Finished reading this book today. I was lookingfor another Alan Dean Foster novel to read becauseI really enjoy his writing style and having readthe Dammned Trilogy in the past which I reallyenjoyed I wanted to start reading another seriesof books by him.I wasn't disappointed :-)This book started out very well, captured my interestin just a few pages and it was an enjoyable and funnyread throughout. I just thought that the ending wasrather abrupt and was unexpected (the reason forrating 4 out of 5 stars).I read the book during my flight from Asia back to Los Angeles and I was laughing out loud because ofthe funny conversations between the main characters.Some examples:Des: "I am a food preparations specialist"Cheelo: "Who do you prepare food for? He looked past the bug scrutinizing the rain forest from which it had emerged. "Not just yourself, surely? There must be more of you."Des: "There are, but they are crrk, carrying out limited studies of their own, far, far from here. I am on a solitary expedition of my own."Cheelo: "To do what?" Suspicious to a fault, Cheelo kept searching the woods for any hints of closing ambush. "Gather herbs and spices?" He lowered his gaze "Or maybe, you'd like to catch me off guard so you could kill and eat me?"At this point I was really laughing out loud. There are lotsmore conversations like this and if you've read the chaptersbefore the "encounter", you'll understand why the dialog betweenDes and Chello is hilarious. Alan Dean Foster is a master at using dialog to move the story along. And particularly the contrast between the mindsets of both characters: a human and an intelligent alien insect like creatureis very funny.I still would like the story to have continued more thoughand probably highlight and elaborate how Des' poems impacted the Thranx population after it has been transcribed.I'm looking forward to reading the next book in the series:Dirge :-)
This was a wonderful first look at a new universe with new races. This is a story of first contact between two species, and between the most disreputable people that each had to offer. As I read, I couldn't help but think the Thranx were extremely cute in their strong need to be polite at all times. The humans in the story were less pleasant, and I could not empathize very well with the main (human)character.I will probably read the next book in the series very soon, and cannot wait to learn more about the interesting and alien creatures that inhabit the universe within the series.
What do You think about Phylogenesis (2000)?
I made the mistake of reading the fantastic "Drowning World" (which is 4 books out of sequence) prior to this, and as such I'm probably biased in my judgment of Foster's first installment of the Founding of the Commonwealth series. Whereas "Drowning World" is utterly alien through-and-through, "Phylogenesis" is a very subdued first contact story. Foster still gives us a taste of the exotic, though, in his descriptions of the Amazon wilderness and the Thranx protagonist's home colony. The Humanx Commonwealth is indeed founded within these pages, though one can't help but feel that the two main characters' contribution to its beginnings wasn't exactly...significant. This is more the germ for the beginning of the Commonwealth, rather than any electrifying event that blew the doors wide open for each of the races. It is a touching story, though, of tolerance and growth in two very despondent characters that just happen to resonate in spite of their racist phobias.
—Greg Heath
I really enjoyed this book and the ending took me by surprise and was quite powerful. I struggled to like either of the two protagonists for quite a long time but when their ultimate fates unfolded I realised I had grown to like them more than I thought, purely from my emotional reaction.The only reason I haven't given this book five stars is because it covers quite a lot of the same ground as the first prequel book 'Nor Crystal Tears'... and not as well.No time for a longer review as I'm going to dive right into the next book in the series now.
—Paul
