the human gets into an alien body, he is taught some basics of their language. However, when he sneaks onto their ship all the paths are color coded (follow the maroon line to the cafeteria, the crimson line to the hospital, etc). He almost ends up starving, since he never learned the nuances of colors in their language and can't find food.
-The aliens don't sleep, and the protagonist (who is inhabiting one of their bodies) slowly starts going insane/nonsensical since he can't sleep while inhabiting one of their bodies
-I think the story somehow involves a race of humans who have extreme longevity/immortality. I'm more than a little fuzzy on this point and may be getting something confused though ...
I vaguely remember reading a sci-fi book about 10 years ago, and it's been driving me crazy that I can't remember the title.
The basic story line is that aliens come visit Earth. Then the protaganist (human) somehow transfers his mind into an alien's body and travels for a long time on one of their ships.
A few specific details/scenes that stuck out:
-The aliens were roughly humanoid - but they had big, heavy, armor/spikes. There is one scene in particular where the human scientists compare the ratios of brain size to body mass. Humans are the leader by a huge margin. When they redid the calculations after removing the aliens' exterior plates' mass, the aliens had a much higher brain/mass ratio than us. The scientists also posited that the aliens were telepathetic, so their intellects were somehow aggregated.
-When the human gets into an alien body, he is taught some basics of their language. However, when he sneaks onto their ship all the paths are color coded (follow the maroon line to the cafeteria, the crimson line to the hospital, etc). He almost ends up starving, since he never learned the nuances of colors in their language and can't find food.
-The aliens don't sleep, and the protagonist (who is inhabiting one of their bodies) slowly starts going insane/nonsensical since he can't sleep while inhabiting one of their bodies
-I think the story somehow involves a race of humans who have extreme longevity/immortality. I'm more than a little fuzzy on this point and may be getting something confused though ...
I think the story somehow involves a race of humans who have extreme longevity/immortality.
The human 'hero' is a sort of vampire.
posted by nomisxid at 7:18 AM on September 23, 2010
The human 'hero' is a sort of vampire.
posted by nomisxid at 7:18 AM on September 23, 2010
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100% sure.
posted by endless_forms at 7:12 AM on September 23, 2010