What do you think?
Rate this book
...Who Needs Enemies?
Collection of short stories.
Swamp Planet Christmas
Snake Eyes
Bystander
What do the Simple Folk do?...
Gift of a Useless Man
Surfeit
The Dark Light Girl
Instant With Loud Voices
Communication
The Last Run
Wu-Ling's Folly
Village of the Chosen
Swamp Planet Christmas
Snake Eyes
Bystander
What do the Simple Folk do?...
Gift of a Useless Man
Surfeit
The Dark Light Girl
Instant With Loud Voices
Communication
The Last Run
Wu-Ling's Folly
Village of the Chosen
257 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published May 12, 1984
About the author
Alan Dean Foster
514 books2,104 followersBestselling 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 novella 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.
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 novella 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.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
July 16, 2021
This is a nice collection of Foster's short fiction that is an obvious companion/follow up to his previous collection With Friends Like These... The stories originally appeared from 1976 to 1983 in various genre magazines and anthologies. Foster has a slick and friendly story-telling style that makes his short works fun to read. There's a nice Pip and Flinx story, Snake Eyes, and the Barclay Shaw cover illustrates one of his Mad Amos weird-Westerns, Wu-Ling's Folly. I also particularly liked Swamp Planet Christmas.
December 8, 2020
I picked this up because I had read Gift of a Useless Man in an anthology before and while the other stories weren't bad, they didn't work for me in the same way. There are some neat ideas and good twists, most stories were fine, but not outstanding.
August 22, 2019
I recall first reading this book in ninth grade, not long after it came out, possibly re-reading it once or twice in the course of High School. I read it after its companion piece, With Friends Like These..., and apparently I remember more of the stories from that volume than I did of this one. Reading some of these now seemed completely novel.
In fact, the only story here that I remembered before I started reading it was the final one, “Village of the Chosen,” and I mis-remembered that based on my own daydreams of what would come after the story closed. This story is about a reporter who discovers a village of green-skinned people in Africa, only to learn that they have been genetically modified to take nourishment through photosynthesis, and he postulates the future I fantasized, in which all people would be the same skin-tone and there would be no hunger.
On the whole, most of the stories here are along those lines: one fairly simple idea is explored without much character development or world-building. That is the advantage of the short story format, I suppose, but it probably explains why these stories are so much less memorable than the sci fi novels I was gobbling at the time. Among the better ones here, I would mention “Swamp Planet Christmas,” about colonialism and computer glitches, “Bystander,” about human redemption and truly alien civilizations, and “The Last Run,” which is about speed and hubris. Foster’s fans will probably be most interested in “Snake Eyes,” starring his popular characters Pip and Flinx, but I actually think the story would have worked better without them in it at all; the best character was the grizzled old prospector. Probably the least effective is a paean to violence in media, “What Do the Simple Folk Do?” which was written in the seventies about future television that Foster was ill-equipped to predict.
Alan Dean Foster is and was a commercially successful writer who gives his audience what they want, but not much more. This book is ultimately representative of that career, and thus of trends in late-twentieth-century sci fi, but doesn’t have a lot of intrinsic interest, except for me as a nostalgia exercise.
In fact, the only story here that I remembered before I started reading it was the final one, “Village of the Chosen,” and I mis-remembered that based on my own daydreams of what would come after the story closed. This story is about a reporter who discovers a village of green-skinned people in Africa, only to learn that they have been genetically modified to take nourishment through photosynthesis, and he postulates the future I fantasized, in which all people would be the same skin-tone and there would be no hunger.
On the whole, most of the stories here are along those lines: one fairly simple idea is explored without much character development or world-building. That is the advantage of the short story format, I suppose, but it probably explains why these stories are so much less memorable than the sci fi novels I was gobbling at the time. Among the better ones here, I would mention “Swamp Planet Christmas,” about colonialism and computer glitches, “Bystander,” about human redemption and truly alien civilizations, and “The Last Run,” which is about speed and hubris. Foster’s fans will probably be most interested in “Snake Eyes,” starring his popular characters Pip and Flinx, but I actually think the story would have worked better without them in it at all; the best character was the grizzled old prospector. Probably the least effective is a paean to violence in media, “What Do the Simple Folk Do?” which was written in the seventies about future television that Foster was ill-equipped to predict.
Alan Dean Foster is and was a commercially successful writer who gives his audience what they want, but not much more. This book is ultimately representative of that career, and thus of trends in late-twentieth-century sci fi, but doesn’t have a lot of intrinsic interest, except for me as a nostalgia exercise.
July 23, 2016
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.
April 19, 2015
Bookending Foster's first collection of short stories With Friends Like These..., these tales are also pretty good overall. Each is introduced by the author, anecdotes of where the idea came from, more often than not. They were written between 1976 and 1983. The final is (likely intentionally) related to the first story in the first book, which dealt with the arrival of little green men. This anthology also contains a Pip and Flinx story - I haven't read anything else with them yet, but look forward to doing so soon. I like to keep a book of short stories in the car for long waits and ferry rides, and Alan Dean Foster makes for an excellent choice. His next collection is titled The Metrognome and Other Stories.
January 9, 2020
From the ridiculous pun in "Surfeit" to the incredibly moving "Gift of a Useless Man," Foster continues to have fun exploring new ideas and concepts.
May 15, 2022
…..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 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
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 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
June 26, 2026
I first came to Foster in my early days after reading his novelisations of the ALIEN trilogy and loving them. Having since re-read them, I think they still hold up very well. ...WHO NEEDS ENEMIES is something much different, a collection of Foster's short fiction from the 1970s and 1980s. It's a mixed bag overall, most stories interesting in their own right but with few classics among them. It's Foster's second short story following WITH FRIENDS LIKE THESE.
SWAMP PLANET CHRISTMAS is about a battle between terraformers and hostile alien amphibians and has a nice streak of humour which gives it an edge. SNAKE EYES, a continuing instalment of adventure stories about a hero with a psychic snake, is one I didn't enjoy much at all. BYSTANDER, a more traditional sci-fi story about a space traveller risking death by solar radiation, is much better and very suspenseful.
WHAT DO THE SIMPLE FOLK DO?... also fails to impress, although it covers the same territory as later fare like King's THE RUNNING MAN. Following this, GIFT OF A USELESS MAN, about an astronaut finding himself in a situation more than a little indebted to GULLIVER'S TRAVELS, is excellent and the stand-out of the collection; I lapped up every word. SURFEIT is a dull surfing contest on an alien planet, THE DARK LIGHT GIRL is a spooky mytery about apparitions in a desert town, and INSTANT WITH LOUD VOICES is an unexciting laboratory tale with an admittedly powerful twist ending.
COMMUNICATION and THE LAST RUN both rework old themes about alien contact and racing with the devil, and both are okay. VILLAGE OF THE CHOSEN is very similar to THE DARK LIGHT GIRL but set in Somalia, while WU-LING'S FOLLY is a fine fantasy western about a fight with a dragon, and an adventure for Foster's recurring hero Mad Amos.
SWAMP PLANET CHRISTMAS is about a battle between terraformers and hostile alien amphibians and has a nice streak of humour which gives it an edge. SNAKE EYES, a continuing instalment of adventure stories about a hero with a psychic snake, is one I didn't enjoy much at all. BYSTANDER, a more traditional sci-fi story about a space traveller risking death by solar radiation, is much better and very suspenseful.
WHAT DO THE SIMPLE FOLK DO?... also fails to impress, although it covers the same territory as later fare like King's THE RUNNING MAN. Following this, GIFT OF A USELESS MAN, about an astronaut finding himself in a situation more than a little indebted to GULLIVER'S TRAVELS, is excellent and the stand-out of the collection; I lapped up every word. SURFEIT is a dull surfing contest on an alien planet, THE DARK LIGHT GIRL is a spooky mytery about apparitions in a desert town, and INSTANT WITH LOUD VOICES is an unexciting laboratory tale with an admittedly powerful twist ending.
COMMUNICATION and THE LAST RUN both rework old themes about alien contact and racing with the devil, and both are okay. VILLAGE OF THE CHOSEN is very similar to THE DARK LIGHT GIRL but set in Somalia, while WU-LING'S FOLLY is a fine fantasy western about a fight with a dragon, and an adventure for Foster's recurring hero Mad Amos.
May 9, 2024
The second half of a mid-career collection, the dozen stories here are all over the map in terms of genre and theme, with a general slant towards science fiction, but there’s everything here from fantasy to Westerns as well, though all with Foster’s incredibly fertile imagination tweaking things in interesting directions.
Prior to reading this and its sister collection, I only really knew Foster through a few of his Flinx and Spellsinger novels. His range and invention seems absolutely ready-made for short fiction, and running through this set is a treat. The author’s commentary preceding each story is a great insight into the mind of Foster and a little insight into his inspirations and process. I’d love a career-spanning retrospective like this (complete with “commentary track”) on any number of writers.
Prior to reading this and its sister collection, I only really knew Foster through a few of his Flinx and Spellsinger novels. His range and invention seems absolutely ready-made for short fiction, and running through this set is a treat. The author’s commentary preceding each story is a great insight into the mind of Foster and a little insight into his inspirations and process. I’d love a career-spanning retrospective like this (complete with “commentary track”) on any number of writers.
June 15, 2019
A forgettable but readable collection of short stories
These read like the stories that were printed as filler in pulps between the real stories from bigger name authors. They're not bad but there's nothing here you'll find memorable or likely ever think about again once the book is finished. If you need something to read and there are no other books around, it's worth a shot.
These read like the stories that were printed as filler in pulps between the real stories from bigger name authors. They're not bad but there's nothing here you'll find memorable or likely ever think about again once the book is finished. If you need something to read and there are no other books around, it's worth a shot.
April 13, 2020
I think I have come to the end of the short stories of ADF in my home collection. It was a good run.
October 6, 2013
Author Alan Dean Foster (b. 1946) is a noted science fiction and fantasy author with such series as “The Humanx Commonwealth Series” and “Dinotopia Universe” under his belt. He’s also written several “Star Wars” and “Star Trek” books.
The present book is a collection of 12 short stories of science fiction and fantasy with settings as varied as the swamp planet of Myra II to Somalia and to Colorado of the Old West. At his best, Foster writes with a sense of humor and irony. In some of the stories, a sense of wonder creeps in. Overall, these are optimistic in outlook.
The story that is perhaps the most fun is “Swamp Planet Christmas” told in a series of communiques between the commanding officer of the colonial services on a planetary outpost and headquarters on Terra on the subject of aboriginal conflict. Sounds dry? Only until the captain’s daughter figures out how to use the computer.
Another story, “Snake Eyes,” is part of the author’s Flinx and Pip series. What would cause the minidrag Pip to leave Flinx’s side? She seldom does, so it must be of importance. While there’s a lot here to recommend it, I found it to be one of the less satisfying stories.
Read the rest of the review here,
The present book is a collection of 12 short stories of science fiction and fantasy with settings as varied as the swamp planet of Myra II to Somalia and to Colorado of the Old West. At his best, Foster writes with a sense of humor and irony. In some of the stories, a sense of wonder creeps in. Overall, these are optimistic in outlook.
The story that is perhaps the most fun is “Swamp Planet Christmas” told in a series of communiques between the commanding officer of the colonial services on a planetary outpost and headquarters on Terra on the subject of aboriginal conflict. Sounds dry? Only until the captain’s daughter figures out how to use the computer.
Another story, “Snake Eyes,” is part of the author’s Flinx and Pip series. What would cause the minidrag Pip to leave Flinx’s side? She seldom does, so it must be of importance. While there’s a lot here to recommend it, I found it to be one of the less satisfying stories.
Read the rest of the review here,
May 27, 2010
This wasn't a bad book. It's a book of several short stories.
May 6, 2012
Short Story collection like Who Needs Friends - but not as good
May 13, 2012
Read and bought it along with 'With Friends Like These', but ended up reading only the few stories I liked.
January 6, 2013
Short Stories galore
I have never read a pip and flinx adventure and his short story was my first. I liked them.
I have never read a pip and flinx adventure and his short story was my first. I liked them.
January 30, 2015
Anthology of short stories, each one fascinating. One Flinx and Pip story. Quick and easy read.
January 16, 2016
An excellent collection of short stories by one of my all time favorite writers. Very recommended
February 2, 2017
Entertaining compilation of stories from Foster...I especially liked Gift of a Useless Man and Wu-Ling's Folly.
May 2, 2017
The Flinx story and Mad Amos Malone make this short-story collection worth reading. There are several other stories in here that show the storytelling genius of Alan Dean Foster. This is a must read.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews