Chorus Skating [Mass Market Paperback]

Alan Dean Foster (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 1994

The discovery of errant living notes escaped from an extradimensional symphony leads Spellsinger Jon-Tom and his otter sidekick, Mudge, on a perilous quest to rescue some spoiled princesses, battle a guerrilla gorilla, and match wits with an evil alien band.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“One of the most consistently inventive and fertile writers of science fiction and fantasy.” —The Times

“Alan Dean Foster is a master of creating alien worlds.” —SFRevu

“Foster knows how to spin a yarn.” —Starlog

“Foster does a fine job with his misfit heroes and even with his minor characters.” —Publishers Weekly

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

About the Author

Born in New York City in 1946, Foster was raised in Los Angeles. After receiving a Bachelor's Degree in Political Science and a Master of Fine Arts in Cinema from UCLA (1968, l969) he spent two years as a copywriter for a small Studio City, Calif. advertising and public relations firm. His writing career began when August Derleth bought a long Lovecraftian letter of Foster's in 1968 and much to Foster's surprise, published it as a short story in Derleth's bi-annual magazine The Arkham Collector. Sales of short fiction to other magazines followed. His first attempt at a novel, The Tar-Aiym Krang, was bought by Betty Ballantine and published by Ballantine Books in 1972. It incorporates a number of suggestions from famed SF editor John W. Campbell. Since then, Foster's sometimes humorous, occasionally poignant, but always entertaining short fiction has appeared in all the major SF magazines as well as in original anthologies and several "Best of the Year" compendiums. Six collections of his short form work have been published. Foster's work to date includes excursions into hard science-fiction, fantasy, horror, detective, western, historical, and contemporary fiction. He has also written numerous non-fiction articles on film, science, and scuba diving, as well as having produced the novel versions of many films, including such well-known productions as Star Wars, the first three Alien films, and Alien Nation. Other works include scripts for talking records, radio, computer games, and the story for the first Star Trek movie. In addition to publication in English, his work has appeared and won awards throughout the world. His novel Cyber Way won the Southwest Book Award for Fiction in 1990, the first work of science-fiction ever to do so. Though restricted (for now) to the exploration of one world, Foster's love of the far-away and exotic has led him to travel extensively. After graduating from college he lived for a summer with the family of a Tahitian policeman and camped out in French Polynesia. He and his wife JoAnn Oxley, of Moran, Texas, have traveled to Europe and throughout Asia and the Pacific in addition to exploring the back roads of Tanzania and Kenya. Foster has camped out in the "Green Hell" region of the Southeastern Peruvian jungle, photographing army ants and pan-frying piranha (lots of small bones; tastes a lot like trout); has ridden forty-foot whale sharks in the remote waters off Western Australia, and was one of three people on the first commercial air flight into Northern Australia's Bungle Bungle National Park. He has rappelled into New Mexico's fabled Lechugilla Cave, white-water rafted the length of the Zambezi's Batoka Gorge, driven solo the length and breadth of Namibia, crossed the Andes by car , sifted the sands of unexplored archeological sites in Peru, gone swimming with giant otters in Brazil, and surveyed remote Papua New Guinea and West Papua both above and below the water. His filmed footage of Great White Sharks feeding off South Australia has appeared on both American television and the BBC. Besides traveling he enjoys listening to both classical music and heavy metal. Other pastimes include basketball, hiking, body surfing, scuba diving, collecting animation on video, and weightlifting. He studied karate with Aaron and Chuck Norris before Norris decided to give up teaching for acting. He has taught screenwriting, literature, and film history at UCLA and Los Angeles City College as well as having lectured at universities and conferences around the country and in Europe. A member of the Science-Fiction Writers of America, the Author's Guild of America, and the Writer's Guild of America, west, he also spent two years serving on the Planning and Zoning Commission of his home town of Prescott, Arizona. Foster's correspondence and manuscripts are in the Special Collection of the Hayden Library of Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona. The Fosters reside in Prescott in a house bu

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 344 pages
• Publisher: Aspect; 1st edition (October 1, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0446362379
• ISBN-13: 978-0446362375
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 3.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,138,603 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Alan Dean Foster's work to date includes excursions into hard science-fiction, fantasy, horror, detective, western, historical, and contemporary fiction. He has also written numerous non-fiction articles on film, science, and scuba diving, as well as having produced the novel versions of many films, including such well-known productions as "Star Wars", the first three "Alien" films, "Alien Nation", and "The Chronicles of Riddick". Other works include scripts for talking records, radio, computer games, and the story for the first "Star Trek" movie. His novel "Shadowkeep" was the first ever book adapation of an original computer game. In addition to publication in English his work has been translated into more than fifty languages and has won awards in Spain and Russia. His novel "Cyber Way" won the Southwest Book Award for Fiction in 1990, the first work of science-fiction ever to do so.

Foster's sometimes humorous, occasionally poignant, but always entertaining short fiction has appeared in all the major SF magazines as well as in original anthologies and several "Best of the Year" compendiums. His published oeuvre includes more than 100 books.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars all good things come to an end [no spoilers], April 29, 2004

By 

Oscar "DaRK KNighT" (St. Louis, MO) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Chorus Skating (Mass Market Paperback)

"Chorus Skating" is the eighth and final volume in the Spellsinger adventure about Jon-Tom and colleague Mudge.

Back cover of book:

We're talking 'bout - bad, BAD, BAD BAD VIBRATIONS!

Spellsinger Jon-Tom is not in search of the Lost Chord; he's found it; living notes adrift from some extradimensional chorus line, fugitive from an otherworldly unfinished symphony. And the errant air wants Jon-Tom to follow it - right off a clef, into deadly peril.

For a minor key adventure turns major as Jon-Tom, his otter pal Mudge, and the schizo scherzo rescue a gaggle of spoiled princesses, battle the compulsions of a bizarre bazaar, wage war on a guerrilla gorilla, are sucked into a mocking maelstrom - and are trapped by an evil alien band who plan the ultimate musical rip-off, plunging the universe into the sounds of silence. Now, unless Jon-Tom's magic can conquer the airwaves, the hills will be alive with the sounds of an evil wizard who writes the songs that make the whole world?

Scream!

End back cover of book.

Sadly when Jon-Tom has begun to truly master his magical music, the series ends. I thoroughly enjoyed the novels for their creativity and humor. As far as final volumes go, the book finishes strong and is better than I remember. The return of Jon-Tom and Mudge is a huge relief and doesn't fail to entertain. Unfortunately, the back cover gives away too many of the obstacles encountered during the story.

As a fan of the classical, rock, and heavy metal music genres, I find the magic Jon-Tom creates with his duar exciting since I believe a well-constructed song can affect people with its intensity and power in a primal aspect.

Thank you.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Back to the well once ... twice too often, September 26, 2008

By 

Cynthia Cooper "Cyn" (Somerville, MA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Chorus Skating (Mass Market Paperback)

The Spellsinger series started out very strong. While the first two volumes (covering a single story) fell squarely into the trek-across-dangerous-weird-terrain category, the Wizard's World was fun, entertaining, and very believable. It was also surprisingly dark for a furry world, and touched on issues like racism and poverty. All said, it was a masterpiece. Day of the Dissonance was similar.

Moment of the Magician and Paths of the Perambulator were closer to being standard light fantasy. Both seemed built around a handful of set-pieces and jokes instead of a plotline, but since the set-pieces were cool and the jokes were funny this was OK.

Since that time the series has fallen more towards repetition, gag endings to serious problems, and the formerly solid barrier between the Wizard's World and Earth being about as solid as a sponge. The last three books in the series get a Piers Anthonyish vibe, with the introduction of unappealing one-note characters, situations set up just for the sake of a single pun, and -- worst of all -- total lack of exploitation of the possibilities of the world.

Time of the Transference was still readable, even if the characters themselves kept complaining about the lack of originality in the plot. Son of Spellsinger was unrelievedly horrible, with an unappealing substitute lead, a pointless quest, a bad supporting cast and a shaggy-dog-story ending.

Then we come to Chorus Skating. Thankfully, we're back to the duo of Jon-Tom and Mudge, with Buncan and his cohort shipped off to boarding school. Unfortunately, their adventure will consist into bumbling from situation to situation, exploring the usual mundane "fantastic lands," and finally confronting a villain who comes out of nowhere and is only a personified dumb joke.

I lost my entire library a couple of years ago. I've gone to great lengths to replace the first six books in the series (I didn't like Time, but it did give the series closure). There's no way I'm replacing the last two. I'd rather personally believe that Foster recognized that the series was going downhill during the writing of #6 and chose to end it on a satisfying note ... the last two books are just going through the motions, and badly at that.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A delightful encore excursion into the Spellsinger world, February 25, 2004

By 

Joanne Couturier (Traverse City, MI United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Chorus Skating -Op/026 (Library Binding)

I'm not exactly certain why this book is so reviled by even the most ardent fans of the Spellsinger series, because it really is, for all extents and purposes, an absolutely stunning adventure, wrought with concise care. It plunges our beloved heroes, Jon-Tom and Mudge, into a topsy-turvy adventure on par with any book in the original sextet. Wonderful, silly, and an all-around good read.