The Soul-Painter and the Shapeshifter

Form: Short story

Year: 1981

Publication history:

• ???? : Crónicas de Majipur (pb) , Ultramar (Spain) (in Spanish)
• 1981 : Omni November 1981 (m) ,
• 1982 : Majipoor Chronicles (hc) , Arbor House, 314 pp., 358-9
• 1982 : Majipoor Chronicles (tpb) , Priam, 314 pp., 359-7
• 1982 : Majipoor Chronicles (hc) , Science Fiction Book Club, 277 pp., 6475
• 1982 : Majipoor Chronicles (hc) , Gollancz (UK), 314 pp., 03153-0
• 1982 : Chroniques de Majipoor (hc) , Laffont (France), 331 pp., ISBN 2221009797 (in French)
• 1983 : Crónicas de Majipur (hc) , Acervo (Spain), ISBN 8470023616 (in Spanish)
• 1983 : Majipoor Chronicles (pb) , Pan, 317 pp., 281178
• 1983 : Majipoor Chronicles (pb) , Bantam, 281 pp., ISBN 0-553-22928-1
• 1983 : Best of Omni Science Fiction 5 (pb) , Omni
• 1984 : Majipoor Chronicles (pb) , Bantam, 281 pp.
• 1988 : Majipoor Chronicles (pb) , Pan, 317 pp.
• 1989 : Majipoor Chronicles (pb) , Bantam, 281 pp., 14428-6
• 1992 : Majipoor Chronicles (pb) , Pan, 317 pp.
• 1995 : El Laberinto de Majipur (pb) , Ultramar (Spain), ISBN 8473864883 (in Spanish)
• 1995 : Majipoor Chronicles (pb) , Pan, ISBN 0330281178
• 1995 : Das Seelenregister (pb) , Lübbe (Germany), 476 pp., ISBN 3404241991 (in German)
• 1996 : Majipoor Chronicles (pb) , Harper & Row, 400 pp., ISBN 0061054852
• 1998 : Het Labyrint van Majipoor (tpb) , Luitingh-Sijthoff (Netherlands), 560 pp., ISBN 90-245-1428-2 (in Dutch)
• 1999 : Majipoor Chronicles (hc) , Science Fiction Book Club, 277 pp.
• 1999 : Valentine of Majipoor (hc) , Science Fiction Book Club, 806 pp., 02048
• 2000 : Majipoor Chronicles (pb) , Voyager (UK), 400 pp., ISBN 0006483798
• 2000 : Majipoor Chronicles (ol) , Fictionwise
• 2002 : Chroniques de Majipoor (pb) , LGF (France), 445 pp., ISBN 2253041203 (in French)

This story is Chapter 6 of Majipoor Chronicles.

Therion Nismile is a soul-painter during the time of Lord Thraym, a long time before Lord Valentine. This is a high-tech art form in which the artist imprints an image directly from his mind (or soul) onto a canvas made sensitive to him. Therion is the greatest soul-painter of his day, but he becomes dissatisfied with the perfection that surrounds him on Castle Mount and leaves civilization to build himself a hut in the forest of Zimroel. There he meets a woman named Sarise, who also lives in the forest. But he is plagued by doubts--is she really a Shapeshifter masquerading as a woman?