From archive (archive) Subject: Review: "The Deluge Drivers" From: holloway@drivax.UUCP (Bruce Holloway) Organization: Digitalis Research, Inc. Date: 29 Jul 87 20:09:12 GMT THE DELUGE DRIVERS [*+] Alan Dean Foster This is the third book in the series begun with "Icerigger" and continued in "Mission to Moulokin". Our Hero, Ethan Fortune, has just returned to Brass Monkey, the busy human outpost on the ice world Tran-ky-ky, on the icerigger "Slanderscree", crewed by the native Tran. Just as it looks like he might finally get offworld (he was marooned, with Skua September and a few others, on Tran-ky-ky in "Icerigger"), human scientists discover a strange anamoly near the southern pole that's warming the planet - and could end up killing most native life. Since regulations prevent the scientists from using modern equipment to find the cause, they manage to finagle Fortune, September and the crew of the "Slanderscree" into taking them there in the icerigger. Like many of Foster's books, the situation seems extremely contrived in order to force the characters to do exactly the sort of things you'd expect. There are no surprises in this book, the characters all act according to type, and the plot moves too slowly between the few action sequences. The Tran are so different from the normal native life that it's difficult to see how they could evolve there. Characters fade in and out without warning, sometimes after having just been told that they are IMPORTANT (!!), although we're never shown just why. A number of minor errors flaw the book. In one place, the Tran have a head motion for nodding - up and down, and Fortune notes that this is something they share with humans. But later in the book they start nodding differently - and Fortune notes that this is one of the many differences when dealing with alien races. Especially across entire chapters. The natives drink melted ice as a matter of course, but have great trouble identifying it later in the story, finally concluding it is "ice's corpse". Even though in the second book there are free standing pools of water near volcanic vents, certainly noted by a large portion of the crew, and a great underground sea as well. This book would have been perfect thirty years ago, but the plot and characters seem dated now. -- Bruce Holloway - Terminal Netnews Addict {seismo,sun}!amdahl!drivax!holloway ALBATROSS, ATARI*TROS @ Plink ALBATROSS @ Delphi >>> HI, KARL! <<< From archive (archive) Subject: GLORY LANE by Alan Dean Foster From: holloway@drivax.UUCP (Bruce Holloway) Organization: Digitalis Research, Inc. Date: 10 Aug 87 18:46:59 GMT GLORY LANE [**] Alan Dean Foster If I were a cover blurb writer (and this book seems written just for the breed), I'd describe this book as a "light-hearted romp through the galaxy in search of the perfect mall." And oddly, that's pretty much how the blurb writer wrote it. Seeth, an unusually erudite punk rocker looking for excitement, decides to raise some eyebrows at the local redneck bowling alley. Where he meets a stereotypical nerd and a man with an unusual number of fingers doing these amazing tricks with a bowling ball. Strange. Who'd guess that guy was an alien. Certainly not the airhead Valley girl they pick up during the extended chase seen which dominates the next chapter. And then we're finally into the meat of the book, as the plot takes the standard "Dere's-No-Intelligent-Life-On-Dis-Planet- And-Youse-Guys-Are-Da-Poifect-Proof" route. Nothing exciting happens in this book. The characters wander from scene to disconnected scene, wondering just what it is the alien has gotten them into. And the truth about that bowling ball, presented in just enough time to build a climax - a minor climax which falls apart scientifically. But science has never been Foster's strong point. This book might - MIGHT - make it as a short story, or novelette. But there really isn't any plot here... each scene seems designed to let some character spout off about some inanity of Earth civilization. Remove all these, and you have a short story. I'll outline the short story hidden in this book here. 1. Punk rocker meets brother in bowling alley, they see strange man doing impossible tricks with a bowling ball. 2. Aforementioned brothers, a dumb blonde, and alien hightail it to a mall planet, giving every alien a chance to make fun of the Earth. 3. There's a space battle, with plenty more opportunities for cheap shots. 4. There's a climax. 5. Everyone lives happily ever after. My advice to you: Floss after reading. - Bruce -- Bruce Holloway - Terminal Netnews Addict {seismo,sun}!amdahl!drivax!holloway ALBATROSS, ATARI*TROS @ Plink ALBATROSS @ Delphi >>> HI, KARL! <<< From @asterix.liu.se,@majestix.liu.se:matoh@prefix.liu.se Sat Aug 22 12:34:09 1987 Received: from asterix.liu.se by obelix.liu.se; Sat, 22 Aug 87 12:34:09 SDT Received: from majestix.liu.se by asterix.liu.se; Sat, 22 Aug 87 12:13:33 +0200 Received: from prefix.liu.se by majestix.liu.se; Sat, 22 Aug 87 12:15:47 +0200 Received: by prefix.liu.se; Sat, 22 Aug 87 12:11:10 +0200 Date: Sat, 22 Aug 87 12:11:10 +0200 From: Mats Ohrman Message-Id: <8708221011.AA08733@prefix.liu.se> To: mats@obelix.liu.se Status: R Path: liuida!enea!mcvax!seismo!rutgers!sri-spam!mordor!lll-tis!ptsfa!ihnp4!homxb!mtuxo!mtgzy!ecl From: ecl@mtgzy.UUCP (e.c.leeper) Newsgroups: rec.arts.books,rec.arts.sf-lovers Subject: GLORY LANE by Alan Dean Foster Message-ID: <2808@mtgzy.UUCP> Date: 21 Aug 87 12:39:49 GMT Organization: AT&T, Middletown NJ Lines: 28 Xref: liuida rec.arts.sf-lovers:4318 GLORY LANE by Alan Dean Foster Ace, 1987, ISBN 0-441-51664-5, $3.50. A book review by Evelyn C. Leeper Copyright 1987 Evelyn C. Leeper The cover of this book is certainly eye-catching and the book seems to be marketed as another HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY, full of funny aliens and weird happenings. It isn't. Oh, there are funny aliens, and some weird things do happen, but all in all it seems forced. The characters read like a cast like for a play: Seeth, a punk rocker Kerwin, a nerd Miranda, a Valley girl Rail, an alien Izmir, another alien Oomemians and Prufillians The story reads as if the characters all walk around with these labels stuck on their foreheads. By the time anything interesting begins to happen (and about halfway through the book, things do start happening), most readers will have given up. Not recommended. Evelyn C. Leeper (201) 957-2070 UUCP: ihnp4!mtgzy!ecl ARPA: mtgzy!ecl@rutgers.rutgers.edu From rec.arts.sf.written Sat May 8 16:28:50 1993 Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written Path: lysator.liu.se!isy!liuida!sunic!pipex!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!decwrl!parc!xsoft!hobbes!hcate From: cate3.osbu_north@xerox.com (Henry Cate III) Subject: Review of "The Spoils of War" by Alan Dean Foster Message-ID: <1993May7.185834.306@xsoft.xerox.com> ~Sender: news@xsoft.xerox.com ~Reply-To: cate3.osbu_north@xerox.com Organization: Xerox ~Date: Fri, 7 May 1993 18:58:34 GMT ~Lines: 49 "The Spoils of War" by Alan Dean Foster This is the third book in the "The Damned" series. Without giving much more away than what is on the back covers of the first two books, the first book covers how an intergalactic war got started. One side is led by a race, the Amplitur, with the ability to control minds. They feel it is their purpose to take over the rest of the galaxy. In this universe civilized races have trouble killing each other. The other side, the Weave, is losing the war. But then the Weave finds Earth, with a race that not only is willing to fight, but happens to be very, very good at it. So with humans on their side the Weave starts to push the Amplitur back. In the second book the Amplitur captured a human colony, and raised all the infants believing they were members of an alien race. They are to be part of a group designed to defeat humans in one on one combat. The third book takes up later as the Weave is soundly defeating the Amplitur. And there are several questions, one is what do you do with humans? They aren't very civilized, so they still haven't been accepted into the Weave. Can they just be ignored? Much of the story focuses on Lalelelang, a Wais scholar. The Wais, like all civilized races, abhors fighting. Many will faint just being near violence. But Lalelelang has taken it on herself to study humans and starts finding some secrets. About half way through the story, the book starts taking several twists. Some major secrets are reveled, and the flavor of the book becomes more like a spy novel or a mystery. Overall the book is pleasant and enjoyable. In some ways it is better than the first two. There are some minor points which bothered me, in that I think the author stated some things in the first two books, which are no longer true in the third book. If you liked the first two books, I think you'll enjoy this one. Have a good day. Henry cate3.osbu_north@xerox.com From rec.arts.sf.written Tue May 11 11:53:21 1993 Path: lysator.liu.se!kth.se!sunic!uunet!gatech!howland.reston.ans.net!wupost!newsfeed.rice.edu!lub001.lamar.edu!newsfeed.rice.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!decwrl!parc!xsoft!hobbes!hcate Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written Subject: Review of "The Spoils of War" by Alan Dean Foster Message-ID: <1993May8.235703.2419@lub001.lamar.edu> From: cate3.osbu_north@xerox.com (Henry Cate III) Date: 8 May 93 23:57:03 +1700 Lines: 56 Message-ID: <1993May7.185834.306@xsoft.xerox.com> ~Sender: news@xsoft.xerox.com ~Reply-To: cate3.osbu_north@xerox.com Organization: Xerox ~Date: Fri, 7 May 1993 18:58:34 GMT ~Lines: 49 "The Spoils of War" by Alan Dean Foster This is the third book in the "The Damned" series. Without giving much more away than what is on the back covers of the first two books, the first book covers how an intergalactic war got started. One side is led by a race, the Amplitur, with the ability to control minds. They feel it is their purpose to take over the rest of the galaxy. In this universe civilized races have trouble killing each other. The other side, the Weave, is losing the war. But then the Weave finds Earth, with a race that not only is willing to fight, but happens to be very, very good at it. So with humans on their side the Weave starts to push the Amplitur back. In the second book the Amplitur captured a human colony, and raised all the infants believing they were members of an alien race. They are to be part of a group designed to defeat humans in one on one combat. The third book takes up later as the Weave is soundly defeating the Amplitur. And there are several questions, one is what do you do with humans? They aren't very civilized, so they still haven't been accepted into the Weave. Can they just be ignored? Much of the story focuses on Lalelelang, a Wais scholar. The Wais, like all civilized races, abhors fighting. Many will faint just being near violence. But Lalelelang has taken it on herself to study humans and starts finding some secrets. About half way through the story, the book starts taking several twists. Some major secrets are reveled, and the flavor of the book becomes more like a spy novel or a mystery. Overall the book is pleasant and enjoyable. In some ways it is better than the first two. There are some minor points which bothered me, in that I think the author stated some things in the first two books, which are no longer true in the third book. If you liked the first two books, I think you'll enjoy this one. Have a good day. Henry cate3.osbu_north@xerox.com From rec.arts.sf.written Tue Jun 8 16:52:36 1993 Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written Path: lysator.liu.se!kth.se!sunic!uunet!olivea!charnel!rat!decwrl!csus.edu!netcom.com!dani From: dani@netcom.com (Dani Zweig) Subject: Alan Dean Foster: The Damned (spoilers) Message-ID: Organization: Netcom Online Communications Services (408-241-9760 login: guest) Date: Mon, 7 Jun 1993 05:52:57 GMT Lines: 67 Alan Dean Foster's trilogy, "The Damned", is an interesting failure. The first book, "A Call to Arms", is devoted to stage-setting. The reason such a lengthy setup is required is that the premises are silly, and never made particularly plausible: There are two space-federations Out There. One is controlled by the mind-controlling Amplitur, whose racial Purpose is to unite all intelligence (though they haven't figured out what for). The other consists of the Weave, a trading alliance that has become a military alliance in order to resist being subsumed by the Amplitur. They've been at war for about a millenium. The problem is, no known species is any good at warfare. Most are physically and psychologically incapable of it, and the rest are plain incompetent. Then the Weave discovers Earth -- and the only known species which is actually good at warfare. They turn the war around by recruiting Human soldiers. In the second book, "The False Mirror", the Amplitur attempt to match the threat by fielding troops who are as good as Humans -- and who turn out to be Humans, genetically altered to match one of their client races. (Why the Amplitur didn't avoid the problems that followed by simply raising them as loyal Jannisaries is unclear. Probably because there wouldn't have been book three, for which this book is a setup.) The subjects of this experiment find out that they're Human and defect back to their 'own' side. The physical alterations are reversed, but they discover that the tampering has unexpectedly left them with an Amplitur-like ability to mindcontrol other (non-Human) species. "The Spoils of War" is the best of the three -- no less silly, but with better story-telling. It ought to be, since the first two books amount to little more than book-length shaggy-dog stories meant to set up the final one. The long war is coming to a close, and everyone seems pleased except for one Wais researcher (the Wais are one of the Weave species psychologically incapable of even contemplating violence), who worries about the peace: Will Humans be content to pack up, go home, and grow brussels sprouts after centuries of being a society of well-paid mercenaries? It turns out that she is not alone in her concerns. So are other parties. Quite a few others. In fact, the latter portion of the book begins to resemble nothing so much as the latter portions of several episodes of "Get Smart". The trilogy has a some good ideas -- I'd have loved to see more of the frictions hinted at within the Weave -- but not much is done with them. Most of the page count is devoted to forcing the plot to go where it doesn't particularly want or need to go. The main premise is partly compromised because the plot sometimes requires Humanity's warlike nature to be genetic and sometimes requires it to be cultural, but the bulk of the first book is devoted to setting it up, anyway. The only real purpose served by the second book is the establishment of another plot device -- a group of mind-controlling Humans, but the significance claimed for them in the third book is unconvincing. Indeed, it would have have been better story-telling if this group were united by their unique *cultural* heritage, rather than by an improbable and unnecessary genetic one. And the third book wasn't that bad. This points to the main problem with "The Damned": It shouldn't have been a trilogy. It has the elements of a fairly good stand-alone novel of a third to a half the total page count. This is one of Foster's poorer efforts. ----- Dani Zweig dani@netcom.com Should 'anal retentive' have a hyphen? -- unidentified passing t-shirt From rec.arts.sf.written Wed Jan 12 13:08:23 1994 Path: liuida!sunic!EU.net!uunet!olivea!sgigate.sgi.com!rutgers!luccpua.bitnet!$W$PR42 From: $W$PR42@luccpua.BITNET ("Pete Brauer 312/915-6157") Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written Subject: The Damned Series by Alan Dean Foster Message-ID: <9401101659.AA07028@rutgers.edu> Date: 10 Jan 94 16:58:00 GMT Sender: nobody@rutgers.rutgers.edu Lines: 38 This is a three-part series of books from Alan Dean Foster that were published by Ballantine between early 1992 and mid-1993. For those that are familiar with Foster's work, it is very similiar in readability and tone to the Flinx of the Commonwealth Series except with new charact ers and races of intelligence. BOOK ONE - A Call to Arms In the first book of the series we are introduced to the Weave races which are engaged in combat with the forces of the "Purpose," which are led by the Amplitur, a race of beings that are alone in the universe in that they are able to exert telepathic control over other races. They do this by giving what they call "suggestions" to those races that they have beaten and then genetically re-engineering the defeated races so that they follow only those that are seeking to dessminate the "Purpose" . The Weave is a group of races that have combined to combat the Ampli- tur and their Purpose and keep the universe safe for free will. The only problem is that it turns out that as races mature and civilize they lose the ability to fight, it becomes something that is morally abhorren t, and only a few races are able to actively participate in Combat, the most noticeable of these races being the Massood, a feline like race of intelligence that is responsible for almost all of the fighting. The Weave become desparate as they are losing the struggle and form a last ditch effort to search the galaxy to find another warrior race to help them in the struggle. After much inter-stellar travel they come across a race of barbarians that are actually still fighting among themselves and are exhibiting a uniquely violent global culture, they decide to land and explore more of the planet Earth. The first book details the first contact between humans and other- worldly intelligence and the resulting effects in an interesting look at Earth culture. There are some very interesting points made about Terran geology and its effects on culture development, along with an introduction to many other of the Weave's allied races. . BOOK TWO - The False Mirror BOOK THREE - The Spoils of War Reviews to follow send personal responses if interested to; $W$PR42@LUCCPUS.BITNET or $W$PR42@LUCCPUA.IT.LUC.EDU Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews,rec.arts.books,alt.books.reviews Path: news.ifm.liu.se!liuida!sunic!pipex!howland.reston.ans.net!ix.netcom.com!netcom.com!postmodern.com!not-for-mail From: ecl@mtgpfs1.mt.att.com (Evelyn Chimelis Leeper) Subject: GREENTHIEVES by Alan Dean Foster Message-ID: <9411101623.AA28352@mtgpfs1.mt.att.com> Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.written Sender: mcb@postmodern.com (Michael C. Berch) Organization: The Internet Date: Thu, 17 Nov 1994 03:25:03 GMT Approved: mcb@postmodern.com (rec.arts.sf.reviews moderator) Lines: 57 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.sf.reviews:674 rec.arts.books:101920 alt.books.reviews:6188 GREENTHIEVES by Alan Dean Foster Ace, ISBN 0-441-00104-1, 1994, 248pp, $5.50 A book review by Evelyn C. Leeper Copyright 1994 Evelyn C. Leeper A hard-boiled detective story interspersed with a philosophical discussion of human beings and their foibles? Hey, I don't write them, I just review them. Alan Dean Foster is not generally considered one of the leading philosophers of the science fiction community. And many of the opinions expressed as asides by the artificial intelligence in this novel are not new. But they are far and away the most interesting, and perhaps best-written part of the book. Compare this speech from the philosophizing AI: "Mechanicals don't share your ghoulish delight in the lurid details of dismemberment and destruction. I'm endlessly fascinated by your visceral fascination to viscera, by your inability to turn away from scenes that you know are going to disgust you. It's as if you enjoy upsetting yourselves. ... Right now there's a fire in the residence down the street from you. Tell me you're not going to go and look." with the following description of one of the detectives: "She had shed the snakeskin in favor of a one-piece suit of bioengineered silk. It was a toss-up as to which fit tighter, the most notable difference being that the silk had pockets. It was held together by static seals in back and the prayers of two top designers in front." I realize it's a tradition in hard-boiled detective novels, but I found this treatment of women annoying. So far as I can recall, there were four women in the novel: the aforementioned detective, two hookers, and an old woman running a hotel. As if all this weren't bad enough, the male humaniform robot goes around seducing female humaniform robots! The solution to the mystery was also disappointing, and a bit too deus ex machina to suit me. Were it not for the side comments by the philosopher-AI there would be nothing here to recommend this. But good as that part is, it is not enough to overcome the rest. Maybe next time Foster will concentrate most on that aspect and get rid of the gross stereotypes in the rest of the novel. He's a good enough writer that he doesn't need them. %A Foster, Alan Dean %T Greenthieves %I Ace %C New York %D October 1994 %G ISBN 0-441-00104-1 %P 248pp %O paperback, $5.50 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!arclight.uoregon.edu!gatech!18.181.0.27.MISMATCH!sipb-server-1.mit.edu!senator-bedfellow.mit.edu!usenet From: "Aaron M. Renn" Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: Parallelities, Alan Dean Foster Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.written Date: 25 Jun 1999 23:44:49 -0400 Organization: GNU's Not Unix! Lines: 38 Sender: wex@tinbergen.media.mit.edu Approved: wex@media.mit.edu Message-ID: NNTP-Posting-Host: tinbergen.media.mit.edu X-Newsreader: Gnus v5.3/Emacs 19.34 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.sf.reviews:2383 Parallelities by Alan Dean Foster Review Copyright (c) 1999 Aaron M. Renn Conclusion: For Foster fans and collectors only, others should avoid. This is a typical Foster novel. Take a subculture character from the ordinary world and send him on a whirlwind tour of the absurd. Unfortunately, the joke is wearing thin and even if it weren't this incarnation is a particularly poor effort. Max Parker is a reporter for a supermarket tabloid sent to investigate a scientist who claims to be able to open doors to parallel universes. Now there's an original idea. Not! The scientist, Barrington Boles, gives Parker a demonstration that supposedly fails. But as it turns out Boles' equipment managed to create a field that allows access to parallel universes, a field that adheres to Parker. The rest of the plot I won't bore you with. The book contains nothing original and leads nowhere. I'd be willing to think that Foster was writing a parody of the parallel universe genre, except that even by that standard Parallelities fails miserably. As one might expect of a tabloid reporter, Parker is an unsympathetic protagonist from the get go and nothing happened to change my opinion of him. I'm a Foster fan from way back, so I don't feel like I'm being unfair to the guy when I say that this book is actively bad. I own virtually all of his novels, and I'd say this is the worst. Unless you, like me, want to keep a complete Foster collection, there's no reason to buy it. %A Foster, Alan Dean %T Parallelities %I Ballantine/Del Rey %D 1998-10 %G ISBN 0-345-42461-1 %P 309 pp. %O mass market paperback, US$6.99 C$8.99 Aaron M. Renn (arenn@urbanophile.com) http://www.urbanophile.com/arenn/