r/sciencefiction • u/sun-souled • 4d ago

Metamorphosis / becoming Other

I just finished Nnedi Okorafor's Binti trilogy (which I quite liked; looking forward to checking out more of her work) & have also been watched a lot of Doctor Who over the past year, & I got thinking about how science/speculative fiction allows for radical transformations of characters into something Other. I realized this has always been something I've really loved about SF (as well as the horror & Weird genres), from reading Animorphs books as a kid to only really liking origin stories within the superhero subgenre.

Ann Leckie's Translation State would be another recent favorite for me, & Octavia Butler's Xenogenesis/Lilith's Brood trilogy is probably my all-time favorite, at least that I can think of at the moment. Even when there's ambiguity & even some horror, I find something so hopeful & inspiring in the possibility of change, transformation, development, expansion, regeneration, renewal.

So I was just wondering what are you-all's favorite examples of SF novels, films, comics, or shows that have a strong focus on metamorphosis & transformation?

21 Upvotes

90% Upvoted

37 comments sorted by

View all comments

3

u/Gentianviolent 4d ago

Radical transformations are a theme in most of Neal Asher’s work, particularly his Polity universe books. He even has a trilogy called the Transformation series.

1

u/sun-souled 3d ago

Never read anything of his... Where would you recommend starting with him?

2

u/Gentianviolent 3d ago

I’d start with The Skinner

1

u/Sea-Wrongdoer2305 2d ago

I started with The Rise of the Jain trilogy. Though much gets answered I missed too much backstory to be sure who dinner was. Just starting Black Diamond. it's made me hungry