SOLVED. Sci- fi novel about a returned astronaut. [s]

[David]

Hi. This is a book from the seventies or eighties about an astronaut that returns to earth but it's a long time after he originally set off. He was design to collect and adopt/mimic the life forms he met. One was a wolf alien with arm like appendages on her sides and the other was a shapeshifter. The astronaut doesn't know he can change and the story is about him and the others coming to terms with their dilemma and condition.

I really enjoyed this book. I read it in the early nineties from the library and the story has stuck with me. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[~ Giulia ~]

Maybe The Werewolf Principle

[David]

The main character can change into an alien that resembles a wolf and a creature that can assume various shapes. Although the werewolf principle looks good too.

Thanks

[David]

I do remember that the protagonist escaped custody and one of the aliens he'd met and become offered a solution and he change himself into the alien he'd absorbed in his travels and became a cube. This is why I want to read the book again. The story i remember has so many holes and plot twists. I don't remember anything in the book about bioengineering, so it's probably from the fifties.

[David]

Bump: I think the cover had a picture of the wolf/alien on the front in the nighttime. I could be wrong. I borrowed it from the library with eleven other books; when I was trying to read all of the sci-for and fantasy books in my library, when I was a kid.

[Kris]

I can see why Giulia suggested The Werewolf Principle by Clifford D. Simak.

Quotes using books.google.com -- "Not a wolf, sir. But an alien creature. One that looks remarkably like a wolf. You'll recall the police claimed it was a wolf with arms sprouting from its shoulders." and "The android was intended to urn into an alien form, utilizing the data extracted from a captured alien and to live as that alien for a time. Then the alien data would be erased and the android would be a man again, ready to be changed into something else."

[David]

I'll read it and report back.

[David]

I think you're right. Thanks.