Lost and Found

June 7, 2004
Alien abductions are fast becoming an SF cliché, but bestseller Foster (Dirge
) puts a fresh spin on the theme in the wacky first book of a new comic SF series about Marcus Walker, a Chicago commodities broker, and George, a talking dog. Both fall victim to the seven-foot Vilenjji, who roam outer space and snatch specimens from various backward planets to sell as novelty pets to wealthy clients. Marc and George are the only Earth samples in the vast traveling zoo en route to an undisclosed alien marketplace. The other oxygen-breathing sentients—caged in enclosures that imaginatively echo the places where they were captured—can communicate with each other and their captors, due to implants that have been softwired into their brains. Much mayhem ensues as Marc and the streetwise mutt decide to attempt an escape with fellow zoo allies, the huge, very scary, always hungry poetry-spouting Braouk ("Sorrow is sharing, the abducted are together, many one") and the tiny, bejeweled, hysterically superior Sque ("a female of the K'eremu"). Walker's enthusiasm in taking stock of the assets at their disposal in their wild bid for freedom—something his work has taught him to do "when faced with a difficult set of circumstances"—and George's doggy determination make this a winner for all ages. Agent, Vaughne Lee Hansen at Virginia Kidd Literary.

June 15, 2004
Chicago commodities trader Marcus Walker takes to the mountains for a camping trip only to awaken in the belly of an alien spaceship bound for outer space. Soon he discovers others like himself, taken from other worlds by a race of profiteering merchants known as the Vilenjji. Walker's attempt to free himself and his newfound friends-including a centipede-like intellectual and a talking dog named George-becomes only the first step in a long and strange journey with an uncertain destination. Veteran sf novelist Foster ("Flinx of the Commonwealth" series) launches a new series featuring a pair of engaging heroes (one of them a canine wisecracker) and fascinating alien races caught up in just enough of a story to showcase the characters. A good choice for general sf and YA collections.

Copyright 2004 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 1, 2004
Young-turk commodities-trader Marc Walker is camping alone in the California wilderness to win a bet with his hometown Chicago buddies when he's cold-cocked by buglike purple aliens and whisked into interstellar space. When he comes to, he finds himself isolated in a force field, along with his tent; selected pieces of the surrounding Sierra Nevada scenery; and George, a dog that talks, thanks to a universal translator and canine cranial upgrade. Through his furry friend and a snooty, octopus-like fellow captive, Walker learns that he and a menagerie of colorful extraterrestrials are prisoners on a galactic slave ship and destined to be sold as curios by their enterprising, amoral captors to the highest bidder. The parable of humans plucked for an alien zoo has been told often in sf but never with greater flare and more intrigue. Foster doles out enough wit, suspense, and original alien anthropology to keep readers spellbound from chapter one on. The utterly enchanted may look forward to a pair of sequels filling out a prospective trilogy.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2004, American Library Association.)