Profile of Alan Dean Foster on Famous Like Me

Alan Dean Foster (born November 18, 1946) is a prolific writer of science fiction and fantasy novels and movie novelizations.

He is best known for his science fiction novels set in the Humanx Commonwealth, an interstellar union of races including humankind and the insectoid Thranx. Many of these revolve around the character of Philip Lynx ("Flinx"), an empathic young man who must save the universe. Flinx's constant companion since childhood is a minidrag named Pip, a flying, empathic snake capable of spitting a highly corrosive and violently neurotoxic venom.

In the area of fantasy, his best-known work is the Spellsinger series, in which a young musician is summoned into a world populated by furry creatures where his music allows him to do real magic whose effects depends on the lyrics of the popular songs he sings (although with somewhat unpredictable results).

Foster has been so prolific that he is often rumored to have been the ghost writer on novels with which he had little direct involvement, such as the novelization of Star Trek: The Motion Picture which was credited to (and actually written by) Gene Roddenberry. However, it has recently become known that he did write the original novelization of Star Wars, which had been credited to George Lucas.

Bibliography

Commonwealth novels

• Nor Crystal Tears (1982)
• Voyage to the City of the Dead (1984)
• Midworld (1975)
• Drowning World (2003)
• Sentenced to Prism (1985)
• Cachalot (1980)
• The Howling Stones (1997)

Novels featuring Flinx (Philip Lynx)

• For Love of Mother-Not (1983)
• The Tar-Aiym Krang (1972)
• Orphan Star (1977)
• The End of the Matter (1977)
• Flinx in Flux (1988)
• Mid-Flinx (1995)
• Reunion (2001)
• Flinx's Folly (2003)
• Sliding Scales (2004)
• Running From the Deity (2005)
• Bloodhype (1973)
• Trouble Magnet (Not yet published)

Icerigger Trilogy

• Icerigger (1974)
• Mission to Moulokin (1979)
• The Deluge Drivers (1987)

Founding of the Commonwealth

• Phylogenesis (1999)
• Dirge (2000)
• Diurnity's Dawn (2002)

Media novelisations

• Luana (1974) Movie (Never Made)
• Alien (1979)
• Aliens (1986)
• Alien³ (1992)
• Dark Star (1974)
• The Black Hole (1979)
• Clash of the Titans (1981)
• Outland (1981)
• The Thing (1981)
• Krull (1983)
• The Last Starfighter (1984)
• Starman (1984)
• Shadowkeep (1984) Computer Game
• Pale Rider (1985)
• Alien Nation (1988)
• The Dig (1996) Computer Game
• Star Trek: The Animated Series
  • Star Trek Log One (1974)
  • Star Trek Log Two (1974)
  • Star Trek Log Three (1975)
  • Star Trek Log Four (1975)
  • Star Trek Log Five (1975)
  • Star Trek Log Six (1976)
  • Star Trek Log Seven (1976)
  • Star Trek Log Eight (1976)
  • Star Trek Log Nine (1977)
  • Star Trek Log Ten (1978)

Star Wars stories

• Star Wars (novelisation of Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope; as George Lucas) (1976)
• Splinter of the Mind's Eye (1978)
• The Approaching Storm (2002)

The Damned series

• A Call to Arms (1991)
• The False Mirror (1992)
• The Spoils of War (1993)

Spellsinger series

• Spellsinger (1983) (also w/The Hour of the Gate as Spellsinger at the Gate)
• The Hour of the Gate (1984)
• The Day of the Dissonance (1984)
• The Moment of the Magician (1984)
• The Paths of the Perambulator (1985)
• The Time of the Transference (1987)
• Son of Spellsinger (1993)
• Chorus Skating (1994)

Dinotopia series

• Dinotopia Lost (1998)
• The Hand of Dinotopia (1999)

Journeys of the Catechist series

• Carnivores of Light and Darkness (1998)
• Into the Thinking Kingdoms (1999)
• A Triumph of Souls (2000)

Story Collections

• With Friends Like These (1977)
• Who Needs Enemies? (1984)
• The Metrognome & others (1990)
• Montezuma Strip (1995)
• Mad Amos (1996)
• Impossible Places (2002)

Other books

• The Man Who Used the Universe (1983)
• The I Inside (1984)
• Slipt (1984)
• Into the Out Of (1986)
• Glory Lane (1987)
• Maori (1988)
• To the Vanishing Point (1988)
• Quozl (1989)
• Cyber Way (1990)
• Cat-a-lyst (1991)
• Codgerspace (1992)
• Greenthieves (1994)
• Life Form (1995)
• Design for Great-Day (with Eric Frank Russell) (1995)
• Jed the Dead (1997)
• Parallelities (1998)
• Interlopers (2001)
• Kingdoms of Light (2001)
• Primal Shadows (2001)
• The Mocking Program (2002)

Unpublished

• Maude (1974)

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