Codgerspace

by Alan Dean Foster

When machines cease their required functions in order to search for a nonhuman species of higher intelligence, their quest produces a threat to man and machine. Now the fate of the galaxy lies in the hands of five senior citizens and their faithful food processor. An unusual new novel from the bestselling author of Quozl.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Humor, Science Fiction Fantasy, Novels, Aliens, Fantasy

320 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1992

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

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a light-hearted and amusing novel centering on the theme of artificial intelligence and cheese sandwiches (can't have one without t'other, y'know), and interstellar exploration. A handful of elderly people are involved and make for some interesting characters, though they don't always act as you'd like. It doesn't have the depth on some levels that Foster usually writes, and the ending is a bit of a blur, but it's a pretty fast and funny read.

[Krisnow18 · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am not sure why I haven't read this before. I've had it for a while now. A grilled cheese sandwich leads to an issue in a major manufacturing plant which makes AI. All of its products, which are shipped all over the universe, are now involved in a search for the meaning of life - a nonhuman higher intelligence. And when it is found, it isn't where or what people thought it would be.

[Jake · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found the writing to be exceptional! I laughed out loud several times, it was so clever and unique. But that alone was not enough to be very compelling for me, as I found the characters and story to be a bit lacking in some areas. Perhaps I judged the book by its cover, the text made it sound like these old geysers would be heroes, but they were just cantankerously endearing, lacking action; things generally happened to them rather than them making things happen. I think if I were to return to this book later that I'd enjoy it more, knowing now that it's more about joking around and exploring scifi geriatric humor, and that I shouldnt be expecting a bombshell ending. (The ending was very abrupt.)

Overall 3 out of 5 stars, at least this time that I read thru it. I don't regret reading it, had a good time, but it felt hollow.

[Anonymous Pickman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Codgerspace is a lighthearted novel that feels like the science fiction equivalent to Terry Pratchett's fantasy novels. The writing is consistently humorous, the characters are endearing, and the world building is top-notch. The novel deals with several themes, such as the presence of alien life and how sometimes history is made by unlikely and unsuspecting individuals; the novel also dabbles briefly in existentialism.

While Codgerspace is entertaining throughout the entirety of its short length, it isn't perfect. Indeed, the end of the short novel felt rushed, giving the impression that the author didn't quite know how to end the story. Other than this, I wouldn't say that Codgerspace has any other significant flaws.

I would recommend this novel to both fans of science fiction as well as newcomers to the genre. Personally, this is the first work by Alan Dean Foster that I have read, and I will be looking forward to reading more of his work in the future.

[Steph Bennion · Rating 3 out of 5]

The premise was funny, but the narrative dragged somewhat. The main characters - five elderly residents of a retirement home - didn't actually get to do much at all, which was a shame.

[Edie · Rating 1 out of 5]

💩💩💩💩💩

I so wanted to love this book. Based on the cover art and synopsis, I should have loved it and it had the potential to be a 5🌟 read for me.

Unfortunately, I *HATED* it and it pissed me off!!!!

First, and most infuriating, the book cover AND synopsis are *EXTREMELY* misleading.

NOTHING on the cover is in the book.

No cute little revolting toasters, no funny little robot chickens, not even a single main character who befriends said non-existent robot creatures.

And yes, I keep referring to the cover because typically, the cover art gives a distinct vibe, which enhances the expectations of the synopsis.

This book is so drastically different from the cover art, it honestly feels like the wrong cover was added by mistake!

This is NOT a “fun robots-with-feelings befriend sympathetic human” story.

This is “older people stumble onto alien spaceship, then planet Earth does expected planet Earth bullying, with bonus hijacking for one individual’s personal reason, written by an author who uses countless obnoxiously big words, just to use big words, even when they are not necessary or desired”

On top of the fake-out-sucker-punch of a cover, the writing is SO dense and inflated, that it was hard to get into and enjoy. I’m fairly intelligent with a decent vocabulary, but there were countless words that I couldn’t even pronounce, much less know the meaning of. There were entire sentences that felt like I was reading in a different language. I love learning new words through reading, but after the first 25 pages, I stopped asking Alexa for definitions because there were just too many! I quit trying to understand or pronounce many of the words and never even attempted any of the character names because they were so ridiculous. I just made up my own names for them.

And weirdly, even though the writing was super pretentious, the descriptions of things were extremely vague and I couldn’t visualize ANYTHING.

The first area that was explored was a black void in my mind because of the severe lack of description and it remains a black void because it was never described with any sort of tangible detail.

The ONLY character with any sort of likable personality whatsoever is the goddamn robot!

At page 100, I still wasn’t even sure who the main character was. Not one personal connection!

Around that same time, a massive, life changing discovery is made and NONE of the characters had any sort of reaction whatsoever. I had to read the moment THREE times to make sure I hadn’t missed anything.

Nope. No shit, they witnessed it and decided to sit down and have a fucking snack!

Then, *immediately* after first contact, the entire tone and content of the book shifts and becomes government officials, politics, weapons, and Earth doing “Earthling things” and bullying everyone and everything in every capacity.

What a massively disappointing waste of time 😡👎🏻💩

[CS · Rating 3 out of 5]

A classmate recommended I read some of Alan Dean Foster's non-Star Wars works (I have already read Splinter of the Mind's Eye, Star Wars from the Adventures of Luke Skywalker, and The Approaching Storm). I read the back of this one and thought it might be similar to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, an absolutely hilarious book. So, naturally, I bought it and read it.

Plot:
The remains of a leftover cheese sandwich cause all the AIs to begin to contemplate the universe and search for an alien intelligence. One particular AI, a food processor that works at a retirement home on Earth, actually discovers an alien spaceship with the assistance of five of the retirement home's populace (Shimoda, Hawkins, Mina Gelmann, Victor Iranaputra, and Wesley Follingston-Heath). The six must discover a way to keep the humans from obtaining the ship, and the ship from possibly destroying the humans--or having the enormous fleet that is quickly approaching the ship destroy the human civilization.

Good:
Although still not as funny as Hitchhiker's, this is a rather humorous book. There were a few scenes that I absolutely keeled over. I particularly loved how Ksarusix talked, Follingston-Heath (probably my favorite senior, although Hawkins was a kick), and the Autothor in general. The plot was pretty intriguing and was the primary reason I kept plugging through when part of me wanted to give up.
Also, I enjoyed reading about the seniors. Too often books concentrate on the 20 - 30 set, which is far from representative of our society (particularly now when many of the baby boomers are hitting their later years). These five people were unique and although slightly caricatured, were enjoyable to read about. Each person spoke as I thought he or she would (with some slight exceptions on the part of Hawkins, who occasionally used words too advanced for his station).
Then, when the aliens do appear (finally!), I enjoyed reading the description of them (kudos to Foster for avoiding the bipedal stereotype!) and how they talked. It was amusing to think that they would sound similar to humans--partly the result of a translator and partly the belief that aliens wouldn't be all that dissimilar from humans.

Bad:
First off, Foster probably wrote this book with a 3000 page thesaurus next to him. Words like "expostulate" crop up in Foster's world of everyday speech (particularly incongruous when you hear this from Hawkins, a retired blue collar worker). Yeah, I hear that everyday too. Not. And while the book was funny, I felt that Foster wrote in high society language (i.e. what I would hear from a word addict and not my best friend) so that when he delivered a joke, it came out even more funny. However, this grew very tiresome and even difficult to pick through.
Then, we have the fact that between about page 75 and 225 absolutely nothing happens. We are introduced to the problem of the mechanicals, the quest for non-human intelligent life, and the discovery of an alien ship by 5 senior citizens, then Foster apparently got tired and decided to have his five main characters sit back on a beach for days at a time. That is not only insulting to seniors--to say that all they could think of after discovering something as important as an alien artifact is to find a beach and sit there contemplating what's going to happen instead of finding out what's going to happen (which happens about five times if I counted correctly)--but also very boring. Over those 150+ pages, we instead get to see how the other nations have reacted to this. Yawn.
But even with these caveats, I was okay with the book (mostly) until about page 225. Then, we are introduced to Zabela Ashili, a hastily thrown together character that makes a miraculous change of heart in such record time, someone ought to call the Guiness Book of World Records people. She arrives in a rather interesting manner, but only Mina Gelmann has any qualms about her strange arrival, but these qualms promptly disappear over the next 5 pages or 7 days their time. Yup, Foster then skips over 7 days of bonding with new character, Ashili, and instead hastily summarizes the events. I figure by this time Foster's editor told him he had better'd finish this book soon. Either that or Foster couldn't think of anything else for the seniors to do on the beach (he already gave them sunshades and let them alter the temperature).
Anyway, back to Ashili. So, we are introduced and supposed to bond with a woman who is thrown into the book only 75 pages before the end. Like that is going to happen. And then feel her pain when the seniors are threatened. I'm sorry, but I hardly know this woman and most of the important bonding parts were skimmed over. I don't really care if she's having second thoughts about what she's doing. In fact, I would feel a lot better if the characters we spent knowing over the past 275 pages were doing the actions instead of hovering in the background.
Last problem with Ashili, I promise. The Candombleans had been portrayed as the ultimate fraternity/sorority. Up until Ashili, most Candombleans were either partying or hung-over. And we as the audience are supposed to suddenly believe that this culture can train up people like Ashili for undercover missions? I can think of one type of underCOVER mission they would be good for, but that wouldn't exactly gain her access to a spaceship, now would it?
Last beef: why did Foster throw that twist about Follingston-Heath? Other than strip him of what made him most exciting, it really served no purpose to the story. Furthermore, it felt forced and dropped in as if Foster thought, "Geez, this sounds cool. Let's try it out here."

Dialogue/Sexual Situations/Violence:
There were quite a few da**, he**, sh**, and other foul words that I found a little surprising. Mina Gelmann is said to have several liaisons, the Candombleans are continuously dressed scantily (and at every opportunity described as such--Foster, what was on your mind, the story or the sexy women?), and the like. Violence is rather tame. A lawn mower threatens a human. That's pretty much the extent.

Overall:
Hm. What do I say about this? Codgerspace had a very interesting premise. But I despised perusing this novel with a dictionary in close proximity. And having to imbibe copious quantities of caffeinated beverages while the octogenarians convalesced on the artificial coastline composed of ground granite, sodium chloride, and solidified, translucent sandstone. And having a character composed of corrugated carbon-based tree products foisted on me ¾ of the way through the book. I have a few other Foster books that I'll probably read, but this was certainly not what I expected from Foster's non-Star Wars works. 5 stars to plot, 4 stars to the seniors, 2 stars to the pacing, and 1 star to the hasty poorly done character addition. All in all, I say 2.5 stars rounded to 3 stars.

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

*possible spoilers ahead*

What's the worse thing that can happen if you leave a cheese sandwich unattended? Most of us would say 'mould' (unless you're into your Gorgonzola). The answer explored in this book is 'all utility robots produced by a certain corporation stop doing their jobs and start looking for higher meaning'.

However, the main narrative focus of the book is set on 5 retirees living a peaceful life in a village outside New York, until they accidentally 'awake' a massive spaceship previously built by ancient alien intelligence. They find themselves in the middle of a pan-galactic struggle for power (as the ship turns out to be rather deadly when attacked), and the ships' inhabitants, the Drax, also decide to wake up.

Not a masterpiece of the genre, but an entertaining read nonetheless.

[Greg · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you ever wanted to visit Garrison Keiler's Lake Wobegon, you will want to read this. After multiple thousands of years of human settling planets and finding no indication of intelligent life. After a picnic turns into a solar system tour, the aliens are coming. But you will never guess what the alien intelligence wants to take from humanity.
A very tongue-in-cheek story showing that it only takes a cheese sandwich to turn the AI into self-aware computers.
The only complaint I have is that the main characters grew tiresome in their eccentricities, but an afternoon on the shores of Lake Wobegon makes everything alright.
And don't be afraid of the future, the bureaucracy is alive and well.

[Mechayoshi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent but not perfect read. I like how it starts going back to how the AI situation all stems from innocuous grilled cheese and the chaos that ensues, but later it shifts to the five senior citizens main characters discovering the artifact. So yeah, kind of sort of two plots going on though not entirely unrelated. It does suffer from stuff not happening in the middle syndrome, but I found the characters decent at worse and eccentric at best so it wasn’t hard to get through for me personally. Some mild thesaurus abuse but not too bad. Dat ending tho... Not what I expected. Also not bad, just not as big as I hoped it would be. 3/5

[Dr. T Loves Books · Rating 2 out of 5]

ADF was a huge name in SF. Saw this title recently recommended in a list of funny sci Fi, figured I'd give it a go.

Written in 1991, this book has not aged well. Lots of stereotyping & bad characterization of the female characters in particular. But all of the characters are 2 dimensional at best. And the Jewish character - oy vey! Not great.

Characters aside, I made it thru page 100 and the story was JUST starting to kick off. I tried to give it runway to get going, but man, it just wasn't happening.

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a fun romp very typical of its age; lighthearted sci-fi with lots of characterizations we'd probably argue as stereotypes these days. The attempt at diversity was there, though. I am a sucker for stories that center on older protagonists. There's some social/environmental commentary in how humans have turned Earth into a nature preserve and in the interactions with AI-based household devices. All-in-all, a fun read.

[Gray Mouser · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is supposed to be a light-hearted, comical book and it definitely sets that tone. Actually, you cannot miss it. But while the book is somewhat amusing, it remains overall unsatisfying. The description of the future humanity finds themselves in are reasonably funny. But the plot on its whole just seems contrived, does not seem to know where it is going and takes its time not getting there.

I did not rue reading this, but neither did I mind when it was over.

[Alice · Rating 5 out of 5]

Old Earth's still got it!

Totally love Alan Dean Foster. How does he think of these things.

First there's the cheese sandwich which starts a AI malfunction. Then 5 Senior retired people on old Mother Earth find a cave. Or is it? Ultimately the fate of humanity rests on on Old Lady and a Camobodian Lady Assassin fast talking a Alien. Ingenious. Funny and brilliant.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

Alan channels Douglas Adams while using a Jane Austin thesaurus

Since I was small AD Foster has been a favourite of mine. Splinter of the minds eye was the first SW spin off and I was hooked by his style. Here we find him testing his boundaries and the result is a fun and humorous sci fi tale that will have you Checking your online dictionary often. Nice job mate.

[Frederick Bodine · Rating 4 out of 5]

A little slow to start and some of the vocabulary seemed haughty but this seems to slow down about half through. Once it got going I started to get really into it. Then it ends rather quickly. It was worth reading all in all.

[David A. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Heckuva yarn

There were a few moments I thought the book was a little too silly, and a few where there were sudden turns toward unpleasantness. But Foster knew just when to dial it up or down.

I’ll never think about our “smart” appliances the same way… 😏😀

[Valah Steffen-Wittwer · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun Science Fiction romp. Good characters, both human and robot. No baddies in the end, just human overreaction and surety that anything they can't control must want to kill them. Fortunately, five retirees who are too old for such nonsense accidentally end up in charge.

[Connie Zinsmeister · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such fun!

What if it really did happen like that. I might have been one of the seniors to take a trip to the stars and have an adventure like they did. This book was very fun. What an imagination! Take some time to enjoy this tale. It's quite entertaining.

[Anne · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really good read. I like the light humor in dealing with alien races and A1's.

[Mike Cooper · Rating 2 out of 5]

A 300-page shaggy dog story. Had read it before I’d found GoodReads and had forgotten it until I got about 40% in. It was that forgettable.

[Terrence · Rating 4 out of 5]

An enjoyable and funny novel.

[FEED ME KITTENS · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't think I can really explain why I loved this book so much. It's absolutely ridiculous in the most beautiful ways.

[George Godsey · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fun, easy read. A funny sci-fi story about several seniors that stumble upon an alien spaceship. I enjoyed it.

[M. Barber · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not For Me

Way too much useless information , that seemed to be filling. Just did not feel me in, so I have up.

[Adi · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book uses exclusively uses words found in old SAT flashcards, also confusing as fuck.

[Lucinda E. Reid · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really fun read

I enjoyed this unusual take on multiple first contacts, the characters were well crafted, the conclusion satisfying. Recommended for quick and endearing read.

[Martine · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5/5

[Callie]

I tried. I failed. I need an audio.

[Bruce Retallack · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nicely written and well-paced offering from an old master in the genre, with a gang of retirees in upper New York coming face-to-face with intergalactic AI aliens as well as with government agencies from earth and its various space colonies. Original, as always, and a whole lot of fun, with some interesting and timely speculation thrown in. A lovely read.