...Who Needs Enemies

…..Who Needs Enemies? (1984) By Alan Dean Foster My Copy 1986 1st edition Paperback

Alan Dean Foster’s original work is highly underrated. Well Known for his novelisation of the Original Star Wars (credited to George Lucas) that was released before the film as a marketing tool, and also the Alien Novels. Over the decades he has shown he is one of the best writers of film novelisations and able to bring something original to them within the constraints he is given.

It is therefore unfortunate that some of his highly original and entertaining original work is sometimes overlooked. This solid collection of short stories was a reread, I’d not reread it since I purchased the book (1986). What I found interesting was in all that time some show more of the stories had stuck with me, but I was convinced that they were Roger Zelazny stories.

There are 12 stories contained within this collection, all worth reading but as with any collection some stick out more than others. For those that know Foster’s work there is a Flinx and Pip story, which is a welcome addition for those characters. The stories cover everything from Dragons in the wild west to surfing 100-foot waves on Alien Planets. A Highly enjoyable collection. Foster introduces each story with a short paragraph but unlike some short story collections these introductions do not outstay their welcome but give you a taste of the ideas behind them. He may not have the most extravagant prose but his writing is engaging and he can tell a good story.

The cover of my edition does not have the artist credited and I was unable to find any information about it elsewhere. The cover is a representation from the story ‘The Dark Light Girl’ so was obviously commissioned for the book.

Goodreads ratings are pretty limiting, my benchmark using those ratings are anything 3 or above is a good strong recommendation that I would happily reread at some point. I only rarely give 5 stars to a book show less

Mostly long-winded, actually. Clever ideas that could have been presented in 1/2 the words. As I neared the end of (most of) each story I remembered that I'd read it before, and when I finished the book I decided that I somehow must have read the whole book before. So, iow, mostly they're pretty forgettable, too. Well, this time it is definitely coming off my shelves and going out to the wide world.

Some good and some not so good stories in this collection of short stories. All with interesting concepts and introductions by the author.

light, amusing, amateurish

NIL