Dark Star [Mass Market Paperback]

Alan Dean Foster (Author)

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback
• Publisher: Ballantine Books; First Edition edition (September 12, 1974)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 034524267X
• ISBN-13: 978-0345242679
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 4.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,875,429 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

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars So much better than the movie on which it is based., March 31, 2006

By 

Gordon S. Marlowe (Denver, CO USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dark Star (Mass Market Paperback)

Unlike so many movies, which have screenplays based on chopping up a book into some barely recognizable story to fit in an hour and a half, Dark Star, the book, is a novel based on the movie of the same name.

And while the movie, John Carpenter's first attempt at science fiction movie making, is a pretty amateur effort, the book shines by comparison.

In this story, a crew find themselves on a mission to find solar systems with habitable planets, suitable for human colonization, and destroy any wobbly, unstable planets in those systems. The ship they fly on is slowly falling apart around them, and the interpersonal relationships are pretty much doing the same.

This book is much like Catch-22 in space, only less optimistic. Dark and unescapable, the stories of the crew members of this ship slowly draw you in, until you really do get the feeling you're on the ship with them, sharing their lives and their fates.

Also, this book has one of the THE most memorable closing lines in the history of science fiction, and to this day, I can remember the chills that ran down my spine as I read it and closed the book. At 14, the age when I first read it, this book affected me deeply, leaving impressions in my mind that would later make me agree with Kevin Smith that "The Empire Strikes Back" was the best fo the Star Wars movies, and I would find myself thinking back on this story when reading many other pieces of literature.

While Alan Dean Foster is often known for writing fluffy, simple juvies, this book is much more complex than most of his stuff. As usual, his florid prose either works for you, like it does for me, or it doesn't. If you're a fan of ADF, you must read this book. If you're not, this book might change your mind.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A exceptional sci-fi tale!, September 14, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Dark Star (Mass Market Paperback)

Dark Star was one of the first sci-fi books that I read, almost twenty years ago and my recollections of this title are very positive. Indeed, Alan Dean Foster has created a inquisitive, strange, thoughtful tale of loneliness, friendship and hopelesness among the distant stars. In fact, "Dark Star" is a book about the loss of hope that assailed the mankind, mainly in the 70's years. But it's not a dated book. You can read it now and certainly you'll find some great images completely acuratte for the nowdays.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars AWESOME!!, November 13, 2006

By 

charles ballew (burbank, ca United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dark Star (Mass Market Paperback)

I read every Alan Dean Foster book when I was 13-18, and this was probably my favorite one. I also loved the movie, but not as much as the book. Foster wrote a lot of novelizations. He wrote the great novelization of Star Wars that has George Lucas's name on it, and that was great too. But that was directly lifted from the screenplay with little additional material, but in Dark Star he was able to flesh out the characters and situations from the simplistic movie to create a deep and memorable story that is perfect for anyone who feels awe when looking at the stars.

One thing that always bugged me about the movie, however, is that the great ending is 'borrowed' directly from a Ray Bradbury short story called Kaleidoscope. It's a great short story, and is so much like the end of the movie, I was suprised that he wasn't credited. Ah well. If you're going to steal, steal from the best I guess.

The story definitely has that Ray Bradbury melancholic tone that made his so great. This is perhaps why this book feels so much deeper and impressive than other books by Foster, which are more optimistic in tone.

If you are a fan of Alan Dean Foster or the movie this book is a MUST READ!!

cb