(Found) There is a multi-bodied furry rat type (alien) creature that dragged their limb-less brain around in a furr net...

[Frare]

Sci-Fi paperback book.
Not a collection of short stories.
Not part of a series (that I remember).
Possibly young adult fiction.
I vaguely remember the cover as pinkish and/or purple with whales flying though space..?
Read 10++ years ago but book could have been older.
Main character was male.
Recruited into secret (gov?) program (everyone would be told he was dead)
Experienced many alien worlds/life by being the alien...? (Maybe through mind travel...?)
Main character has a love interest and has a conflict with another member of the team (may have tried to kill him).
At one point they (as aliens) live in trees.
One of the alien species was a muti-bodied furry rat type creature that drug their limb-less brain around in a furr net.
I think sometimes team members would go native..or get stuck..?
There's a part where people are eating food and someone is experiencing being a mayfly.

Thank you for your help. Any leads would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Hugh]

This has a lot in common with Clifford D. Simak's "Time is the Simplest Thing", but......

It comes up occasionally in 'Book Search', but usually people remember the unexpected encounter with the pink blob - "Hi Pal! I trade with you my mind"

Time Is the Simplest Thing - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Frare]

Thank you. I do see some similarities, but this is not the one...

 

[PaulMmn]

This has a lot in common with Clifford D. Simak's "Time is the Simplest Thing", but......

It comes up occasionally in 'Book Search', but usually people remember the unexpected encounter with the pink blob - "Hi Pal! I trade with you my mind"

Time Is the Simplest Thing - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

I'd say Frare's search only shares the mind ? travel with Simak's book. And, who on earth put that ugly, alien on the cover of the Gateway Essentials release?! I don't recall any such creature in the book (unless it's someone's idea of the ugly aliens that the preacher was afraid of).

Simak's "fishhook" travelers were not sequestered away; they were well-respected employees! At least, in Mexico.

The idea that some of the travelers would go native or get stuck might be similar to Avatar... (which I haven't watched yet).

 

[Hugh]

I'd say Frare's search only shares the mind ? travel with Simak's book. And, who on earth put that ugly, alien on the cover of the Gateway Essentials release?! I don't recall any such creature in the book (unless it's someone's idea of the ugly aliens that the preacher was afraid of).

Simak's "fishhook" travelers were not sequestered away; they were well-respected employees! At least, in Mexico.

The idea that some of the travelers would go native or get stuck might be similar to Avatar... (which I haven't watched yet).

Yup, it's clearly not Simak, but I'd be interested in reading it....

 

[TomMazanec]

Damnation! I read that book (more than ten years ago…maybe twenty?). But I don’t remember author or title either.

 

[tachyon]

Could this be Mindswap by Robert Sheckley ?

 

[hitmouse]

This might be the cover you are remembering, but it does not fit your story:

 

[TomMazanec]

The book I read author came to me in my sleep, and from the name I got the book.
Is this the one?

Beyond the Veil of Stars - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Cornell grows up to become a drifter of sorts. He moves from job to job, city to city. His father becomes moderately famous for a while during the period after the sky eversion. Cornell signs up for a pharmaceutical testing program to earn some money, but quickly realizes it is a cover for something else. He is recruited by the "CEA" or Cosmic Event Agency to travel to other worlds through "quantum intrusions". These act like portals with one special property. Anybody passing through to the other side is transformed into a copy of the closest matching species on the other side. No artifacts of any kind can be carried through. In effect, only the mind travels to the other world and back.

Cornell befriends a woman called Porsche Neal, a former professional basketball player. She is part of an expedition to a world referred to as "High Desert". In that world, the major intelligent species appears to consist of individuals with seven separate bodies: six mobile bipeds with limbs and a single limbless sphere containing the brain that controls the other bodies telepathically. The bipeds drag the brain around using its long hair. Humans have to learn to deal with senses that give them six different views of the world simultaneously. Some go mad in the process.

 

[Hugh]

Looks very promising...

and here's a cover that definitely has something pink...

 

[TomMazanec]

And if that is it he can get the book on Kindle for $1.99+tax.

Amazon.com: Beyond the Veil of Stars eBook : Reed, Robert: Kindle Store

Beyond the Veil of Stars - Kindle edition by Reed, Robert. Download it once and read it on your Kindle device, PC, phones or tablets. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading Beyond the Veil of Stars.

www.amazon.com

As well as the sequel for the same price

Amazon.com: Beneath the Gated Sky (Veil of Stars) eBook : Reed, Robert: Kindle Store

Beneath the Gated Sky (Veil of Stars) - Kindle edition by Reed, Robert. Download it once and read it on your Kindle device, PC, phones or tablets. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading Beneath the Gated Sky (Veil of Stars).

www.amazon.com

 

[Frare]

The book I read author came to me in my sleep, and from the name I got the book.
Is this the one?

Beyond the Veil of Stars - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

This is it!!! Thank you sooo, soon much! I have been looking for forever. You made my night/week! I'm going to order it and the sequel right now!! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

 

[Frare]

This might be the cover you are remembering, but it does not fit your story:
View attachment 91493

Thanks for your help! Books been found!!

 

[TomMazanec]

I bought both for my Kindle. I will read them after the AH novel I am reading now.

 

[TomMazanec]

Read over weekend. Excellent.
There was another story according to Wikipedia:

Beneath the Gated Sky - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

The novel appeared to leave room for a sequel, but apart from a novelette entitled Apothecary Blue, printed in 1999 in Science Fiction Age, no other related work has been published.