Alan Dean Foster was born in New York City in 1946 and raised in Los Angeles, California.  After receiving a bachelor's degree in political science and a master of fine arts degree in motion pictures from UCLA in 1968-1969, he worked for two years as a public relations copywriter in Studio City, California.

He sold his first short story to August Derleth at Arkham Collector magazine in 1968, and additional sales of short fiction to other magazines followed. His first try at a novel, The Tar-Aiym-Krang, was published by Ballantine Books in 1972.  Since then, Foster has published many short stories, novels, and film novelizations, including the New York Times bestselling Splinter of the Mind's Eye and Flinx in Flux.

Foster has toured extensively around the world. Besides traveling, he enjoys classical and rock music, old films, basketball, body surfing, and weight lifting. He has taught screenwriting, literature, and film history at UCLA and Los Angeles City College. He and his wife live in Arizona.


From the Hardcover edition.

Chosen by Science Fiction Chronicle as One of the Best Books of the Year

Bestselling author Alan Dean Foster has written an exciting Humanx Commonwealth adventure that delves deeper into the fragile early years when humans made first contact in this unforgettable world . . .

In the second half of the twenty-fourth century, diplomatic relations proceed cautiously between thranx and humans. But the insectlike beings are nearly forgotten with the sudden discovery of an ideal planet to colonize–Argus V–and the startling appearance of a new race of space-faring aliens. People are dazzled by the beautiful, glamorous pitar. Then tragedy strikes.

The entire human population on Argus V is brutally slaughtered. Not a single clue remains to identify the unseen executioners. But from a tiny inner moon of Argus V comes a faint signal. On that insignificant chunk of rubble lies the key to the crime–setting in motion a cataclysmic chain of events with deadly consequences for thranx, pitar, and human alike. For their worlds will be changed forever by a colossal battle that is their future and their destiny . . .


From the Paperback edition.

From the beginning, while sharing the Orion Arm of the galaxy, contact between humankind and the thranx has been tenuous at best. Yet nearly a century after first contact, the likelihood of closer human/thranx relations is as far away as ever. Humans still find these insectlike beings physically repulsive, a distaste the thranx return in kind. At times the cordial veneer barely conceals the suspicion and distrust boiling just below the surface.

Yet idealists on both sides refuse to surrender their dreams of achieving a thranx/human alliance. Among the most dedicated are a minor diplomat named Fanielle Anjou and her thranx counterpart. Others intend to make sure such a liaison never comes to pass... by any means necessary.

For these xenophobes, the upcoming Humanx Inter-Cultural Fair, the first wholly cross-species event, is a hideous confirmation of their worst fears. Zealots on both sides vow it will be the last of its kind, no matter how many must die. In the coming conflagration Fanielle holds the key to triumph but only if she can outwit those desperate to silence her forever.

Meanwhile, on a faraway planet, the duplicitous AAnn watch intently as archaeologists labor to discover what happened to an advanced human race that perished thousands of years ago. For the answers contain grave consequences for human, thranx, and AAnn alike...