Alan Dean Foster

[J-Sun]

Finished The Tar-Aiym Krang. Like others have said, he does have a straightforward style that is easy to read.[1] It starts kind of slow in spending a lot of time describing a planet we'll be leaving shortly but it's done well enough and does provide character background that is relevant throughout the story even if the planet as a setting isn't. I like the way the initial meetings of characters and their initial activities are not obvious - I was never sure if I was meeting friend or foe at first, which is pretty realistic. I especially liked the depiction of the "humanx" or human/thranx symbiotic society and there was a great military SF chapter dropped into the book. I also liked the "Blight" or ruined area of an older dominant civilization which is ripe for exploration and struggle (and potential disaster).

External to the book, I also find it interesting that people usually talk about space opera as though it was dead around, say, 1972, with Delany's Nova (1968) sometimes being seen as a last second New Wave take at the final death of original space opera and the 90s resurgence being seen as restarting then, or pushed back to Sterling's Schismatrix (1985) or even Harrison's Light (1974) but when you stick this (1972) between 1968 and 1974 and know that there are many more besides, talking about a "death" of space opera seems kind of silly. There was a time when people tried to sweep it under the carpet and writing it almost automatically made you literarily unacceptable (perhaps another part of Foster's lack of a certain kind of reputation) but I don't think there was ever a time it wasn't being written and read.

So, yeah, cool humanx and Blight concepts. Other than that, it featured a 16-year-old protagonist (though one capable of killing bad guys when necessary) with only implicit, somewhat elliptical adult themes and is short and easy to read, so could be seen as YA today and would probably be marketed as such. Not sure how it was originally marketed. The other space opera motifs were part of the usual furniture. The plot was fairly standard and was oddly muted in its transcendence and in a way that felt askew from the main thrust prior to the end. But it did have a couple of neat ideas, had engaging characters (one of whom reminded me of van Rijn, except very different), and was just fun to read. And it's definitely economical and much bigger on the inside than the outside as all good books should be. I've picked up Bloodhype and started in on it, though it's too early to say anything. It was the second written (these two are the first two Foster books of any kind) but has had many "Pip and Flinx" adventures written in between them so I'm guessing (and hoping) that this deals with an older Flinx. We'll see.
_____

[1] But, while this is all trivial and more on the editor than the author (and from a fifteenth printing), for some reason I was struck by several awkward or wrong items:

Talking about the evil "businesswoman" (or crime lord): "She booted the nearly nude male servant who held the portable transceiver in an indelicate place." (73) First, one might wonder why he was holding it in an indelicate place. Second, one might wonder if it would be closer to say that she was kicking him (from his point of view) in a delicate place.

Speaking of people moving in on an enlightened king's park: "As long as the people had abrogated the park, he felt that they might as well enjoy it to the fullest." (165) This is outright wrong, as he's trying to say something like "as long as they had arrogated access to the park to themselves". "Abrogated" means basically "to discontinue" while "arrogate" means basically "to take without right".

"Wolf, his permanent non-expression back on his face, was sampling the air with an instrument on his belt." (192) If he's putting it "back" then it obviously wasn't permanent. His "habitual/usual/customary" or "near-permanent" non-expression.

"Pouring" is used in place of "poring" at least twice (196, 209). I thought that was just an internet thing.

 

[J-Sun]

Read Bloodhype (1973) and Midworld (1975). Bloodhype is another "Pip & Flinx" book but those characters don't appear until the end of p.75 and are basically background characters (Pip not even really being involved at all - but Flinx is c.22 in this one) while the foreground characters are far less interesting than those of the earlier novel. The plot moves pretty well and has some good action as our good guys try to deal with a guy who wandered off a James Bond set. Readable, but not really necessary.

Midworld isn't my kind of thing, dealing with a lost colony where people have adapted to the ecologically harmonious forest living (in a brutal, violent, nightmarish sort of harmony with giant dangerous critters and man-eating plants and seven layers of hell which they face with not much more than blowguns and hexapodal bearish companions (neither of those descriptions are right but it gives the idea - the reading experience is somehow quite different from most any thumbnail sketch one could draw) and it's also not my kind of thing in that it's got a Message and we, as usual, suck. But it's not as screechy or preachy as "The Word for World Is Forest" and Foster displays a fertile imagination and the book is generally well-paced and plotted and I enjoyed the heck out of it. Allowances have to be made for the world being more of a "topos" or place rather than an actual planet with, y'know, poles and equators and oceans and deserts and such along with some of the ecology not entirely adding up for me, but it's a spiffy adventure and I enjoyed it quite a bit.

I was curious what awards it had been nominated for because I didn't recall it winning anything (which is about its caliber, I think: nominee-level but not necessarily winning) and was kind of amazed. It's been mentioned on this thread that Foster is sort of a sfnal Rodney Dangerfield and the sfadb tells me that, in terms of solo-written English-language awards for fiction, Icerigger and Nor Crystal Tears placed in the 20s for Locus' best novel of the year and. That. Is. It. How the readers of Locus didn't see this as even a top 21 novel for 1975 (when things like The Computer Connection (sub-par Bester), Dhalgren, Imperial Earth (sub-par Clarke), Doorways in the Sand (not the best Zelazny) and stuff I've never heard of like Blake's Progress by Ray Nelson are on the list, I don't know.

Anyway - I'm taking a Foster-break for awhile but two out of three ain't bad and I've got more in the pile I'll get to before too long.

 

[Bick]

Interesting to hear your thoughts as always, J-Sun, and I'm glad you liked Midworld despite reservations going in. I don't quite know how ADF does it, but he seemingly creates very immersive and enjoyable reading experiences with almost no effort or "style", other than crystal clear clarity and a focus on getting on with the story. (Perhaps I just answered my own question there). I agree with you that the whole planet being a forest was not very scientifically sensible, and it reminds me of the worlds in the Star Wars universe, where they are also uniformly desert, cold, wooded, etc. ADF gets away with it in Midworld for me, and in other books he has some climactic variation, notably in Nor Crystal Tears where its actually a plot point.

I've not read Bloodhype yet, as I'm aware it's rather disjointed and your review doesn't put it to the top of the ADF tbr pile, though I expect I'll get to it sometime. The reason for Pip and Flinx not being in it much and only appearing a good way through is that he started to write a non-Pip and Flinx book following on from the Tar Aiym Krang, and his publisher strongly suggested he make his next novel a sequel of sorts with the same characters (the Krang book was presumably selling well). He was part way through writing Bloodhype, so I understand he took a quick left turn and wrote P&F in, rather than start again! Not one to waste written material is our Alan!

Yes, the lack of recognition in awards will forever be a curious thing. Several of his works do now get some recognition from forums and bloggers. His book Nor Crystal Tears is generally well regarded for instance, and appears in the list Abe books 50 essential SF books.

 

[J-Sun]

His book Nor Crystal Tears is generally well regarded for instance

Yep, that's definitely one I'll be looking out for. So far, except for Icerigger, I've had pretty good luck finding what I feel like I want to read so maybe I'll get lucky and find it soon.

The reason for Pip and Flinx not being in it much and only appearing a good way through is that he started to write a non-Pip and Flinx book following on from the Tar Aiym Krang, and his publisher strongly suggested he make his next novel a sequel of sorts with the same characters (the Krang book was presumably selling well). He was part way through writing Bloodhype, so I understand he took a quick left turn and wrote P&F in, rather than start again! Not one to waste written material is our Alan!

Thanks for that background info. It makes a lot of sense as that it is kind of what it feels like. Like I say, it's not awful but it's sort of a "sophomore slump" kind of book and just happens to throw P&F into the background partway on, though they do feature in one key sequence that's pretty good. Definitely doesn't seem like it would be high in the P&F canon, though.

 

[J-Sun]

Nobody else read any Foster lately? (I've still got three in the soon-to-be-read pile and three more (oops) in the will-try-to-read-someday pile.)

Ordered Icerigger awhile back and just finished it. It's an oddly long book for 70s Foster (313 pages!) and is too long and kind of Vance-ianly plotted (and then... and then...) all in the context of a "we've crashed on an iceworld far from the only human settlement and must get there without freezing to death" framework. The bat-winged cat-faced natives with built-in ice skates are kind of Andersonian and Nordic and great fun. (Two of the human characters have Andersonian aspects, too, with Ethan Fortune being a trader and Skua September being a big, bluff, fighting man.) Some of the wild imagination of Midworld is present here, though a little less luxuriant (difference between a jungle planet and an ice planet, I guess). He tries way too hard to be funny at first but then relaxes and is genuinely funny in a few places but it's a pretty dramatic work overall ("dramatic" in a swashbuckling adventure sense, not a navel-gazing matter-of-great-import-and-depression sense). I liked it but, oddly, I don't really feel a need for a sequel - he didn't either for several years but did eventually add a couple of widely separated sequels. Anyway - recommended, but I preferred Midworld and The Tar-Aiym Krang. It's better than Bloodhype, though. Definitely more on the "good" side than the "not good" side.

 

[Grimward]

I finished Cachalot not too long ago, J. Composing my thoughts, and might do a review.

 

[Bick]

Nice review, thanks J-Sun. Yes, 300+ pages is a mammoth tome for ADF! What are the three in the TBR pile, or would you rather surprise us?

Grimward, please do post on Cachalot. That's about a whale world I think? It will be good to get more views on Foster's books. This was becoming a bit of a dialogue between two Chronners only

 

[J-Sun]

Nice review, thanks J-Sun. Yes, 300+ pages is a mammoth tome for ADF! What are the three in the TBR pile, or would you rather surprise us?

Just odds and ends - I wanted to read some short fiction and the one at the store was The Metrognome which is, I think, his third collection. I don't read ties as a rule but there have been exceptions and many or most I have read have been by Foster and I've always been curious about Splinter of the Mind's Eye since it actually predates Empire and I got it for the princely sum of a dime. And I wanted to re-read Spellsinger, so picked that up.

Grimward, please do post on Cachalot. That's about a whale world I think? It will be good to get more views on Foster's books. This was becoming a bit of a dialogue between two Chronners only

Agreed on both points. I was specifically considering getting Cachalot because it's an early singleton (allowing that it's in the general humanx milieu so not purely single) but was kind of put off when I found out what it was about because I've read enough 70s sea critter stories (usually whales but also dolphins and whatnot) but maybe it'd be worthwhile despite that?

 

[J-Sun]

Wasted a dime. I read Splinter of the Mind's Eye and Foster needs his head examined. His sequel to Star Wars is a relatively modest tale that could never be made into a second movie and there is no Han Solo or Chewie in it. I think Han is actually mentioned once and Chewie never.

It's hard to separate a couple of things in my head about it: if you take it in relation to post-Empire/Jedi stuff, this is completely non-canon. You've got Luke trying to make out with Leia and a completely Force-less Leia and a Darth Vader as the unrelated henchman (badass henchman, but still just an enforcer rather than any right-hand man of the Emperor) that he originally was. So you obviously leave those things aside (while having to admit that, as goofy as some of the developments of the next two flicks were, they were better than this book's developments). And then there's the idea, "How would this be if it were just some book with just some random characters?" and that's harder to answer. I still think "adequate at best, but perhaps not that." And then there's the book for what it was when it was and he occasionally gets Luke right, demotes both droids to deep background, overdoes C3P0 but doesn't ruin him, and does nothing with R2D2, doesn't really get Vader right, and (excepting a momentary flash or two) is talking about a completely different Leia than the Leia I perceive.

And it's kind of ironic - Lucas screwed up Star Wars in the prequel films by rationalizing the Force in a stupid way; Foster screws up this novelization by making it a purely fantasy "find the magic stone" quest. Neither way works - that great tension between what is obviously a fantasy but really leans hard on the SF is essential - and it's always better to be more vague rather than less in Star Wars - it's harder to nitpick implication than it is to demolish explicit elements. The implied vague things can take on a huge awe-inspiring effect if you're inclined to grant them that by being well-disposed to likeable characters and cool gizmos. Explicit things with less likeable characters and less cool gizmos results in a smaller feel.

All this said, I'd be pissed if I were Foster, as it's amazing how many little things they lift out of this book and put into later movies even though they completely jettison everything of substance in it. There's a scene just like Luke crash-landing on Dagobah, a scene where the ground is not entirely stable, a scene where the little guys screw up troopers just like the Ewoks in #3 did, a scene where Foster's replacements for Wookies take over an imperial vehicle just like Chewie did with the AT-ST (or whatever it was) in #3, and there's even a sense that they lifted some of the magic jewel stuff way later for Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Not to mention that Foster lifts stuff from himself as there's a strong feeling of being on Mid-world again, generally, and especially in places such as a giant spider-worm attack. Also - spoilery for the book

Spoiler

Luke and Vader have a saber duel which is very much like the Empire duel down to Vader getting knicked (on his face - by Leia! - and then getting not just his forearm but his whole arm chopped off by Luke) and Vader flinging objects at Luke via the Force while they're supposed to be going saber-to-saber and at least one other element I've forgotten. (Re: Leia, Luke's kind of stupidly pinned, so Leia has to fight a delaying action until Luke can be freed - the part where Leia said nothing about being unable to swim while being in a decidedly dangerous "boat" over water and this saber duel were about the only parts that seemed properly Leia-like to me - even if the saber thing basically broke credulity, it was in the right direction. This was otherwise entirely a Luke book and she was constantly making wrong decisions and having to be saved. And her one-liners were decidedly more shrewish and less clever than they were in Star Wars. (No "You came here in that thing? You're braver than I thought.")

So, yeah: I recommend skipping this one and not muddying your internal Star Wars with it if you haven't yet read it.

On a much happier note, I'm on p.68 of Spellsinger and it's a trivial, minor, funny, absolute blast. I remember it as being pretty enjoyable but lost track of it so don't know how well I liked it. This is either as good as the first time or better. I was afraid it'd be too juvenile to enjoy but it either isn't or that's part of the enjoyability. I love the fact that the characters are all vicious and nice. Mudge meets "Jon-Tom" and sticks him with a sword/knife when he gets sufficiently angry and they become friends. Clothahump is a sweet doddering old turtle who can scream at you and blast you to bits. Pog is a total wiseass. And it really comes back to me - not the plot, so much, but these critters. Sometimes I re-read a book and it might as well be new to me. This, I haven't read in eons, but I sure know I've read it. The fractured science in the magic is also appealing and funny and, I suspect (or recall?) that it's significant. I don't know if it will hold up for a whole book (much less a whole trilogy, much much less a whole extended series) but I'm sure enjoying it now.

 

[Ray McCarthy]

It's almost like some of Alan Dean Foster's books are written by someone else.
Read Splinter of the Mind's Eye long ago and thought it was poor. Perhaps before the 2nd film.
Read Spellsinger and some others recently and thought not bad.

 

[Bick]

The basic premise and character inclusion for Splinter was dictated by Lucus - he wanted an option to make really cheap sequel with few characters on the assumption Star Wars might well flop. When it was a (surprising) success he got the sequel re-written and brought more characters back. The content therefore was never Fosters fault or choice.

 

[BAYLOR]

He did the novelization of Alien, The creature in the book and film were different. There were other differences. Even so I liked the book and movie both.

 

[J-Sun]

Just finished The Metrognome and Other Stories (1990). As far as I know, other than ties, Foster's never written a novel of horror and, other than ties and the Spellsinger thing and maybe another odd or end, he's not written novel-length fantasy. So I was amazed to find this collection was mostly a kind of horror with some fantasy. There's very little SF until the end and still not much over all. (Eight horror (granting a couple have SF traces) and two fantasies, vs. five stories that aren't too fantastic or horrific and can qualify as SF even if none are exactly hard SF.)

Kind of odd, too: while I didn't entirely love anything, I also didn't entirely hate anything. Usually any collection will have its duds but these were all within a very narrow range. I guess my favorites were "Thrust" and "Running" with an honorable mention to the title story for a sort of Unknown-ish fantasy vibe. All the horror stories were interesting and most almost worked but each had a little something askew in it that kept it from really working for me.

Overall, not bad and of interest to the ADF fan but not what I would use to introduce folks to him.

It's almost like some of Alan Dean Foster's books are written by someone else.
Read Splinter of the Mind's Eye long ago and thought it was poor. Perhaps before the 2nd film.
Read Spellsinger and some others recently and thought not bad.

Oh, yeah: I also re-read Spellsinger, myself, before Metrognome. I'd read it in an omnibus so forgot that the first "two" books are a small-press novel split in two, so I had to hastily get hold of the second (The Hour of the Gate) just to remind myself how it all worked out. It was readable and had some nice characters and some wild passages such as the doubled-river and I enjoyed the re-read but not as much as I remember enjoying it back when. The part that really messed it up for me this time was the introduction and general handling of Flor along with the whole Jon/Flor/Talea triangle. I thought then and now that the intro of Jon-Tom's situation finding himself in this world and adapting to it was a great start - the repetition and, more importantly, the variation, in Flor's intro was not good. But, yeah, not bad overall and way better than Splinter.

The basic premise and character inclusion for Splinter was dictated by Lucus - he wanted an option to make really cheap sequel with few characters on the assumption Star Wars might well flop. When it was a (surprising) success he got the sequel re-written and brought more characters back. The content therefore was never Fosters fault or choice.

Thanks, good info - I didn't realize that. I figured Foster said, "Hey, let me write a book," and they said, "Well, we'll have to approve the final draft but go for it!" So if he was just filling an outline, that excuses him from a lot. I still don't think that accounts for everything, though - I don't think they could have controlled it down to the "lines of dialog" level. Still, we'll just sweep that under the carpet as a "too many cooks in the kitchen" book and re-read Midworld or something.

 

[tylenol4000]

So the Humanx Commonwealth novels aren't written in anyone particular order right? They can be read in no particular order? Kinda like the Culture novels by Iain Banks? (Obviously excluding the Pip and Flinx novels)

 

[Bick]

Hi tylenol4000 - kinda, but not entirely true. The novels do follow some sort of story arc, in the sense that the Founding of the Commonwealth books should be read in order to each other. Nor Crystal Tears should probably be read before many of them, as its the first contact book between the Thranx and Humans. That said, if you read them out of order it mostly doesn't matter much and they can be enjoyed fine. The Pip and Flinx books should be read in order and make up many of the books in ADF's universe of course. Also, some characters recur and mention of their earlier exploits is sometimes mentioned.

 

[psikeyhackr]

Anyone else (in addition to AE35Unit) who is an ADF fan? I just read Nor Crystal Tears , which I really enjoyed. It's a nice first contact book, told from the perspective of the alien thranx. Foster clearly had a lot of fun describing humans from the alien point if view.

I just reread an old first contact story, The Alien Way by Gordon R. Dickson.

https://sciencefictionruminations.w...ook-review-the-alien-way-gordon-dickson-1965/

I read it long before Nor Crystal Tears, but they are very interesting in comparison but it is only a single novel.

psik

 

[Grimward]

Am sadly behind on my review of Cachalot (though I did start!), but just finished a short story of Foster's called Food Fight. Found in a (so far...I'm not finished with it yet!) compilation of light-hearted SFF stories called Fantasy Gone Wrong, it's as brilliant a piece of work from him as any I've read. Not going to go into it (it is a short story, after all, and I feel that discussing any part of it is spoiling the enjoyment). In my opinion, a must for Foster fans here.

 

[J-Sun]

Thought folks interested in this thread (or in Star Wars!) might be interested in this article:

Alan Dean Foster and the Adventures of Luke Skywalker

It mostly discusses the first Star Wars novelizations, the backstory of Splinter which Bick had enlightened me on, and the upcoming film and novelization which is in Foster's hands again.

 

[tylenol4000]

I heard Alan Dean Foster wrote the yet-to-be released Force Awakens novelization. I think that's awesome. He also did the new Star Trek novelizations, did he not? (although I'm not a fan of what Abrams did with Trek).

 

[BAYLOR]

I heard Alan Dean Foster wrote the yet-to-be released Force Awakens novelization. I think that's awesome. He also did the new Star Trek novelizations, did he not? (although I'm not a fan of what Abrams did with Trek).

I recommend his Star Wars novel Splinter of the Minds Eye an excellent book.