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Twelve stories of science fiction and interstellar adventure include Space Opera, He, Dream Done Green, Why Johnny Can't Speed, and The Emoman.Tags
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A collection of short stories of some of Foster's early stuff. I enjoyed this. It was cool seeing ideas that were later expanded in his novels. Nothing really stood out but it was a nice light read and now my Foster collection looks better, with this sitting next to ...Who Needs Enemies?.
Foster has done much better, since these early stories. Both the ideas and the writing is *almost* cliched - I found it jarring to have hope, with each, that it was going to be a good read, and then to be frustrated as they fell into mediocrity.
This book is a gem. Every story is wonderful and my favourite sci fi story of all time is the lead story With Friends Like These.
Short stories of varying quality, most un-great, some readable.
Just a note - I always loved this cover. This was one of a couple that Michael Whelan added himself into the artwork (Aliens! being another one). He's the human in the middle, and if I remember correctly, that is a portrait of his wife behind him. :)
First Canadian Printing January 1978
Cover art by Michael Whelan
for the first story “With friends Like These” copywrite 1981 for Analog Science Fiction June 1971
My own copy
Cost $2:95 SPACE AGE
Cover art by Michael Whelan
for the first story “With friends Like These” copywrite 1981 for Analog Science Fiction June 1971
My own copy
Cost $2:95 SPACE AGE
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4,052 works; 110 members
Author Information
Bestselling science fiction writer Alan Dean Foster was born in New York City in 1946, but raised mainly in California. He received a B.A. in Political Science from UCLA in 1968, and a M.F.A. in 1969. Foster enjoys traveling because it gives him opportunities to meet new people and explore new places and cultures. This interest is carried over to show more his writing, but with a twist: the new places encountered in his books are likely to be on another planet, and the people may belong to an alien race. Foster began his career as an author when a letter he sent to Arkham Collection was purchased by the editor and published in the magazine in 1968. His first novel, The Tar-Aiym Krang, introduced the Humanx Commonwealth, a galactic alliance between humans and an insectlike race called Thranx. Several other novels, including the Icerigger trilogy, are also set in the world of the Commonwealth. The Tar-Aiym Krang also marked the first appearance of Flinx, a young man with paranormal abilities, who reappears in other books, including Orphan Star, For Love of Mother-Not, and Flinx in Flux. Foster has also written The Damned series and the Spellsinger series, which includes The Hour of the Gate, The Moment of the Magician, The Paths of the Perambulator, and Son of Spellsinger, among others. Other books include novelizations of science fiction movies and television shows such as Star Trek, The Black Hole, Starman, Star Wars, and the Alien movies. Splinter of the Mind's Eye, a bestselling novel based on the Star Wars movies, received the Galaxy Award in 1979. The book Cyber Way won the Southwest Book Award for Fiction in 1990. His novel Our Lady of the Machine won him the UPC Award (Spain) in 1993. He also won the Ignotus Award (Spain) in 1994 and the Stannik Award (Russia) in 2000. He is the recipient of the Faust, the IAMTW Lifetime achievement award. Alan Dean Foster's Star Wars: The Force Awakens, was a 2015 New York Times bestseller. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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Common Knowledge
- Original publication date
- 1977-12
- People/Characters
- Sawbill September
- Dedication
- For JoAnn, who has my future, I give now a little of my past, with love
- First words
- When I was very young, which was not so very long ago, my friends and I wanted to grow up to be firemen, policemen, airline pilots, and presidents. (introduction)
As she commenced her first approach to the Go-type sun, the light cruiser Tpin's velocity began to decrease from the impossible to the merely incredible. ("With friends like these...") - Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)Beethoven, it was. ("Ye who would sing")
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- Members
- 585
- Popularity
- 49,952
- Reviews
- 6
- Rating
- (3.57)
- Languages
- English, German
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 7
- ASINs
- 3
