What do you think?
Rate this book
Icerigger #3
The Deluge Drivers
It looked as if Ethan Fortune was stuck on the icy world of Tran-ky-ky, never to enjoy the warm comforts of civilization again. But when the scientists at the outpost of Brass Monkey detected an odd atmospheric phenomenon, things began to heat up.
Only the great icerigger Slanderscree could make the dangerous journey to the isolated southern continent, and only Ethan could convince the primitive Tran that the mysterious warm spot was worth the trip. Nothing could have prepared Ethan and his Tran and human companions for what they encountered as they sped southward, for its like had not been seen for thousands of years -- open water on the ice oceans of Tran-ky-ky!
But the worst was yet to come. This was no natural phenomenon. Someone was systematically raising the temperature of the frozen planet. If Ethan and crew of Slanderscree couldn't stop the process, soon Tran-ky-ky would become a paradise for humans -- and a living hell for the Tran.
Only the great icerigger Slanderscree could make the dangerous journey to the isolated southern continent, and only Ethan could convince the primitive Tran that the mysterious warm spot was worth the trip. Nothing could have prepared Ethan and his Tran and human companions for what they encountered as they sped southward, for its like had not been seen for thousands of years -- open water on the ice oceans of Tran-ky-ky!
But the worst was yet to come. This was no natural phenomenon. Someone was systematically raising the temperature of the frozen planet. If Ethan and crew of Slanderscree couldn't stop the process, soon Tran-ky-ky would become a paradise for humans -- and a living hell for the Tran.
311 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1987
52 people are currently reading
496 people want to read
About the author
Alan Dean Foster
498 books2,030 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 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.
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.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 38 reviews
January 20, 2016
The Deluge Drivers is the third part of Alan Dean Foster’s Icerigger trilogy, which in itself is also a sub-series within his larger Humanx Commonwealth series. It’s not as confusing as it might sound, honest. If you can cope with the complexity of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld you can cope with this.
Foster really pulls out all the stops in this one. There are new characters introduced but they don’t steal the spotlight from the characters from the first two books. Our protagonists visit old friends from the other books. There’s a really cute love-story subplot between Milliken and one of the new characters. There’s a palpable sense of threat on more than one front, including close-quarters physical peril and an impending environment disaster on a global scale. There’s a mid-point twist that I totally failed to see coming (I love it when that happens)! There’s even a space-ninja! What more could anybody want?
At least two of the action scenes had me practically breathless, I was so caught up with the excitement… and it’s not often I can say that about a book.
Another thing I liked is that Milliken Williams really gets a chance to shine in this book, which is great as he was always a bit more of a means to an end than a fully-fledged character in the previous volumes.
Yes, it’s space opera; yes, it’s classic action movie fodder (someone should really make that movie… although the special effects budget would have to be colossal); yes, it’s cheesy in places… but it’s also pretty intelligent and its heart is in the right place.
If I had one gripe it would be that there is a new character introduced, early on in the book, and a big deal is made about her and her motivations for joining our protagonists… only for her character-arc to completely fizzle out, most anti-climactically. The character ends up feeling more than a little pointless, but maybe she’ll show up elsewhere in the Humanx Commonwealth series.
Minor grumble aside, I really, really enjoyed this book.
Foster really pulls out all the stops in this one. There are new characters introduced but they don’t steal the spotlight from the characters from the first two books. Our protagonists visit old friends from the other books. There’s a really cute love-story subplot between Milliken and one of the new characters. There’s a palpable sense of threat on more than one front, including close-quarters physical peril and an impending environment disaster on a global scale. There’s a mid-point twist that I totally failed to see coming (I love it when that happens)! There’s even a space-ninja! What more could anybody want?
At least two of the action scenes had me practically breathless, I was so caught up with the excitement… and it’s not often I can say that about a book.
Another thing I liked is that Milliken Williams really gets a chance to shine in this book, which is great as he was always a bit more of a means to an end than a fully-fledged character in the previous volumes.
Yes, it’s space opera; yes, it’s classic action movie fodder (someone should really make that movie… although the special effects budget would have to be colossal); yes, it’s cheesy in places… but it’s also pretty intelligent and its heart is in the right place.
If I had one gripe it would be that there is a new character introduced, early on in the book, and a big deal is made about her and her motivations for joining our protagonists… only for her character-arc to completely fizzle out, most anti-climactically. The character ends up feeling more than a little pointless, but maybe she’ll show up elsewhere in the Humanx Commonwealth series.
Minor grumble aside, I really, really enjoyed this book.
March 27, 2020
The last book of the trilogy keeps up the story pace wonderfully. These books were written years apart and I expected to see a difference in the story telling style that broke up the flow of the trilogy as the writer aged into his craft. There is 10 years between book 1 & 3. I was pleasantly surprised as they flow as seamlessly as if they were written back to back. Great adventure SiFi from a master of the craft. Wonderful read for an older SiFi reader or some new just starting to read SiFi. Overall the trilogy is Very recommended
January 22, 2025
I overall really enjoyed my time diving into the icerigger trilogy! I randomly found book one at a pay what you want book store in Chicago and I'm really glad I did. I truly loved the adventures that Ethan, Skua, Williams, and Hunnar embarked upon in this trilogy. Some of the world building and flora/fauna has been so cool and interesting! That being said I just think this last book didn't have the lightning in the bottle choke hold over me that the first one did. I don't regret reading this book one bit though and am glad that I got to see the end of our adventures story on Tran-ky-ky.
May 19, 2017
As indicated by the title, this is the final installment in Foster's Icerigger trilogy. In the first, travelling salesmen Ethan Frome Fortune and his new friend, the large mercenary Skua September, as well as other humans, find themselves stranded on the backwater, ice-bound world of Tran-ky-ky. Fortunately they make friends with the local natives, the felo-ursine and warlike Tran, when they save their city from an attacking horde of barbarians. Along the way they construct a giant ice-skimming ship based on old Earth's clipper ships, on which they embark on a journey across the globe to return the humans to the only human settlement on Tran-ky-ky, far-off Brass Monkey on the continent of Arsudun.
In the second volume, Mission to Mouloukin, Fortune, September, and the others have realized that what the Tran need is to unify all their city-states and fiefdoms into a single planetary government in order to apply for membership in the galactic Commonwealth. To start that effort they sail to the legendary southern city of Mouloukin, and along the way they make some new enemies (and friends) and make a startling discovery.
Then we come to the final book in the series. Having returned to Brass Monkey from the Mouloukin mission, the adventurers are just about to resume their normal lives after almost two years marooned on Tran-ky-ky when the small cadre of Commonwealth scientists at Brass Monkey inform them of a puzzling phenomenon on the other side of the world: the thirty-meter-thick ice of the seas is melting in one area, and open ocean has appeared for the first time in tens of thousands of years. Worried about what this development might mean for their Tran friends, the humans reluctantly re-board the great ship Slanderscree and voyage to the far south, beyond the equator, into unexplored regions to investigate the freak warming.
I can't say these are the best sci-fi space operas ever written, but they are solid adventure tales with interesting characters and strong effort to create an alien world with a believable ecology, culture, and politics. I think a big-screen adaptation would lead to one or more far better films than most of the dreck Hollywood is putting out these days, but I no longer trust Hollywood to co-opt any story without infusing it with left-wing politics so it's probably best that this small gem remains overlooked. Instead, settle into a chair and enjoy these books which represent some of the last science fiction written before feminism, left-wing claptrap, and white male-hating racism took over the genre in the 1990s.
In the second volume, Mission to Mouloukin, Fortune, September, and the others have realized that what the Tran need is to unify all their city-states and fiefdoms into a single planetary government in order to apply for membership in the galactic Commonwealth. To start that effort they sail to the legendary southern city of Mouloukin, and along the way they make some new enemies (and friends) and make a startling discovery.
Then we come to the final book in the series. Having returned to Brass Monkey from the Mouloukin mission, the adventurers are just about to resume their normal lives after almost two years marooned on Tran-ky-ky when the small cadre of Commonwealth scientists at Brass Monkey inform them of a puzzling phenomenon on the other side of the world: the thirty-meter-thick ice of the seas is melting in one area, and open ocean has appeared for the first time in tens of thousands of years. Worried about what this development might mean for their Tran friends, the humans reluctantly re-board the great ship Slanderscree and voyage to the far south, beyond the equator, into unexplored regions to investigate the freak warming.
I can't say these are the best sci-fi space operas ever written, but they are solid adventure tales with interesting characters and strong effort to create an alien world with a believable ecology, culture, and politics. I think a big-screen adaptation would lead to one or more far better films than most of the dreck Hollywood is putting out these days, but I no longer trust Hollywood to co-opt any story without infusing it with left-wing politics so it's probably best that this small gem remains overlooked. Instead, settle into a chair and enjoy these books which represent some of the last science fiction written before feminism, left-wing claptrap, and white male-hating racism took over the genre in the 1990s.
July 18, 2021
Ethan Fortune, Skua September, and friends old and new take the Slanderscree out for a final sail across Tran-ky-ky in the conclusion of Foster's Icerigger trilogy. If they don't find out what's causing the temperature to rise, the Tran will likely become extinct. It's set in his Humanx Commonwealth universe, roughly concurrent with the Pip & Flinx timeline, but it stands quite well on its own without having to read any of the other books in order to appreciate the trilogy. (But Icerigger should definitely be read first of the three, and then Mission to Moulokin.) Foster is at his best in giving the characters exotic names and traits in this nice mix of adventure with a nice helping of humor and romance. Icerigger has always been one of my favorite novels, and this is a worthy conclusion to the story.
October 5, 2009
Inessential but inoffensive completion of the trilogy nobody asked for. "Icerigger" and "Mission to Moulokin" are cliffhanger-style skiffy adventures, well written by the standards of the genre. This? Meh.
I should say that though I lumped the whole trilogy into the kitty-cats-with-laser-guns shelf, this is the only book where the felinoid Tran sport actual zapguns.
Of note also for the denouement, which features perhaps the least romantic proposal imaginable.
I should say that though I lumped the whole trilogy into the kitty-cats-with-laser-guns shelf, this is the only book where the felinoid Tran sport actual zapguns.
Of note also for the denouement, which features perhaps the least romantic proposal imaginable.
June 12, 2012
Weakest of the series, but it did wrap everything up.
Ethan is one of my favorite characters. I wish ADF could find a way to do more with him as he did with Skua.
Ethan is one of my favorite characters. I wish ADF could find a way to do more with him as he did with Skua.
December 16, 2013
Mindless . . . but fun!
February 6, 2014
Not as exciting as the previous two, but still a good read, with all the beloved characters back for one last adventure.
January 1, 2025
Outstanding and classic.
August 30, 2021
The Deluge Drivers is the sequel to Mission to Moloukin, and the third book in the Icerigger series.
In Icerigger salesman Ethan Fortune crashes on Tran-ky-ky, along with an oddball group of passengers. They make friends with the Tran, build a huge ice sailing ship, the Slanderscree, and travel toward the Human settlement of Brass Monkey, hoping to go home. In Mission to Moulokin Ethan, Skua September, and Milliken Willams set out to form a planet-wide government.
The Deluge Drivers picks up at Brass Monkey. The Tran are well on their way toward forming a planet-wide government so they can join the commonwealth and gain access to advanced technology and maybe live in peace.
Ethan wants to leave for warmer climates, but his employer traps him on Tran-ky-ky. Then a group of scientists commandeer him to take them to the southern hemisphere. A large area is too warm, according to the limited satellite data they have.
There's nothing natural about the warmth. While the humans find above freezing weather a change for the better, is spells doom for the Tran and their world.
Although there are long passages of the journey aboard the Slanderscree, much of the story takes place in Brass Monkey or in Yingyapin, a settlement in the southern continent. There they meet gullible Tran and evil humans.
This is a story of exploitation. The Tran of Yingyapin believe the humans with all their magical technology, are bringing great change to Tran-ky-ky - that warmer weather and unfrozen oceans will bring wealth prosperity. When, in fact, those changes will doom the Tran, destroy their way of life, and maybe even exterminate them. But what a wonderful world a warm tropical Tran-ky-ky will be for human settlers.
Alan Dean Foster does a great job of playing different characters off each other. Keeping each true to their values and personalities, while furthering the story. Even the ending brings in a character from Icerigger for a bit of a surprise at the end.
In Icerigger salesman Ethan Fortune crashes on Tran-ky-ky, along with an oddball group of passengers. They make friends with the Tran, build a huge ice sailing ship, the Slanderscree, and travel toward the Human settlement of Brass Monkey, hoping to go home. In Mission to Moulokin Ethan, Skua September, and Milliken Willams set out to form a planet-wide government.
The Deluge Drivers picks up at Brass Monkey. The Tran are well on their way toward forming a planet-wide government so they can join the commonwealth and gain access to advanced technology and maybe live in peace.
Ethan wants to leave for warmer climates, but his employer traps him on Tran-ky-ky. Then a group of scientists commandeer him to take them to the southern hemisphere. A large area is too warm, according to the limited satellite data they have.
There's nothing natural about the warmth. While the humans find above freezing weather a change for the better, is spells doom for the Tran and their world.
Although there are long passages of the journey aboard the Slanderscree, much of the story takes place in Brass Monkey or in Yingyapin, a settlement in the southern continent. There they meet gullible Tran and evil humans.
This is a story of exploitation. The Tran of Yingyapin believe the humans with all their magical technology, are bringing great change to Tran-ky-ky - that warmer weather and unfrozen oceans will bring wealth prosperity. When, in fact, those changes will doom the Tran, destroy their way of life, and maybe even exterminate them. But what a wonderful world a warm tropical Tran-ky-ky will be for human settlers.
Alan Dean Foster does a great job of playing different characters off each other. Keeping each true to their values and personalities, while furthering the story. Even the ending brings in a character from Icerigger for a bit of a surprise at the end.
July 30, 2025
Ethan Fortune and Skua September are about to leave the frozen planet Tran-ky-ky when Ethan’s boss makes him the new representative for the trading company there. An urgent request for experienced explorers though enmeshes both Ethan and September, along with the teacher Williams, in a party to travel to the desolate southern hemisphere to investigate a suspicious and sudden warming. Rumours that liquid water have been seen abound. With three scientists the group finds something astonishing. Large areas are covered with liquid water and a clandestine program to systematically raise the temperature of the planet is under way. The motive is given as merely accelerating the slow warming that occurs every 20,000 years due to the planet’s enormously elongated orbit, but the scientists and Skua suspect more mercenary reasons. The group tries to get this illegal activity reported back to the human settlement of Brass Monkey but are instead attacked and imprisoned. The battle to escape will be long and hard and the leader of the warming project is insane enough to do almost anything but he does not know of the stubbornness and resilience of the native Tran… Nice adventure SF from Alan Dean Foster, concluding the trilogy of Icerigger books. Enough (although predictable) derring-do to satisfy devotees. Worth a look.
January 19, 2018
The third book in this "trilogy". I felt it came to a good conclusion.
This book wrapped up a few flaws, but not all of them. It completed the tale of this young ice planet. It was consistent with the previous stories, even if it took more than a decade of real time from book one to three to complete. I was happy to complete this trilogy.
Have a GoodReads.
This book wrapped up a few flaws, but not all of them. It completed the tale of this young ice planet. It was consistent with the previous stories, even if it took more than a decade of real time from book one to three to complete. I was happy to complete this trilogy.
Have a GoodReads.
January 21, 2018
The final book of the Icerigger trilogy starts out a little slow, as Fortune, September and Williams finally make it to civilization. They learn that there is a weather anomaly taking place in southern Tran-ky-ky that could become a global catastrophe, so they sail off once more on the Slanderscree to save the Tran from a fate that the Tran can't even conceive...
March 8, 2023
A disappointing end to the Icerigger series. The book is enjoyable enough but not nearly as inventive and engaging as the first two. One of the main pleasures of this series was exploring the world of Tran-Ky-Ky. Unfortuntalely, there is very little of that in this book.
April 20, 2023
A nice conclusion to the trilogy. It's impressive to think each was written so far apart, with the last book almost a decade after the first because they flow so well together. I particularly enjoyed Milliken stepping more into the limelight and his character development.
October 26, 2017
These were written in the 70-80's. I don't know how I missed them! Big finish with book three and glad that I was able to read them straight through! Definitely, want to check out more of his work.
March 20, 2018
Very good book. Thoroughly enjoyed the entire trilogy. Excellent story, great characters, wonderful dialogue and vocabulary. Definitely recommend it. One of my favorite science fiction authors.
March 23, 2020
Readable, but just barely. Compared to the first two books it's lame. Could tell the author was just continuing a series for money more than artistic goal.
May 4, 2022
Very good conclusion to a great series.
May 14, 2024
After their adventures in the ice rigger Slanderskee, Ethan Fortune and Skua September and others work to get Tran Ky Ky into the Humanx Commonwealth. An entertaining read.
October 12, 2025
Just as satisfying as the first two, maybe even more so since it resolves a bunch of stuff.
An ending I never thought I'd read in sci-fi/fantasy, hooray for writing out of the box.
An ending I never thought I'd read in sci-fi/fantasy, hooray for writing out of the box.
January 12, 2017
I like this book and the entire trilogy, some of the science in the story annoyed me, but the characters grew on me and the drama was imaginative and engaging enough that I ended up liking it in spite of my misgivings. Foster fans will most likely enjoy this series.
May 16, 2025
Certainly the least dynamic of the trilogy but it’s not like I wasn’t going to finish it, and it’s also not bad or a waste of time. Well maybe it’s a waste of time but in a good way.
May 7, 2010
In my mind, this book was merely gilding the lily. I liked it because Ethan Fortune, Skua September, Elfa and the rest of the characters are likeable, and Foster, does not write a bad book, but I felt that the confrontation at the core of this book, was just another nasty confrontation with the criminal element of the Commonwealth.
Stick with Icerigger and Mission to Moulokin, which focus on the Tran and not on a confrontation with more advanced Commonwealth, but if you like the first two books, and you want more of the main characters, you will still enjoy this third book.
Just not as much
Stick with Icerigger and Mission to Moulokin, which focus on the Tran and not on a confrontation with more advanced Commonwealth, but if you like the first two books, and you want more of the main characters, you will still enjoy this third book.
Just not as much
December 19, 2025
I'm bummed that my journey to Tran-ky-ky is over. I thoroughly enjoyed the entire ride & it's farewell to Hunner, Skua, Ethan & the Slanderscree. The plot on this one was probably the weakest, but the characters and setting are fantastic that it really wasn't an issue. The maniac wanting to melt the planet for financial gain was really just a garden variety Bond Villain. I'm not one for romance, but Ethan and Collette's engagement was pretty cool...nice to read that Ethan will be sitting pretty on New Riviera and the girth-y-ness of his betrothed won't be a issue.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 11, 2024
In which it is revealed that this entire series has been an extended REALLY old school marriage farce. The realisation of which made me view everything in the previous books in a whole new light. Only moderately icky and massively contrived ending... but as I said: Marriage farce as adventure sci fi with capitalist heart, learned white people meddling in other cultures, Conan analog character and medieval cat people.
October 30, 2010
Ok, this was a great way to end a trilogy, within a series. I try not to do to many reviews, and let people make up their own mind. However, this book actually moved me and made me laugh out -loud.
October 18, 2012
This is the only one of the trilogy that I didn't read many, many years ago. I am glad I found these three on Kobo and had a chance to revisit an old friend. A lite and very enjoyable read. Recommended for anyone who likes old sci-fi or those who read these many years ago like I did.....
January 26, 2016
This last installment of the Ice Rigger Trilogy has Ethan, Milliken & Skua back out on the ice looking for an area of unexplained heat on Trankyky. Once they've found open water (ice corpse) it's enough to terrify any Tran.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 38 reviews