THE SHAPE CHANGER - A Lafayett O'Leary Adventure

The Shape Changer (1972) is the third humor SF novel in the Lafayette O'Leary series, following The World Shuffler. In the previous volume, Lafayette O'Leary was caught in Melange without his psychic energies. He couldn't summon a gnat with the suppressor focused on him. But then he solved the riddle and regained his powers. Eventually, he returned to home and Daphane. In this novel, Lafayette receives a note from some unknown source and goes out after midnight to a meeting at the Ax and Dragon. As he suspected, the note has come from the Red Bull, who has found a cave full of advanced devices. Red Bull brings along something called a Focal Referent Mark III to convince Lafayette to help sell the trinkets. As usual, Lafayette tells Red Bull to be careful with the device, but goes ahead and pushes a button himself. Everything gets a little blurry and wavery, then snaps back to normal. Lafe takes the device and goes toward the palace. On the way, he runs into some musketeers patrolling the alleys and orders them to accompany him to the palace. Yet they back him against a wall and frisk him, finding several valuable items in his pockets. Then Lafayette notices that he is not in his own body. A group of Wayfarers ambushes the cops and frees Lafe, whom they call Zorro. He tries to talk them into going to the palace, but they dump him into a wagon and take him back to their camp. There he finds that Zorro is engaged to Gizelle and that she is feeling amorous. Lafe pleads that he is already married and then the real trouble begins. Lafayette manages to elude the Wayfarers, but falls off a cliff. When he regains consciousness, he finds himself in the care of a kindly man named Lom. Offering Lafayette a grand breakfast, Lom tries to get a few answers from him. As usual, our hero is too busy talking to give straight answers. In this story, Lafayette pops into and out of several bodies. One has wings and has a girlfriend. After Lafe kisses her, the marriage is announced and her father comes to congratulate him. After some fast talking, Lafe manages to put off the marriage for a while. Along the way, Lafayette talks to Central about his problems, but gets little assistance. Then Nicodaeus calls to explain the situation. He also describes the main suspect in the case. Eventually, Lafayette discovers that a usurper has captured Princess Adrienne and Count Alain. The usurper is now acting king. Since the man is wearing Lafayette's body and Lafe is back in Zorro's body, the circumstances are slightly delicate. This tale has fast talking -- but hard of hearing -- Lafayette flying from one risky situation to another. He has 20/20 hindsight, but never thinks of the right actions ahead of time. Besides, he is still certain that everything can be cleared up if he can only talk to the person in charge. Once again, Lafayette O'Leary is caught in strange circumstances and finds himself virtually helpless against his fate. Naturally, h