Mindswap

Dust jacket and interior illustrations by Jonathan Marks Barravecchia.

Introduction by Michael Swanwick.

Published by Centipede Press.

They say travel changes you—that it can make you a new man. But is that always a good thing?

Earthling Marvin Flynn has done some traveling, if you can call it that. He’s gone scuba diving down to the sunken city of Miami. He’s seen the Hanging Gardens of London. He’s crossed Sinkiang by camel. But he’s never been anywhere truly exotic, not even the moon. Real travel costs real money. And he hasn’t got it.

Which makes the classified ad he comes across all the more tempting. It offers the opportunity to swap minds with a self-described “Gentleman of Mars.” See Mars through Martian eyes, all while avoiding the expense of a trip across the solar system? Who could say no? Brushing off a friend’s warning—think of what he could do with your body!—Flynn accepts. He soon finds himself in the body of a Martian, which might be all right if it weren’t for the lisp—and if it weren’t for the fact that another would-be tenant wants to claim the body himself.

What follows is a story as wild, creative, and funny as anything Douglas Adams ever dreamed up. It reads like Philip K. Dick as rewritten by Monty Python, or a crazy nightmare recounted by your favorite comedian. It’s a manically inventive, brilliantly comic tale, a romp powered by rocket fuel and a fearless imagination.

To clear up the question of who has rights to live in the Martian’s body, our hero and the accuser head to the police station. “It is a truism throughout the civilized galaxy that when you go to the police, your troubles really begin,” Sheckley writes, and then he demonstrates why it’s a truism.

Our hero quickly discovers that the “Gentleman of Mars” who swapped minds with him is a criminal. Flynn finds himself tossed on the proverbial sidewalk, barely escaping death by swapping into another body, that of an egg catcher. And these are Martian eggs: the kind that talk. And the beings who lay these eggs? They’re big, and deadly, and they don’t like egg catchers. No problem: he can Mindswap again. But who will he be next?

His adventures will take him into the disorienting worlds of wealth and love; to the Old West (well, sort of); and into contact with people (or “people”) who speak with Shakespearean brio or Lewis Carroll-style illogic. He’ll learn to wield a sword, like someone out of The Three Musketeers. He’ll face off with the scofflaw who made off with his face (and his body), and he’ll learn just how much home can change when you’ve been away. In short, he’ll have quite the vacation.

It’s no wonder The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America named Sheckley an Author Emeritus. He had enough brilliance to leave just about everybody else in the dust.

Graced with eye-popping illustrations by Jonathan Marks Barravecchia, featuring a poignant and funny introduction by Michael Swanwick, and rounded out with an insightful interview by the late author, Mindswap is deservedly a classic. Even better, it’s a blast.

Edition Information

• Signed by Michael Swanwick and Jonathan Marks Barravecchia with a facsimile signature by Robert Sheckley.
• 500 signed copies.
• Fully cloth bound, with dustjacket, spine stamping, and blind stamping on front board.
• Interior illustrations and dustjacket art by Jonathan Marks Barravecchia.
• Book size 5½ × 8¾ inches.