About the Author

Alan Dean Foster has written in a variety of genres, including hard science fiction, fantasy, horror, detective, western, historical, and contemporary fiction. He is the author of the New York Times bestseller Star Wars: The Approaching Storm, as well as novelizations of several films including Star Wars, the first three Alien films, and Alien Nation. His novel Cyber Way won the Southwest Book Award for Fiction in 1990, the first science fiction work to ever do so. Foster and his wife, JoAnn Oxley, reside in Prescott, Arizona, in a house built of brick that was salvaged from a turn-of-the-century miners’ brothel. He is presently at work on several new novels and media projects.

Reviews

Alien abductions are fast becoming an SF clich?, but bestseller Foster (Dirge) puts a fresh spin on the theme in the wacky first book of a new comic SF series about Marcus Walker, a Chicago commodities broker, and George, a talking dog. Both fall victim to the seven-foot Vilenjji, who roam outer space and snatch specimens from various backward planets to sell as novelty pets to wealthy clients. Marc and George are the only Earth samples in the vast traveling zoo en route to an undisclosed alien marketplace. The other oxygen-breathing sentients-caged in enclosures that imaginatively echo the places where they were captured-can communicate with each other and their captors, due to implants that have been softwired into their brains. Much mayhem ensues as Marc and the streetwise mutt decide to attempt an escape with fellow zoo allies, the huge, very scary, always hungry poetry-spouting Braouk ("Sorrow is sharing, the abducted are together, many one") and the tiny, bejeweled, hysterically superior Sque ("a female of the K'eremu"). Walker's enthusiasm in taking stock of the assets at their disposal in their wild bid for freedom-something his work has taught him to do "when faced with a difficult set of circumstances"-and George's doggy determination make this a winner for all ages. Agent, Vaughne Lee Hansen at Virginia Kidd Literary. (June 29) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Chicago commodities trader Marcus Walker takes to the mountains for a camping trip only to awaken in the belly of an alien spaceship bound for outer space. Soon he discovers others like himself, taken from other worlds by a race of profiteering merchants known as the Vilenjji. Walker's attempt to free himself and his newfound friends-including a centipede-like intellectual and a talking dog named George-becomes only the first step in a long and strange journey with an uncertain destination. Veteran sf novelist Foster ("Flinx of the Commonwealth" series) launches a new series featuring a pair of engaging heroes (one of them a canine wisecracker) and fascinating alien races caught up in just enough of a story to showcase the characters. A good choice for general sf and YA collections. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.