The Founding of the Commonwealth

Founding of the Commonwealth #1-3

by Alan Dean Foster

Over 20 of bestselling author Alan Dean Foster's novels have been set in the Humanx Commonwealth, a far future alliance of planets and their colonies. Now,in this trilogy, Alan Dean Foster explores the early days of the alliance and the events that joined humans with their alien neighbors. PHYLOGENESIS -- In the years after first contact, humans and the intelligent insect-like Thranx agree to a tentative sharing of ideas and cultures, despite the mutual repulsion they have yet to overcome. Thus a slow, lengthy process of limited contact begins. Yet they never plan for a chance meeting between Desvendapur, a misfit Thranx poet bored with his life, and Cheelo Montoya, a small-time criminal with big dreams of making a fast buck. Together this odd pair embark upon a journey that will forever change their beliefs, their futures, and their worlds. DIRGE -- Takes place after First Contact, when the thranx and the citizens of Earth settle into an uneasy partnership. Both species have much to learn from one another, but the humans are slow to set aside their ingrained revulsion to the giant bugs. Further complications arise when a new humanoid alien species makes contact with Earth and inadvertently undermines thranx and human relations by stealing the media spotlight. DIUTURNITY'S DAWN -- From the beginning, contact between humankind and the thranx has been tenuous at best. After a century, the likelihood of closer humanthranx relations is as far away as ever. Both races find each other physically repulsive. Yet idealists on both sides refuse to surrender their dreams of achieving a thranxhuman alliance. Among the most dedicated are a minor diplomat named Fanielle Anjou and her thranx counterpart. Others intend to make sure such a liaison never comes to pass. Meanwhile, on a faraway planet, the duplicitous AAnn watch as archaeologists labor to discover what happened to an advanced human race that perished thousands of years ago.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction

739 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

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 lives in Arizona with his wife, but he 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.

Reviews

[Jessalyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a good book, but two many people, two many main characters that i loved, died at the end of each story like they were being thrown out after their period of usefulness. Extremely exciting sci-fi, though.