Alan Dean Foster Notes - Monday, March 15, 1999

vol. 2, number 1

My periodic report on reading Alan Dean Foster's books. Opinions expressed are my own.

Who would ever have thought that this story was going to become one of the milestones of Sci-Fi cinema? Could High Noon work as a space opera? I am a member of the generation of young Sci-fi readers who saw the Star Wars trilogy on their fist theatrical run, and like many, I collected the books as soon as they come out. With the first prequel movie due in theatres in several months, I think it's high time to provide a review of the novel that started it all.

My first impression of the Star Wars universe was the novel - I think I read it three times before I ever saw the movie. I recently re-read it and I realize why it was so exciting. It is a terrific book! It is easy to be a little jaded about the Star Wars universe. We know from the movies, comics, and the host of recent publications what things should look and sound like, we know what is said and done in every scene. The original novel had a unique challenge. It had to describe every detail as something new. Alan Dean Foster was a natural choice to ghost write the book for George Lucas, after all - he wrote the screenplay for the film. He brought to the project some of the writing style amply displayed in The Tar Aiym-Krang and Bloodhype, and his seasoned depth as a screen writer and novelist.

This is not a book to be dismissed or passed over. Never again in the Star Wars universe has an author been so free to create the images and descriptions now well known by millions of fans. Do yourself a favor and read it before the new movie comes out this May. The writing is crisp, with a sparse economy of style derived from it's form as a movie script. It is a much briefer treatment of story than the recent Star Wars books by Timothy Zahn, Kevin J. Anderson, et al, however, the action and description is told with enough detail to evoke the images later familiar from the film.

As an added plus, some of the scenes not filmed, or cut from the released movie are in the book. We witness Luke's Tatooine flying skill and meet his friends at Anchor Head, including Biggs, Han does fire first in the cantina when confronted by Greedo. We read the scene between Han and Jabba, added recently to the special edition of the movie. And yes, in the book's award ceremony, after the Death Star is destroyed, Chewbacca gets a medal too.

Orphan Star (Del Rey Books, 1977)

I'm sure Orphan Star came as a pleasant surprise to avid Sci-Fi readers in 1977. After the promising start to Flinx and Pip in The Tar-Aiym Krang, and the tantalizing glimpse of their future in Bloodhype, more background and adventure were in order - and delivered. It also let Foster explore a theme which has followed through other of his novels and stories, that of the roles of teacher and student. Now don't read too much into that statement. The book is a good old fashioned Sci-Fi adventure story but there is a compelling glimpse of the young hero trying to discover his past, trying to learn more about the strange talent he has, and later his acceptance of the role of teacher to the Ulru-Ujurrians.

The book relies perhaps too much on familiar set-pieces and events. The Drallar marketplace, Small Symm's bar, The Drallar merchant/gangster of the week (In this case, Conda Challis) Are really a reworking of what went on in Tar-Aiym Krang. Again it's leave everything behind, hop on a ship and go on a quest, this time to earth. Of course, there must be another destination, which turns out to be Ulru-Ujurr. While there is repetition and formula in this, I think Foster wrote some of that by design. There is some emulation of the Golden age Sci-Fi writers here, e.g. John Campbell, Eric Frank Russell, and on up the line through Star Trek and Star Wars - how you get "there" is just the set-up for the story at hand.

The character of Sylzenzuzex is a particular triumph. She is most nearly a contemporary of Flinx, and Foster has tried to create a genuine sympathetic relationship between them. They begin to think of each other as persons, not just Human and Thranx. Many an author has created an alien species, and either they are cold, alien and different, even incomprehensible, or the character is written fully anthropomorphized into a human person. Foster has written glimpses of a well thought out society shared by the two races from Nor Crystal Tears through the incidental characters in many of the Commonwealth books. Between Syl and Flinx we get to experience the transition of personal perception between species as it unfolds - a rare treat reminiscent of Cycle of Fire and Mission of Gravity by Hal Clement.

The Ulru Ujurrians are an even greater creation. A race of great intelligence, ability and purpose, but without a moral compass. Although Flinx's upbringing prompts him to always act in self interest, regardless of morality, as the teacher of the Ujurrians, he needs to examine the morality he teaches. His personal growth must match the pace of his teaching. On a lighter note, the conversations of the Ujurrians are a delightful expression of alien thought. Their treatment of most parts of life and experience as a game seems like an over simplification in human terms, but is an apt analogy for a culture prepared to see each individual's role in a vast master plan. Orphan Star is a good adventure story - with far more depth available for the discerning reader.

© Eric J. Wilson

Everett, Washington

ejwilson@gte.net

Alan Dean Foster Notes - Sunday, November 1, 1998

vol. 1, number 3

My monthly report on reading Alan Dean Foster's books. Number 3 follows a Summer break. Opinions expressed are my own.

Parallelities (Del Rey Books, 1998)

Parallelities is one of the latest offerings from Alan Dean Foster. It is a successful departure from some of the styles Foster has returned to again and again. The story goes like this. Tabloid reporter Max Parker is sent on assignment to cover the wild claims of a California inventor. Said inventor fails to fit the part of mad scientist, and the experimental "parallel world" machine Max observes fails to do anything at all - or so it seems. Max begins to have encounters with impossible duplicate people: three identical burglars in his apartment, four nearly identical beauties on the beach. Thats only the start. The machine has tapped into parallel worlds and the effect seems to be focused on Max. He is "pulling" duplicate people, or "parallelities" into his own reality, and sliding into other realities himself. Somehow, he needs to get back to the same scientist in the same version of his world and get the process reversed.

The book is fast-paced with a blend of comedy and seriousness that makes it hard to judge in the opening chapters. Max Parker is difficult to like at the beginning, rather like Benjamin Huddy in Slipt, or some of the darker characters of James P. Blaylock, such as Pomeroy in Night Relics. I didn't expect to sympathize with a shallow, arrogant tabloid reporter, but the unfolding of his inner self as he reacts to the wildly variable parallelities around him reveals a complex character study not promised in the opening chapters. At its height, the shifting of parallelities leaves the reader just a bit bewildered. I wanted to second guess, or rewrite, parts of the scenes as my own creativity was engaged. We are not sure which elements are part of Max's reality, which are slightly off, and we can't tell if our real world would exactly overlay with his.

In one middle chapter of Parallelities, Foster has created a great fictional tribute to Lovecraft stories. Max arrives at work hoping all is back to normal, and it seems so until he realizes that Cthulhu and other Lovecraftian "Elder Gods" have taken over the world. Longtime ADF fans will recognize his interest in Lovecraft from the 1972 story "Some Notes Concerning a Green Box" (see the terrific collection With Friends Like These . . .) or the hard to find small book The Horror on the Beach. Other scenes and elements evoke other styles and authors, but Foster has avoided letting any one piece dominate the mix. Nightmare-like the scenes continue to come and go faster and more dramatically as the climax nears.

While I found the book to be an excellent read, I must criticize somewhat the physical package. Several delays in the announced publication date should have been a clue that the publisher was having trouble with the book. Del Rey chose to set the book at 26 lines per page, rather than their typical 39 lines. If you do the math that adds about 100 pages to the book. The lines across the top and bottom of the page are distracting and the printing extends a bit far into the ditch. It's hard to read this book without breaking the spine, and the 309-page length of it feels a bit like cheating. Further, the book preview at the end is a nice tease, but without any facts (e.g. title, publishing date, scene setup) it's just that - a tease.

Bloodhype (Ballantine Books, 1973)

In 1973 Alan Dean Foster released his second novel, Bloodhype. Now, before I go on, you should go up to the attic or down to your basement and find the box of books that you read once and forgot, get this one out of the bottom of the box, and give it another try. You will be surprised. I started reading Foster about the time Splinter of the Mind's Eye came out (1978 - I was 11 and a huge Star Wars fan.) I quickly found and read everything by Foster I could. I recall reading Bloodhype and being very disappointed. It was a Flinx and Pip book but they didn't seem to really be in it.

Age, experience, and a recent re-read did the trick. In Bloodhype ADF made something of a gamble. He published the end of the story before writing most of it. The combined Flinx and Pip stories make a great comparison with Charles Dickens' Great Expectations. Beyond just the name (Philip Lynx is "Flinx" with his pet Pip; Dickens' Philip Pirrip calls himself "Pip") both are stories of orphans who must make something of their lives. Flinx has the hard but loving Mother Mastiff while for Pip there is gentle Joe and Pip's sister, the hard Mrs. Joe. See Skua September and Magwitch the convict as parallel absentee father/benefactors. See Flinx teaching the Ulru-Ujurrians and Pip helping Herbert Pocket get his career as another. Flinx loses the sister he has never known and Pip loses Estelle, the wife he could never win. At it's core, we see in Great Expectations that drinking and poor self discipline can ruin a young man's hopes; in Bloodhype we are presented with a drug which can ruin all hopes.

It is important to understand that from the Tar-Aiym Krang through Mid-Flinx we are seeing a boy grow in self awareness and into his particular gifts. In Bloodhype we see the self-confident grown man. He calls himself Philip. He is at the drug lord's compound on purpose, to fulfill a plan against the drug lord. He is not on an adventure of discovery as in the other stories, but on one of action, perhaps cleaning up the details of his past before trying to take on whatever lurks in the "great emptiness" His encounter and cooperation with the Tar-Aiym guardian fulfills the mental promise revealed by Flinx's encounter with the Krang.

Bloodhype also introduced church agents Kitten Kai-sung, Lieutenant Porsupah and freighter captain Malcolm Hammurabi. I expected these characters to find their way into more books, much as Skua September did in the Icerigger books. Foster hasn't done so yet, although I'm convinced they would make a good core for several more stories.

© Eric J. Wilson

Everett, Washington

ejwilson@gte.net

Alan Dean Foster Notes - Sunday April 5, 1998 vol. 1, number 2

My monthly report on reading Alan Dean Foster's books. Opinions expressed are my own.

The Thing (Bantam Books, 1982)

Definitely not cute like E.T.! Not even close! The Thing of the title doesn't even try to play nice. Thawed from millennia of frozen slumber near its crashed starship in the Antarctic ice, this hardy, shape-changing creature acts with single-minded cunning, deception and hatred in its quest for survival and escape. This book, for several reasons, earns a well deserved place on the fan's shelf. At its heart this is a pure remake of the 1951 film The Thing from Another Planet; itself derived from John W. Campbell's (as Don A. Stuart) 1938 Novella Who Goes There?

Movies and novelizations of golden age stories often badly disappoint fans of the originals (show of hands - who saw Herbert West-Reanimator??) The Thing had a few advantages. The story itself is ideally suited for the screen. This is a closed-room mystery, and the men, in each version of the story, must keep falling back, and reevaluating how dangerous the Thing is. Secondly, the 1982 movie was directed by John Carpenter. Although he misses a few of the tricks the original story succeeds with ("If only you all could see your eyes!!") Carpenter's unique style in creating the horrifying unknown built The Thing into a terrific retelling of Campbell's story for an 80s audience.

The choice of Alan Dean Foster to pen the novel from the Bill Lancaster screenplay was ideal. Who better to update and expand a John Campbell story than a good Campbell fan and acquaintance? Foster brings added character depth and a few scenes and details changed to accommodate the movie's special effects. While not one of Foster's stronger efforts, the book stands up well next to the movie, and is every bit as entertaining and suspenseful as the original story.

The Tar-Aiym Krang (Ballantine Books, 1972)

Might as well start at the beginning. The Tar-Aiym Krang marks several firsts for Alan Dean Foster; published novel, Commonwealth story, Flinx and Pip story. For many of us fans this is where it all starts. If it's been a while since you read this book, stop right here, dig it out of the box you stashed it in, and read it again.

A young man, "Flinx", leaves his home planet for the first time in the company of several old soldier/scholars and a scoundrel merchant prince. They cruise across the galaxy ahead of the minions of a rival merchant house to seek a fabled super powerful weapon. Flinx's curious mental powers are the key to operating the huge weapon. If this is starting to sound similar to a certain hugely successful movie trilogy, I'll remind you that this book was written six years earlier (heck, Foster was the ghost writer for the hinted at novel in 1977 anyway). There is also a lot more here than the basic plot.

Foster presents us with Phillip Lynx and his homeworld, Moth. In this, and six loosely connected books which follow, we get a kind of boy-and-his-dog story cycle as Flinx and his pet "minidrag" Pip travel around known space on sort of an extended voyage of discovery. Pip is a deeply loyal, venomous flying snake-like creature that seems to amplify Flinx's natural mental sensitivity. Flinx is the end result of some highly illegal genetic engineering and his transient ability to read people's thoughts/emotions is no accident. He also seems to meet intriguing and influential characters wherever he goes, and he also finds trouble! Foster has also set the Flinx and Pip stories in an imagined "Commonwealth" of planets and races which also form the background for other novels, nine and counting.

The key to the Commonwealth is the relationship between the humans and an insect-like race called Thranx. The bad guys in this scenario and the reptilian AAnn. These are not just clever alien descriptions pasted onto familiar human social/political/race stereotypes. Much thought has gone into these significantly different races. They are, in Foster's universe, real races who think and behave inhumanly. Foster successfully keeps the races individualized by speech patterns, body language, and action. We don't forget who's who when a character is acting. The two scholars, human Bran Tse-Mallory and thranx Truzenzuzex are a fine example of this.

In the Tar-Aiym Krang, Foster hands the reader a fast paced, detailed adventure story with a young hero, good guys and bad guys, both human and alien. He also gives us the history of the Commonwealth, an explanation of the technology which makes it all possible, a fully rendered world (Moth) for events to take place upon with a climate, political and economic background, etc. Foster even gives us a glimpse of the history of several powerful races and cultures which vanished several millennia ago across space. And he manages it all in 250 pages. Bravo!

Arguably, the book slips occasionally into expository passages which present history, and there are a few weak points in the continuity, but these instances don't detract very much from the story. Also, to be honest, I've always thought the ending is a little abrupt, after the lengthy build-up and historical background. In hindsight this book makes a fine foundation for the other Commonwealth writing, but that was a big risk for a young author in 1972.

With such 1972 competition as Isaac Asimov's The God Themselves and Robert Silverberg's Dying Inside I've always been surprised that The Tar-Aiym Krang hasn't been more of a milestone with Sci-Fi fans in general. With the possible exceptions of Larry Niven and James P. Hogan, no one was writing this type of human/alien adventure story around those years. It may have been the awkward title, or lack of author name recognition. The story holds it's own in 1998, and reads well alongside recent Foster Commonwealth titles such as Mid-Flinx and The Howling Stones. Can't ask for too much more.

© Eric J. Wilson

Alan Dean Foster Notes - Sunday March 1, 1998

My monthly report on reading Alan Dean Foster books.

Slipt (Berkley, 1984)

I noticed that this book recently hit the bookshelves again under the Ace imprint. Same cover as the 1984, with the addition of a yellow line border on the front. I've always been fond of this book, and wondered why nobody has thought to film it. What's always amused me about the paperback edition is how far from the actual story the blurb on the back is. I know they're not usually too accurate, but this one, in my opinion, is a real stretch

"Something strange and wonderful is happening down at the chemical dump"

El Magico

Old Jake Pickett is a strange one. He can turn bullets to dust or collapse skyscrapers with his mind. But all he really wants to do with his "magic" is entertain the poor kids who live, like him, near the chemical dump. Or talk telepathically with his crippled niece, Amanda. Then a giant company decides that the only way to cover up their mess is to eliminate the people who have been affected, for better or worse, by the seeping industrial wastes. Now Jake and Amanda are running for their lives. And ours.

Now, I'll grant that the above lines generally describe the book, but I defy anyone to read (or reread) the story and not find the short description to be misleading or wrong in at least 10 points.

Griping aside, Jake is one of the better "ordinary guy" characters ADF has put in print, and the story is consistent with good action, well described characters, and really stupid bad guys. A terrific modern fairy tale.

Midworld (Del Rey, 1975)

Up until the publication of Mid-Flinx in 1995 this was an easy ADF book to overlook. However, rarely does an author create a thoroughly realized alien world and culture, with "humans" as just bystanders, in as slim a volume (213 pp.) as this. Mid-Flinx, mostly set on Midworld, adds 331 pages to the Midworld "cannon", but do read the 1975 book first.

Foster himself has credited the 1943 Eric Frank Russell story, Symbiotica as the inspiration for this book/world, and that is evident after reading both. In the Russell story an exploration ship lands on a lush jungle-covered world, the crew encounter deadly plants and dangerous, primitive humanoid creatures, and when they interfere with these humanoids they are led into a trap by the trees symbioticly connected to the humanoids the crew vainly thought simpler beings. Compare this to Midworld where the human explorers seeking to exploit the lush jungle-covered world, are rescued by humanoids, in this case primitive seeming descendants of a long lost colony ship, and lead through a world of deadly plant and animal dangers. Ultimately, the interlopers and their laboratory/base are destroyed after missing every clue about how these lost humans, their symbiotic furcot companions, and the jungle itself coexist.

Two books which seem to share many of the same qualities and background are The Long Afternoon of Earth (1961) by Brian Aldiss and The Word for World is Forest (1972) by Ursula K. LeGuin. The first is set on a dying far-future earth, where the plant world has surpassed the animal world for supremacy. Many similarities exist between the world-spanning Banyan tree in this work and Midworld. The LeGuin Novella is more of a social study. Loggers are exploiting a tree covered planet and the native alien humanoids they found there. They again miss the relationship between this alien culture and the forest world they live in, and are overwhelmed when one of the aliens decides leads a swift revolt.

With the publication of Mid-Flinx (1995) ADF has again brought the planet Midworld alive and into a role of importance to the future of the commonwealth. Through Flinx's adventure on the planet, he realizes that Midworld is part of the riddle of combating the great "evil" revealed by the Ulru-Ujurrians. It is also one of the few places Flinx has been where he is free from the terrible headaches which accompany his unique talents. (I guess it wouldn't hurt to revisit the other Flinx and Pip books soon!!)

As long as I'm connecting and recommending books to serve as follow-up reading to Midworld I would have to suggest Foster's own Life Form and Greenthieves. Both show some of the elements discussed previously, particularly some of the style and approach Eric Frank Russell fans will find familiar. As a final note, if you should find yourself visiting the Foster house any time soon, check out the greenhouse first!!

© Eric J. Wilson