Parallelities

Rating:
Summary: A clever satire
Review: An author should not have to stamp "satire" on the cover of a book to have readers look at it in the proper light. Parallelities is a light satire which has many clever twists. I found this book much more enjoyable than the lionized "Hitchhiker's Guide".

Foster begins with an aura that suggests the standard serious SF genre. However, the book quickly becomes a light-hearted ride thorough a series of unreal universes. The writing is crisp, with many "tongue-in-cheek" situations. I agree that Mr.Foster began to fade a bit toward the end. However, the book overall provided a pleasant afternoon's reading. This is not "Dune" or even "Hyperion", but is not meant to be.

Rating:
Summary: One of my favorites!
Review: I must honestly say that, while this book wasn't waht I expected, I still loved it. Foster mixes humor, science fiction, and an engaging, story to make a great book that is fun to read without becoming too complicated. The main character, Max, is a tabloid reporter who gets a dose of his own medicine, and eventually sees what a scumpot he is. The writing, as with all Foster, is great. I can't reccommend this highly enough!

Rating:
Summary: It's worth a read if you're a little bored
Review: I really wanted to like this book - I've always been a fan of Alan Dean Foster (Yeah, Flinx!) - but by the end of it all I could say was shrug and say "eh."

The central idea is interesting, if a bit over done. We've seen the "man torn from his own world, just trying to survive and get home" plotline thousands of times - dozens, even if we just count the AH versions. But there are few new plotlines, what counts is what you do with it.

And in my opinion, Foster doesn't do very much at all with this one.

To begin with, Maxwell Parker is not what you'd call a sympathetic character. Being a tabloid reporter, he's more than a little bit of a sleaze. Self-centered, egotistical, in love with himself, he's not someone you hang around with if you have a choice. And while this changes a little during the course of the book (nothing like meeting dozens of copies of yourself to give you a good feel for your weak points) , in the end, all Max really wants to do is go right back to the life he had before this all started, and in the meantime, all he's really doing is moping a lot. Self-centered depression is not what I call an ideal character development.

In fact, if I had to sum up what Max learns through all this it's "There's no place like home," a lesson The Wizard of Oz taught with much nicer characters - and which I have reservations about even there.

Foster introduces entirely too many characters that do a brief walk-on, set up themselves somewhat, and then are never seen again. I understand that most of these characters are "paras" that will vanish before the end of the chapter (by the very nature of the story), but it still feels like Foster is setting up someone to use and then just discarding them.

The whole book, in fact, is (over) loaded with long, winding, witty descriptives. It looks like Foster was trying to do the type of writing Terry Pratchett does in his Diskworld series (and other places). But Foster just doesn't quite manage it.

Mind you. This isn't a horrible book, nor one you'll read halfway through and then toss across the room in disgust. It's just a bland, rather pointless meander that probably could have been done better as a short story or novella.

Rating:
Summary: It's worth a read if you're a little bored
Review: I really wanted to like this book - I've always been a fan of Alan Dean Foster (Yeah, Flinx!) - but by the end of it all I could say was shrug and say "eh."

The central idea is interesting, if a bit over done. We've seen the "man torn from his own world, just trying to survive and get home" plotline thousands of times - dozens, even if we just count the AH versions. But there are few new plotlines, what counts is what you do with it.

And in my opinion, Foster doesn't do very much at all with this one.

To begin with, Maxwell Parker is not what you'd call a sympathetic character. Being a tabloid reporter, he's more than a little bit of a sleaze. Self-centered, egotistical, in love with himself, he's not someone you hang around with if you have a choice. And while this changes a little during the course of the book (nothing like meeting dozens of copies of yourself to give you a good feel for your weak points) , in the end, all Max really wants to do is go right back to the life he had before this all started, and in the meantime, all he's really doing is moping a lot. Self-centered depression is not what I call an ideal character development.

In fact, if I had to sum up what Max learns through all this it's "There's no place like home," a lesson The Wizard of Oz taught with much nicer characters - and which I have reservations about even there.

Foster introduces entirely too many characters that do a brief walk-on, set up themselves somewhat, and then are never seen again. I understand that most of these characters are "paras" that will vanish before the end of the chapter (by the very nature of the story), but it still feels like Foster is setting up someone to use and then just discarding them.

The whole book, in fact, is (over) loaded with long, winding, witty descriptives. It looks like Foster was trying to do the type of writing Terry Pratchett does in his Diskworld series (and other places). But Foster just doesn't quite manage it.

Mind you. This isn't a horrible book, nor one you'll read halfway through and then toss across the room in disgust. It's just a bland, rather pointless meander that probably could have been done better as a short story or novella.

Rating:
Summary: Skip this one
Review: I saw this book and was ecstatic! Parallel universes _and_ Alan Dean Foster, what a promising combination. There's one problem. It's pure fluff, completely disconnected. You're better off watching some old Sliders episodes. My big conclusion after reading this book is that I can't trust name recognition anymore.

Rating:
Summary: A true favorite of mine
Review: I see this book has received a mixed response from fans, and this surprises me. I found this to be one of the most entertaining reads in a long while. I keep reading it over and over, sometimes skipping to my favorite parts and analyzing the details for further insight.

Following a rather slow beginning (I'd almost suggest skipping the first chapter), we encounter a slimy tabloid reporter who, due to an experiment run amok by an amateur scientist he's sent to interview, becomes doomed to sail randomly through parallel universes, many of which are at least as weird as the kinds of stories he writes for the tabloid paper. Each of these universes contains another version of himself, living life without any awareness of anything strange going on around him. (That is not the only one of the reporter's new "powers," but I don't want to give away the most original aspect of this novel.)

What I love about all of Foster's books is that his descriptions are so vivid, he makes the comically absurd seem almost plausible. You feel like you've lived in one of his books after reading it. Not only does he revel in verbose descriptions, he always seems to be pushing the limits of what's possible to put into words. His stories are often filled with "shocker lines," not all of which work, but are nonetheless very enjoyable.

In "Parallelities," each universe the reporter protagonist visits seems to encompass a story in itself, and in the process the book manages to cross several genres, leaving open more questions than it answers. The book is hilarious, because the reporter keeps convincing himself he's finally back in his own world, but we know he's only fooling himself. Every time he thinks his life has returned to normal, he's only about to encounter something substantially weirder than anything before. These sequences play off like one of those dreams where you think you're awake, but then you notice some small discrepancy and everything comes crashing down.

This is the kind of book that draws heavily upon the notion of existential angst. If countless parallel universes exist, each one as "real" as any other, and countless versions of oneself exist, where is there room for personal identity? It is heavily implied that there might be practically, if not actually, an infinite number of these universes in existence, which would make this universe equivalent to a grain of sand on a vast beach. If that is the case, how can the cosmos have any meaning, at least to the extent that humans can comprehend it?

Just as there are multiple universes in this book, there are multiple explanations for the nature and extent of the protagonist's problems, and toward the end it starts to get a little confusing. Every time I read the book, however, I notice new things. For example, each time he visits the scientist who brought about his problems, he fails to take notice of subtle differences in the furniture, not to mention the scientist's personality. Still, there are a lot of questions I haven't answered to this day, and I'm not even sure Foster himself would know the answer.

Despite the philosophical theme of chaos, the reporter's fate is almost a fitting punishment for someone so shallow and unethical. That's why it's not unpleasant to read about what's basically a fate worse than death. (In fact, it is hinted at one point that even death wouldn't necessarily get rid of his problem.) Toward the end of the book, due to certain events I won't describe, he starts to become painfully aware of his own flaws. I must say this is one of the most well-developed characters I've ever encountered in an Alan Dean Foster book, for he comes off as very real, not as a mere stereotype. Even though he's not that sympathetic, he's sufficiently ordinary enough that we can relate to him.

At one point in the story, the reporter visits what appears to be a utopian version of his own world. Naturally, he wishes that he'd remain there permanently, but the irony is that he would never fit into such a world, because he isn't good enough.

Rating:
Summary: It's not the Commonwealth
Review: I've been a fan of Foster since I was about 8 or 10. I've read at least a dozen of his books, and this one certainly doesn't rank well among them. If you're used to The Damned, or Flinx in the Commonwealth, this book will no doubt leave you sadly disappointed.

When I first read this book, it was for an English Independent Study, and I read it along side HG Wells' War of the Worlds. Compared to Wells' incredibly long, slow descriptions, Parallelities was fast paced and well developed. Foster has the gift of quickly creating memorable worlds and characters. However, the nature of this book requires them to be discarded just as fast as they're created.

Alongside War of the Worlds, this was a welcome change from the tedium of 19th Century England. However, when looked at in a more modern light, Foster could have done better.

Without intending to offend anybody, Foster should stick to stories of the Humanx Commonwealth, his incredible namesake.

Rating:
Summary: It's not the Commonwealth
Review: I've been a fan of Foster since I was about 8 or 10. I've read at least a dozen of his books, and this one certainly doesn't rank well among them. If you're used to The Damned, or Flinx in the Commonwealth, this book will no doubt leave you sadly disappointed.

When I first read this book, it was for an English Independent Study, and I read it along side HG Wells' War of the Worlds. Compared to Wells' incredibly long, slow descriptions, Parallelities was fast paced and well developed. Foster has the gift of quickly creating memorable worlds and characters. However, the nature of this book requires them to be discarded just as fast as they're created.

Alongside War of the Worlds, this was a welcome change from the tedium of 19th Century England. However, when looked at in a more modern light, Foster could have done better.

Without intending to offend anybody, Foster should stick to stories of the Humanx Commonwealth, his incredible namesake.

Rating:
Summary: Foster -- not at his best.
Review: This book is definitely Foster. If you are paying attention - and who wants to do that reading Sci-Fi - you can pick out some insights to that theme Foster has been leading us to for twenty years. In this story you find some insights to that mysterious evil that seems to be lurking at the edge of all of his novels. Finally, we get a glimpse of those aliens who fled the evil. For those of us who love and follow Flinx, you will get a treat.

Rating:
Summary: This is probably the worst book I have ever read by Foster
Review: This book is slow, boring and definitely not up to Mister Foster's past accomplishments. The main reason I find this so frustating is that I have read every thing else he has written at least five or six times. This one only well... In fact, on three separate occasions I have tried to finish the book and couldn't..... Did I say it was boring??? Let me make that clear.... THIS BOOK IS ONE YOU WILL WANT TO PUT DOWN!!!!