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Library | Call Number | Status |
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Searching... McMinnville Public Library | Foster, A. | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
A humble herdsman enlists the help of a soldier of fortune and a reasoning beast to embark on a dangerous quest to find a kidnapped princess.
Author Notes
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 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)
Reviews (3)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Etjole Ehombe is a warrior of the desert-dwelling Naumkib and a man of honor. When a dying foreigner charges him with saving the Visioness Themaryl, kidnaped by an evil sorcerer called Hymneth the Possessed, Ehombe reluctantly accepts the task, packing up his spear, his sword made of sky-metal and a sack of potions and simplesÄeven though he knows nothing about these strange people or their fight, only that they dwell far to the distant north. Thus opens Book I of Foster's (author of the popular Flinx and Spellsinger novels) new fantasy series. Foster shows off his fertile imagination as Ehombe, a "simple shepherd," matches wits with the various denizens of each new territory he enters. The land is alive with talking animals, magical creatures and a vivid sense of ancient folklore come to life. Along the way, Ehombe picks up a couple of sidekicks: Simna ibn Sind, skilled swordsman and voracious treasure hunter; and the Ahlitah, half-lion, half-cheetah and curious as any cat could be. Although the book lacks any resolution, it is top-drawer Foster, featuring a fast-paced mix of wry humor, high fantasy and amazing new places and creatures. (June) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
First of a fantasy trilogy, from the author of Mid-Flinx (1995), etc. The tall herdsman/warrior Etjole Ehomba of the Naumkib tribe lives by the sea. When a number of strange warriors wash up dead on the sand, only the nobleman Talin Beckwith survives long enough to whisper a dying request: It seems that the Visioness Themaryl of Laconda has been abducted by Hymneth the Possessed and carded off to the remote land of Ehl-Larimar. Etjole accepts the dead man's entreaty to rescue her, and sets off on a very long journey. Etjole speaks the languages of animals, his beating is courteous, his aspect modest and reasonable, and he solves problems by negotiation. A friendly snake provides him with an immunity to poison. He acquires a sidekick, the garrulous treasure-hunter Simna Ibn Sind. He outfaces a sentient tornado to save Ahlitah, a large black cat that, feeling obligated, joins the expedition. Finally, after various adventures involving floating ponds, dolphins, tiny warriors, a hostile animated sand dune, the mirage-palace of a soul-eater, and a gigantic walking wall, he's menaced by the evil, light-eating eromakadi; fortunately, being an eromakadi himself(one who eats darkness), Etjole simply inhales the eromakadi. Inventive and packed with flavorsome incident, but lacking propellant: a pleasant but far from compelling saunter. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Library Journal Review
A shipwreck victim's dying words become an inescapable duty for Etjole Ehomba, a herdsman known for his sense of honorÄand for his unquenchable curiosity. Armed only with his spear, his star-metal sword, and an unshakable belief that every question has an answer, Ehomba embarks on a journey into unknown lands to rescue a captured princess from an enemy he has never met. Foster's (The Spoils of War, LJ 4/15/93) latest fantasy series combines the flexibility of a picaresque adventure with the simplicity of a folktale as his Gulliveresque hero survives encounters with talking serpents, walking trees, sentient storms, and a host of other wondrous creatures. This promising series opener by a veteran of both sf and fantasy belongs in most libraries. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.