History ForcedTransformation / Literature

* In the book ''Literature/AllTomorrows'', future humans are conquered by the Qu, an extremely technologically advanced civilization. As punishment for terraforming different planets and killing the native life-forms, the Qu forcibly reengineer humans into unintelligent, animal-like forms, which are sometimes used as pets or beasts of labour. When the Qu leave these planets behind, however, some of these post-humans re-develop sentience, and create a new empire in the process.

* In ''Literature/TheBelgariad'', Polgara uses this twice during the course of the series. She permanently transforms Queen Salmissra into a huge serpent in the original books. (Salmissra comes to appreciate the benefits of the change, and does not want to be returned to her previous form). In the prequel ''Polgara The Sorceress'', she temporarily transforms one of the Cherek kings into a man-sized frog because she thinks a regular DopeSlap won't be enough to get the message across.
** In Belgarath's prequel, ''Belgarath The Sorcerer'', after sobering up from his grief-induced alcoholism, he ends up wandering the Western kingdoms and objects quite firmly to the actions of an Arendish lord. Who makes the mistake of talking down to him. Belgarath promptly, if temporarily, turns him into a pig, and later notes that this was a rather petty and inappropriate use of his abilities.

* In Creator/RobertEHoward's "Literature/TheTowerOfTheElephant", Franchise/ConanTheBarbarian remembers that Yara was said to have used a [[MineralMacGuffin gem]] to turn a prince into a spider before stepping on him. Not that that will stop him from trying to rob him.

* In ''Literature/{{Dogsbody}}'' the protagonist, Sirius, [[SentientStars a star-denizen]], is falsely accused of murder, and is sentenced to reincarnation into the earthbound body of a dog and retrieve the Zoi, a powerful weapon, on Earth. Near the end of the story, after he retrieves the weapon and becomes a star again, he later regrets his choice and wishes to have stayed as a dog with his human caretaker, a little girl named Kathleen, who loved and took care of him in the time he had been a dog on Earth and also had made him realize the importance of caring for others and learning to love those in need of compassion, in comparsion to the selfish and ill-tempered being he was in the beginning before he was turned into a dog.

* In Creator/AndreNorton's ''Literature/DreadCompanion'', Kilda finds that eating the food of the land slowly turns her toward a creature of it, and Oomart too. Fortunately, she has human food, which can turn you back.

* Creator/UrsulaKLeGuin's ''Literature/{{Earthsea}}'' series makes a spell to shift another person involuntarily rather difficult, and making shifting yourself perfectly easy, but running a very real risk of forgetting how... and why... to shift out of the other form.

* In Creator/AletheaKontis's ''Literature/{{Enchanted}}'', in the BackStory, Jack Jr. was turned into a dog.
* Creator/PatriciaCWrede's ''Literature/EnchantedForestChronicles'':

* ''TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms'':
** The actual ''D&D'' spell has a notable use in Creator/RASalvatore's ''[[Literature/TheDarkElfTrilogy Exile]]''. As noted under Tabletop Games, the spell gradually takes over the object's mind, which in story terms makes for all kinds of tragedy.

* The ''Literature/FrannyKStein'' book ''The Fran With Four Brains'' had Franny's dog Igor turned into a tuna fish sandwich by the third Franbot's Food-Ray Blaster. The Franbots also planned to do the same to Franny, her family and the rest of humanity.

* In Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore's "A Gnome There Was" Tim is transformed into a gnome because the first gnome emperor decided that if fairies could have changelings, his people should be able to replenish their population in a similar manner. Since gnomes are supposedly immortal, this makes little sense to Tim until it's revealed that the various emperors are fond of transforming their enemies into beings ''other than'' gnomes.

* ''Literature/TheStormlightArchive'' features Soulcasting, courtesy of either a specific kind of artifact, or one of the two kinds of Surgebinding magic that have access to the ability. It's generally used to turn objects into other objects, such as rocks into food, wood into metal (handy for trade with a culture that has great reverence for stone and views mining as horrible blasphemy), or reshaping stone to make buildings. It can also be used on people, to horrifyingly lethal effect.
** Those who frequently use the artifacts to soulcast suffer a drawback in the form of savanthood. Their flesh slowly turns into the material that they use most for soulcasting. Over the course of the series so far we have seen people turning into various substances including rock and crystal, vines, and smoke.

* In ''The Magic Finger'' by Creator/RoaldDahl, this is the main character's special ability, although it so horrifies her that she never uses it unless she's ''really'' annoyed with someone.

* In Creator/SusanDexter's ''The True Knight'', the queen's only son was turned to a swan. Wren and her master were forcibly recruited to retrieve him.

* In one early short story from ''Literature/TheWitcher'' saga by Andrzej Sapkowski, a young knight named Duny is under a spell that turns him into a giant hedgehog by day, and Geralt helps him remove it--the whole story is a rather gleeful {{deconstruction}} of the classic "Literature/BeautyAndTheBeast" plot. Of course, Duny is a [[spoiler:Nilfgaardian prince who later went on to become TheEmperor Emhyr var Emreis]], so it's a hell of a ChekhovsGun...
** In another short story, it is said that Geralt lifted a curse from a baron who had been transformed into a cormorant.

** In ''Literature/TheFindersStoneTrilogy'' novel ''The Wyvern's Spur'', Olive Ruskettle opens an enchanted stolen purse and is promptly transformed into a burro. She spends most of the novel in this form accompanying the purse's owner, who does not realize that his new pack animal is actually a transformed (and very annoyed) halfling.

* ''Literature/SwansBraidAndOtherTalesOfTerizan'': Thieves caught by wizards get turned into mice, before being eaten by cats. [[spoiler:It turns out that the wizard Terizan was tasked to rob was himself transformed into a doll by something that came out of [[MagicMirror his mirror]].]]

* ''Literature/ThirdTimeLuckyAndOtherStoriesOfTheMostPowerfulWizardInTheWorld'': Magdelene transforms a rude soldier into a tree frog, then back again.

* In ''Literature/TheFindersStoneTrilogy'' novel ''The Wyvern's Spur'', Olive Ruskettle opens an enchanted stolen purse and is promptly transformed into a burro. She spends most of the novel in this form accompanying the purse's owner, who does not realize that his new pack animal is actually a transformed (and very annoyed) halfling.

* ''TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms'': The actual ''D&D'' spell has a notable use in Creator/RASalvatore's ''[[Literature/TheDarkElfTrilogy Exile]]''. As noted under Tabletop Games, the spell gradually takes over the object's mind, which in story terms makes for all kinds of tragedy.

* This is the plot of Apuleius's ''Literature/TheGoldenAss'' from c. 150 CE, one of the earliest surviving novels.

* In Creator/AlanDeanFoster's ''Kingdoms of Light'', the Six-Man Band consists of a mage's pets (three cats, a dog, a snake, and a canary), turned into humans by the mage's dying spell. In the end, they are captured by the evil Munderucu and turned back into animals--[[spoiler:except that due to character growth, they not only remained [[TalkingAnimal sentient]], but they became great cats, a huge wolf, a 40-foot python, and a firebird. [[OhCrap Oops]].]]

* ''Literature/SwansBraidAndOtherTalesOfTerizan'': Thieves caught by wizards get turned into mice, before being eaten by cats. [[spoiler:It turns out that the wizard Terizan was tasked to rob was himself transformed into a doll by something that came out of [[MagicMirror his mirror.]]

* {{Discussed|Trope}} in ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings''. Characters believe that the wizard Gandalf might turn Sam into a [[BewitchedAmphibians newt]], or Mr. Butterbur in stopping them in their tracks, as the change generally takes 15+ minutes.
** In ''Literature/TheMagicOfOz'', a young boy learns to use a [[DangerousForbiddenTechnique very dangerous magic word]] ("Pyrzqxgl", hard to use because very few can pronounce it) which can turn ''anything'' into ''anything''. He learns to pronounce it, and becomes an UnwittingPawn of the villainous Nome King, who convinces him to use it to wreck havoc in Oz. Naturally, Ozma's protectors try to stop him, until in one scene, he panics and says it dozens of times, transforming nearly the entire cast into various animals--including the Nome King too, who makes the mistake of making him angry. Eventually, [[spoiler:the Wizard himself is able to use the word and turn it against them, then trick them into drinking the Water of Oblivion to make them forget the word and return them to a "blank slate". (Which, in the Nome King's case, only stops his evil ways for a short time...)]]