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Alan Dean Foster
--- Introduction
--- Alien
--- Humanx Commonwealth
--- Pip and Flinx
--- Spellsinger
--- Star Trek
--- Star Wars
--- Collections and Omnibuses
--- Other Series
--- Other Novels and Chapbooks
--- Other Novelizations
--- Miscellanea
--- Short Fiction

Eddie Jones

The Big Three
--- Isaac Asimov
--- Arthur C. Clarke
--- Robert A. Heinlein

J.R.R. Tolkien

Lin Carter

Patrick Moore

Philip E. High

Richard C. Meredith

Robert Silverberg

Robert E. Vardeman

Fighting Fantasy

Science Fiction Magazines

Science Fiction and Fantasy Series

SF Universes and Fantasy Worlds

Photograph © Alan Dean Foster

Born on 18 November 1946 in New York City, Foster was raised in Los Angeles. He earned a Bachelor's Degree in Political Science and a Master of Fine Arts in Cinema from UCLA before beginning work in advertising and public relations, and then embarking on a career as an author, in addition to teaching and lecturing.

Foster is perhaps best known for his science fiction novels set in the Humanx Commonwealth, an interstellar union of species including humankind and the insectoid Thranx. Many of these novels feature Philip Lynx ("Flinx"), an empath, and his companion, a minidragon named Pip.

Foster's best-known fantasy work is the Spellsinger series, in which a young musician is summoned into a world populated by talking creatures where his music allows him to cast spells whose effects depends on the lyrics of the popular songs he sings (although with somewhat unpredictable results).

Many of Foster's works have a strong ecological element to them, often with an environmental twist. Often the villains in his stories experience their downfall because of a lack of respect for other alien species or seemingly innocuous elements of their surroundings. This can be seen in such works as Midworld, a semi-sentient planet that is essentially one large rainforest, and Cachalot, set on an ocean world populated by sentient cetaceans.

Both George Lucas and Alan Dean Foster have acknowledged that, although Star Wars: From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker is credited solely to George Lucas, Foster in fact ghost-wrote the novelization of the first Star Wars film - now known as Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. When asked if it was difficult for him to see Lucas get all the credit for Star Wars, Foster said "Not at all. It was George's story idea. I was merely expanding upon it. Not having my name on the cover didn't bother me in the least. It would be akin to a contractor demanding to have his name on a Frank Lloyd Wright house."

Foster also penned the novel Splinter of the Mind's Eye, a Star Wars sequel written before the first film was released and was intended to be the basis of a low budget sequel if circumstances demanded such. Published prior to the release of The Empire Strikes Back, Foster's story relied heavily on abandoned concepts that appeared in Lucas's early treatments for the first film. Foster was stunned when Return of the Jedi revealed the characters of Luke and Leia as brother and sister because, in Splinter, the characters exhibit both romantic and sexual energy.

Foster has the story credit for Star Trek: The Motion Picture. He also wrote ten books based on episodes of Star Trek: The Animated Series, the first six books each consisting of three linked novella-length episode adaptations, and the last four being full-length novelizations of single episodes. He later wrote the novelizations of the 2009 film Star Trek, and its 2013 sequel Into Darkness, his first Star Trek novels in over thirty years.

Foster's other novelization credits include the first three Alien films, Clash of the Titans, Krull, The Chronicles of Riddick, Transformers and Terminator: Salvation. In addition to science fiction and fantasy, Foster has also written horror, detective, western, historical and contemporary fiction, as well as occasional excursions into non-fiction. His novel Shadowkeep was the first ever book adapation of an original computer game. Foster's books have been translated into more than fifty languages.

Foster currently lives in Prescott, Arizona, with his wife JoAnn. In addtion to travelling, his other interests include surfing and scuba diving, basketball, music (both classical and heavy metal), karate and powerlifting. The Fosters reside in a house built of brick salvaged from a turn-of-the-century miners' brothel, along with assorted dogs, cats, fish, several hundred houseplants, visiting javelina, porcupines, eagles, red-tailed hawks, skunks, coyotes, bobcats, and the ensorceled chair of the nefarious Dr. John Dee.

References
- Wikipedia - Alan Dean Foster - retrieved 25 Nov. 2012 - the text above is largely a revised version of the Wikipedia article
- The Internet Speculative Fiction Database - Alan Dean Foster - Summary Bibliography - retrieved 25 November 2012
- The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction - Alan Dean Foster - retrieved 25 November 2012
- AlanDeanFoster.com - Biographical Information - retrieved 25 November 2012

Lists of the first publications of Alan Dean Foster's non-magazine published fiction appear below along with a selection of non-fiction and autobiographical writings.

Titles in black are novels and chapterbooks, while those in blue are collections and omnibuses.
An illustrated bibliography can be found here.

Chronological Reading Lists for the Pip & Flinx and Humanx Commonwealth novels and short stories can be found here.

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