# Help with another book ID?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-another-book-id/618066>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [April 7, 2012, 6:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-another-book-id/618066 "2012-04-07T06:16:57Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\
**Post date:** [April 7, 2012, 6:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-another-book-id/618066/1 "2012-04-07T06:16:57Z")

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I’ not even sure it’s a book. It could be a shorter-form story.

It was a western sci-fi story. It’s gotta be at least 30 or 40 years old, I read it as a teen or maybe even younger.

An alien comes to earth – maybe microbe sized, or maybe some form of energy creature. It moves into the body of a gunfighter – doesn’t take it over, but sees and hears what the guy sees and hears. It’s symbiotic --it helps him be faster in his gunfights. And for some reason I recall the phrase “(creature’s name) fashioned an ion”, which was the thing he did at key moments to kelp out his host. I’m thinking it’s vaguely Alan Dean Foster-ish, maybe written for a juvenile audience. That’s all I got.

Any ideas?

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**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\
**Post date:** [April 9, 2012, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-another-book-id/618066/2 "2012-04-09T17:02:42Z")

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One bump for a rapidly fading hope…

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**Author:** ![tanstaafl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ba8739/32.png) [@tanstaafl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tanstaafl)\
**Post date:** [April 9, 2012, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-another-book-id/618066/3 "2012-04-09T17:05:55Z")

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My only guess would be Hal Clement’s [_Needle_](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Needle_%28book%29) which does have a symbiotic alien inside of a human, but it isn’t a western and doesn’t feature a gunfighter, so I guess I have nothing…

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**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\
**Post date:** [April 9, 2012, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-another-book-id/618066/4 "2012-04-09T17:21:01Z")

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Here’s a [search engine](http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/search.cgi) for such stuff. I didn’t get any hits, but, I’m not very familiar with using it, either.