Commonwealth Books

Flinx and Pip

For Love of Mother-Not

A close encounter of the strangest kind -- Flinx's meeting with the mighty minidrag Pip!

THEY CALLED HIM FLINX . . .

He was just a freckle-faced, redheaded kid with green eyes and a strangely compelling stare when Mother Mastiff first saw him on the auctioneer's block. One hundered credits and he was hers.

For years the old woman was his only family. SHe loved him, fed him, taught him everything she knew -- even let him keep the deadly flying snake he called Pip.

Them Mother Mastiff mysteriously disappeared and Flinx took Pip to trail her kidnappers. Across the forests and swamps of the winged world called Moth, their only weapons were Pip's venom . . .and Flinx's unusual Talents.

The Tar-Aiym Krang

A TRAP FOR THE UNWARY . . .

Moth was a beautiful planet, the only one with wings -- two great, golden clouds suspended in the space around it.

Here was a wide-open world for any venture a man might scheme, The planet attracted unwary travelers, hardened space-sailors, and merchant buccaneers -- a teeming, constantly shifting horde that provided a comfortable income for certain quick-witted fellows like Flinx and his pet flying-snake Pip. With his odd talents, the pickings were easy enough so that Flinx did not have to be dishonest -- most of the time.

In fact, it hardly seemed dishonest at all to steal a starmap from a dead body that didn't really need it anymore. But Flinx wasn't quite smart enough. He should have wondered why the body was dead!

Orphan Star

One man in the universe held the key to the mystery of Flinx's parentage . . . and that mas was trying to kill him!

SON OF MYSTERY

His birth had been shrouded in mystery, and all Flinx knew of himself was that he'd been abandoned by those who had spawned him.

Raised by Mother Mastiff in the marketplace of Drallar, Flinx eventually discovered that his unknown parents had bequeathed to him a curious legacy . . . a legacy of extraordinary mental powers that were both an incalculable asset and a most dangerous liability.

This legacy would lead him -- and his potent protector, the minidrag Pip -- into the clutches of one of the most depraved and powerful men in the galaxy . . . and on to a harrowing search for the truth about his birth . . . and out of one world into another on his most dangerous adventure ever.

The End of the Matter

Three worlds set on a path of destruction were but one diversion Flinx faced as he zeroed in on the secret of his past!

ALASPIN "MY WORLD . . . AND WELCOME TO IT!"

Accompanied by his faithful minidrag Pip and a most troublesome alien called Abalamahalamatandra -- Ab, for short -- Flinx set out for Alaspin, the ruggedly primitive homeplanet of his flying snake.

There he hoped to find to giant man with the gold earring who somehow held the key to Flinx's mysterious past and to the strange powers he possessed. Chasing down his heritage was trouble enough, but Flinx didn't know what real trouble was until he realized that the Qwarm -- a deadly assassin squad -- were thee steps behind him with a conract to kill.

But the minidrag's homeplace did not offer safety and Flinx had a terrible time just staying alive . . . a matter complicated to no mean degree by a collapsar already set on an unstoppable death course across the galazy!

Flinx in Flux

Not even the extraordinary minidrag Pip could help Flinx out of his most dangerous entanglement -- love!

KNIGHT ERRANT

Flinx and his amazing minidrag Pip were always finding themselves in the middle of danger and galactic intrigue, so when they found an unconscious young woman on a riverbank deep in the jungles of Alaspin, Flinx wasn't surprised. Nor was he shocked to learn that the woman, Clarity held, was a brilliant scientist, abducted by a group of fanatic assassins.

Flinx could see no harm in returning Clarity to her base bfore continuing on his way, but he was tired of solving other people's problems. He had his own life to get back to. So he was unprepared for the emotional effect the beautiful Clarity had on him.

But while Flinx fought to deal with his unexpect dilemma, the assassins were still at work. They would do anything to stop the research on Longtunnel and would kill anyone or anything that got in their way . . .

Mid-Flinx

Pip and Flinx meet Midworld!

OVER THE EDGE

Where Flinx and his minidrag Pip went, trouble always followed -- that law had governed their lives through years of unsought danger and galactic intrigue. Now an evil rich man was out to kidnap the minidrap for his personal zoo, and Flinx and Pip were on the run again -- this time into uncharted space, on a random course they hoped would foil their pursuers.

They found more than they bargained for when they landed on Midiworld, a verdant planet covered by an immense jungle, hosting an incredible variety of plant and animal life -- all of it unknown and all of it deadly. And now they were in real trouble. Their hiding place was in danger of discovery, and their only hope lay with this bizarre and untamed planet . . . if it didn't kill them first!

Cachalot

Man had nearly destroyed the great sea creatures -- and now were they taking their revenge?

SEAWORLD

A guilt-ridden Eartch had turned Cachalot over to the few surviving cetaceans as a perpetual refuge -- a planet whose surface was one great ocean, where the remnants of the whales, porpises, and dolphins could pursure their lives and perhaps even the development of an intelligence greater than man's.

Humans on Cachalot were strictly confined to a few islands and the floating towns, prospering from the wealth of its sea. The cetaceans seemed to have forgiven the thousands of years of terror and slaughter they had suffered -- some had even befriended selected humans.

But something was destorying the towns of Cachalot -- leaving no clues . . . and no survivors.

 

 

Drowning World

Fluva, the Drowning World, is a rain-drenched planet on the fringes of the Commonwealth whose indigenous species, the warlike Sakuntala, and its immigrant species, the hardworking Deyzara, stand on the brink of civil war.The wettest place on Fluva is Viisiiviisii, an immense jungle thriving with exotic plants and deadly predators. Endless rains have made the jungle a treasure trove of rare and valuable botonicals. A man can get rich there. Or die trying.

Bio-prospector Shadrach Hasselmoga has come to seek his fortune -- if he survives the terrain once his sabotaged ship goes down. When a Sakuntala and a Deyzara are dispatched to recue the unfortunate soul, their ship crashes, too. Now, in order to survive, the three unlikely allies must do something that n oone has ever done before: escape the Viisiiviisii before it consumes them . . .

Voyage to the City of the Dead

It began as a search for knowledge and ended with an epic discovery.

IRRITATING HORSEYE!

Many worlds of the Humanx Commonwealth boasted of "natural wonders," but Horseye was truly unique -- the planet had the most spectacular river valley anywhere in the known universe and was home to three alien cultures.

The fascinating planet just cried out for proper study, and after months of impatient quarantine Etienne and Lyra Redowl had finally recieved permission to begin a voyage of exploration to the source of the River Skar, a mere 12,000 kilometers Upriver.

Old hands at cracking new planets, the Redowls studied the aliens and languages, took local guides, and provided for emergencies. But nothing could prepare them for the awsome treachery of the natives or the unbelievable natural obstacles. And not even the natives understood the planet's deepest secret . . .

Spellsinger

Spellsinger

His magic strove to save a planet he did not yet know -- from Zaryt's Teeth to the Helldrink and ever danger beyond . . .

THE WIZARD'S WORLD

    It was where beasts walked and talked as men, armed with sword and dagger. And it was where Clothahump, turtle and wizard, stretched his powers of sorcery, seeking a cource to the unknown evil that theatened his land, seeking a helper from another dimension, another universe.

    And so Jonathan Thomas Meriweather -- grad student and rock guitarist -- found himself plucked from his cannabis-filled campus room in L.A. and whisked into a world of disarming beauty and savage violence. Here Jon-Tom, Mudge the otter, the flame-haired Talea and wothers would form a motley fellowship with the wizard. Their mission: to travel where no warm-blooded being had been and destory the strange new force emanating from the dreaded Greendowns.

    Now the peace-loving student must become a soldier and crusader, fighting with sword and song. For strumming his otherworldly duar, he is the maker of magic, his music conjuring configurations, tranforming Jon Meriweather into the . . . SPELLSINGER.

The Hour of the Gate

It would take a wizard's magic to unite enemies against the evil that threatened them all!

INVASION OF THE PLATED FOLK!

    The elders of Plastindu watched in horror as Clothahump, wizard and turtle, spun visions of the coming invasion. Finally the Plated Folk had a magic potent enough to penetrate Zaryt's Teeth and the warmlands, igniting a devastating war between the species. The wizard and his earthly helper, Jonathan Thomas Meriweather, grad student and rock guitarist, must undertake the voyage into enemy territory in search of allies against the evil hordes from beyond.

    So Jon-Tom, Clothahump, Mudge the otter, flame-haired Talea and their motley crew set sail on a suicide mission down the treacherous river that winds through the subterranean lair of Massawrath, Mother of Nightmares, across Helldrink through a tunnel of cold flame to the center of the earth. It is a perilous journey few have attempted, and none have ever survived . . .

The Day of the Dissonance

Jon-Tom jouirneys to a distant land on a mission of mercy, magic -- and danger!

FANTASTIC VOYAGE

    Clothahump, the wizard, is dying. All that cab save him are rare medicinal powders to be found across the Glittergeist Ocean, past distant Snarken. Jon-Tom, the Spellsinger, sets out on the most perilous pilgrimage of his still-young career armed with only his music-making duar and a reluctant Mudge, the otter, as his guide. Along the way he conjures up Roseroar, Amazonian tiger, rescues Jalwar, the ferret, and together they free Folly, the beauty, from bondage! Spellsinger and his motley crew press on, confronting a forest of Fungoid Frankensteins on the muddletop Moors, a parrot pirate on the high seas, cannibal fairies in the enchanted canyon, and the evil wixard Malderpot who poses the greatest challenge of all!

The Time of the Transference

With his powerful duar broken, will the spellsinger ever make magic again?

THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE HOME . . .

    It was a pretty good life for a spekksinger from L.A. he'd battled demonds, fought deadly Plated Folk, even met a socialist dragon and survived. Now Jon-Tom was quite happy to settle into domestic bliss with the fiery Talea, study magic, and preactice spellsinging on his duar. but the magic instrument is broken when Jon-Tom protects the wizard Clothahump from theives and he must set out across the Glittergeist Sea to find the one person who can fix it. With the irrepressible Mudge the Otter as a traveling companion, only the unexpected can happen. But cannibal muskrats, ogres, and a fierce pirate king parrot seem ordinary indeed when jon-Tom finds a way back to Earth -- and he must chose which world is home.

The Moment of the Magician

Jon-Tom, the spellsinger, must match his magic against a click new sorcerer's -- before it enslaves the world!

"TROPICAL, FRIENDLY, AND LARGELY UNINHABITED"

was how Clothahump the wizard had described the swamps of the south. But from warring colonies of tough-talking prarie dogs, to the magical mime-vines, the a mommoth mountain of living muck and a hidden colony of dreaded Plated Folk, Jon-Tom the spellsinger and his otter comprade Mudge find their journey southward full of strong spells and deadly foes.

    Should they ever reach the city of Quasequa, their mission is to unman the mysterious new magican, Marcus the Ineluctable. But Marcus' forces seem unlimited, his hunger for power insatiable, and his influence over his followers total. Is the spellsinging magic of Jon-Tom enough to save Quasequa -- and all of the wizard's world?

Son of Spellsinger

He's over his head in trouble and magic -- But Jon-Tom's spellrapping son is too legit to quit!

CALL HIM -- SPELLMASTER B

    Much to Clothahump the Wizard's distress, ex-hippie Jon-Tom and otherworldly talea's son Buncan wants to be a questing hero, but not a spellsinger. Instead, he forms a band with Mudge's kids, otters Nocter and Squill, one that creates a wild, unpredictable magic -- based on rap!

    Then an anteater arrives with rumors about a dangerous legend. Soon the young rappers, aided bya drunk rhino, are off on an odyssey to a fortress where evil sorcerers threaten the world. And where only the unknown power of Buncan's beat can stop the hordes of hideous hybrids.

 

Other Books

Cat-A-Lyst

A GAME OF CAT . . . AND CAT?

Movie star Jason Carter is on vacation in Peru. All he wants is a break, but what he finds is a lost civilization of extradimensional Incas bent on conquest of the entire world!

Nor is Carter alone. His allies include a bloodthirsty Amazon, an archaeologist, a band robber, three alien vegerable, a scoop-crazed gosspi reporter -- and not one of them knows what to do next.

Only Carter's cat seems unruffled by the growing danger. In true feline fashion, she acts like she's in charge of the plantet.

Maybe she is.

Cyber Way

Someday, science will abolish magic. But not murder.

Computers will catch the killers. But not this time.

One cop will unearth the truth. But it's not human.

Mad Amos

Where Amos Malone went, strange doings were boudn to follow . . .

MOVE OVER, PAUL BUNYAN -- MAKE WAY FOR MAD AMOS MALONE!

Strange things lurk up in the mountains and out in the plains and deserts of the West, but few are as unique as the giant mountain man named Amos Malone, the man some called Mad Amos, though not to his face. But when the world gets weird, there's no one who's better to have on your side . . .

Is a renegade dragon harassing the man laying the rails of the great railroad? Are headless Indian spirits driving you from your land? Is that volcano threatening to destory your settlement? Then Mad Amos is the man for you.

Plus, two new, never-before-published stories in the Mad Amos canon:

NEITHER A BORROWER BE: When a horse theif sets his sights on stealing Amos's faithful mount Worthless, he gets more than he expects . . . for Worthless isn't exactly an ordinary horse . . .

THE PURL OF THE PACIFIC: Mad Amos takes to the high seas on a whale of an adventure and thwarts a vengeful South Pacific island shaman at his own game . . .

Ten delightful stories of dragons, jackalopes, snake-pil salesmen, iron horses, and, of course, the incomparable Mad Amos Malone from the incredible imagination of world-class storyteller and bestselling author Alan Dean Foster!

Interlopers

Why bad things really happen to good people . . .

upset stomachs . . . the collapse of civilizations . . . nervous breakdowns . . .

Blame them on a twist of fate, but archaeologist Cody Westcott knows differently. Something is causing these random acts of badness. Something acient, something ecil, something . . . hungry.

We're not alone, but we're about to wish we were . . . .

INTERLOPERS.

Life Form

Intelligent. Inquisitive. Insidious. Inhuman.

On the faraway planet Xica, nine scientists from Earth have established first contact with a humanoid civilization.

Now all they have to do is live to tell about it . . .

I sit humankind's greatest discovery . . . or its worst nightmare?

Prostho Plus

Will a mild-mannered dentist from Earth be able to make it in the high-powered politics of galactic dentistry?

What's keeping you from your grand tour of the universe? Are you afraid of being caught out in the vastness of space with a painful cavity and no one capable of fixing it? Well fear not -- the galaxy is simply teeming with dentists!

For Dr. DIllingham, dentist of Earth, it was the shock of his life -- captured by aliens, forced to fix a strange cavity in an even stranger mouth; then whisked off to deep space. But luckily for the good dentist, Dillingham discovered that he liked zooming about the galazy, solving unprecedented problems and making new and decidedly different acquaintances. And when he was offered the change to apply to the Galactic University of Dentistry as Earth's first (and only) applicant, Dillingham had a choice to make: go back to his safe little world of bored housewives and miles of braces, or make a mark for mankind among the teeth of the stars.

It was really no choice at all.

The Caterpillar's Question (Piers Anthony & Philip Jose Farmer)

In an alternate world far removed from our own, a struggling art student named Jack finds himself in the middle of an intergalactic battle against a tyrannical empire. But only one force can hope to overcome this enemy -- the Imago, an immortal spirit of immense power. Anyong or anything anywhere can be the Imago . . . evan a mute, crippled human girl.

The Dig

When a mile-wide asteroid suddenly appears in orbit around Earth, frantic scientists call on veteran shuttle pilot Boston Low. His mission: to nudge the menacing new moon into a stable orbit before it causes untold destruction by smashing into the Earth below.

It's a mission that leads to an incredible adventure. When Low, prize-winning journalist Maggie Robbins, and scientific genious Ludger Brink investigate the asteroid's surface, they are hurtled into a time and place of revelation, mystery, and danger: the planet Cocytus.

Once home to an extraordinarily advanced society, Cocytus is now a haunted world. For the three human castaways, the challenge is to understand the secret of this mysterious planet. Because solving the mystery of Cocytus is the only hope they have of getting home again .  . .

The I Inside

He dared to challenge the delicate balance of the Universe. Was he a man driven by love, or the unwitting agent of an intergalactic plot?

The machine spoke. "THERE IS DANGER." "From what source?" "I DO NOT KNOW."

For over a hundred years the machine called the Colligatarch had ruled the Earth. It meditaded disputes between nations, regulated industry, predicted supply and demand, the weather, even the future with such incredible accuracy that accepting its recommendations had seemed the best thing for human beings to do. Until now . . .

Now a young design engineer in Phoenix had broken out of the pattern of "going along." Suddenly, he had begun unauthorized travel, had entered secret places, had assumed aliases, and had startled even himself with super-human feats of strength. Was it really because he has fallen in love? Or had he instead fallen into an interplanetary plot? Even the Colligatarch did not know . . . yet.

Quozl

The Quozl knew they'd love the third planet from the sun.

But it never occurred to them that anyone lived there . . .

Journeys of the Catechist

Land of 1,000 magicks..

  Once upon a time, there was a simple herdsman named Etjole Ehomba. Etjole was nothing if not honorable. One day, a pale stranger washed ashoer near his village, and which his expiring breath charged the herder with an urgent task: Save the Visioness! Etjole's honor would not let him refuse the last wish of a dying man.

  And so it happened that Etjole, with only his spear, his sword, and a bag of charms, set off on a long and difficult journey to rescue a woman he had never met, for the sake of a man he did not know.

  Etjole lived in the last mapped settlement of the known world; to the north were the dreaded Unstable Lands, where people were swallowed up by unreality and by things that should not exist. Being pure and simple, Etjole was not surprised by the spirits and monsters he encountered, and calmy conquered, there. Which was why nothing about the herder seemed simple to his accidental companions, the swordsman Simna ibn Sind and the great cat Ahlitah, who belived only the warrior-wizard would dare the Unstable Lands with their savannahs of giants, jungles of Corruption, floating lakes, psycotic deserts, and gigantic walking Wall.

  But the dangers before them were nothing compared with the peril that followed behind. For the companions were stalked by the eater of light -- a demon that would not stop until it devoured all victory, all joy . . . and all three travelers

Book One: Carnivores of Light and Darkness

Book Two: Into the Thinking Kingdoms

Book Three: A Triumph of Souls

(i have all three books smooshed into one...that's why it's weird....)

 

Into the Out Of

They're insidious and nearly invisible and they're threatening the very fabric of reality . .

  In this magnificent hardcover debut, Alan Dean Foster, bestselling author of the Spellsinger series and the blockbuster movie novelization of Alien, spins the bone-chilling tale of another dimension, the Out Of, and beings -- as illusive as the feeting images in the corner of your eye -- that seek to destroy all humankind.

  They are the shetani, a swarm of spitits stealing into our world from an unnatural gap in the Out of, creatures only barely perceivable to the chosen few who can stem the nightmarish tide:

  OLKELOKI, an Elder of the Maasai people who knows that the disasters, sabotage, and terror which are bringing the world to the brink of World War III are caused by the demons his people have feared for centuries . . .

  JOSHUA OAKS, a U.S. government agent, a man all too used to fightiting America's many human foes . . .

  MERRY SHARROW, a brave young woman in search of adventure -- evn if it means confronting her worst fears, and entereing the Out Of itself.

  A rustle heard in the corners of a darkened room, an image that glashes by and is gone, the sense that something dangerous, with razor-sharp teeth, is waiting behind you, just beyond your field of vision . . . this is what the hunters of the shetani must confront.

  But as the demons work their evil in the inner sanctums of the most powerful nations on Earth, time is rapidly running out. And soon even Maasai magic and Western courage may not prove enough to stop the diabolical destruction that threatens to turn the planet into one vast inferno.

Dinotopia Lost

A BOLD NEW ADVENTURE IN A HIDDEN LAND OF HUMANS AND DINOSAURS

This thrilling tale of high adventure set in the world of James Gurney's Dinotopia, the extraordinary uncharted island where humans and dinosaurs live in harmony, features all the colorful wonder and winning characters that have won this 'land apart from time' millions of fans all over the world.

In all Dinotopia's countless centuries, rarely has a vessel reached her peaceful shores except as a splintered wreck, until a mighty, storm-swollen breaker hurls the pirate ship Condor beyond the treacherous fangs of the coral reefs that surrous the island. When maurauding pirates capture a dinosaur family, young skybax pilot Will Denison leads a tiny band of rescuers on a pursuit that takes them into the perilous Rainy basin, where tyrannosaurs still stalk the steamy forest long abandoned by civilized Dinotopians. Doggedly tracking the invaders, Will and his dinosaur companions must face both the cruelty of ancient instincts and the brutality of modern ignorance as they race toward a fateful confrontation at the breathtaking climax of a once-in-a-lifetime typhoon.