Advertisement

Desvendapur is a misfit, a third-rate professional poet on the backwater colony world of Willow-Wane. Hearing a rumour of a secret alien colony, on impulse he sneaks in and forges a new identity, hoping the weird, smelly "humans" will inspire him, and jump-start his stalled artistic career. Inspiration he gets, plus exotic travel, but at a very high price.

Cheelo Montoya is a ninloco, a small-time Tico hood on the lam from a mugging that went sour. He's hiding out in the Peruvian Reserva Amazonia, waiting for the heat to die down. He falls out of his stolen boat, which chugs on out-of-sight, on autopilot. Now he's hiding in a tree, after an unfortunate encounter with a column of army ants, when this giant bug walks by.

Des and Cheelo make a wary acquaintance, and then an uncertain partnership against the hazards of the jungle: jaguars, anacondas, poachers, etc., and unwittingly advance the budding Human-Thranx alliance. But the wily reptilian AAnn have an idea of how to throw a spanner in the works. Tune in next time for -- Book Two, Dirge -- which should be out "real soon now" as it has been turned in to the publisher.

This is a very entertaining book -- light, fun, and action-packed, with clever twists and likeable characters. It is a lot like the good old stuff we read and loved when we were 14. And, for that matter, like earlier Alan Dean Foster books I've liked -- I'd gotten out of the habit of reading Foster, after several so-so books (and the appropriately-titled The Damned trilogy), so I'm very pleased to see him back at the top of his form. Familiarity with earlier Humanx Commonwealth books is helpful but certainly not required -- if you happen to be new to Foster, or were disappointed before, Phylogenesis is a good chance to see him at his best. Fluff, but good fluff.

Pete Tillman has been reading SF for better than 40 years now. He reviews SF -- and other books -- for Usenet, "Under the Covers", Infinity-Plus, Dark Planet, and SF Site. He's a mineral exploration geologist based in Arizona. More of his reviews are posted at www.silcom.com/~manatee/reviewer.html#tillman .