Customer Reviews

Interlopers (Ace Science Fiction)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Alan Dean Foster, a prolific science fiction writer who is always on target takes on alien invasion with an entirely new twist. Just imagine if secretive, unworldly characters from another dimension were the real cause of a whole list of ills, from headaches to world wars. Just because they were hungry!

When student archeologists Cody Westcott and Kelli Alwydd discover a secret cache of Chachapoyan artifacts in an ancient Peruvian mountain site, they know that this is the discovery of a lifetime. What they don't realize is that they have also found the key to a trans-dimensional invasion of eerie creatures that feed on the anguish and pain of human beings. When they return to the States Cody begins the translation of the difficult Chachapoyan hieroglyphics

He finds a recipe for a tincture whose purpose he cannot divine. When he has the potion made up he discovers that it has permanently altered his sight so that he can see these invisible invaders. They are horrific looking and lurk in all kinds of natural objects, such as rocks, plants, even the ground itself, waiting for an opportunity to infest a human. When Cody tries to stop several attacks he initiates a personal war with the alien Interlopers that he cannot hope to win. Not only must Cody avoid contact with any infected material, he must hide from victims of the Interlopers who fall under their control.

Unable to stop Cody, the Interlopers attack Kelli, now his wife. Cody finds her unconscious, struggling for her life in a hospital. He must start a desperate search for help if he is to have any hope of saving Kelli. That help comes from unexpected sources, and Cody finds that he must help save the world if he wants to save Kelli's life and sanity.

"Interlopers" is written in the same style as many of Foster's long list of successful science adventure tales, from "Glory Lane" to "Jed the Dead." His style is light and entertaining, and is easily accessible to all age groups. He has a host of interesting characters and mixes well researched facts with creative interpretations. Not only do I like "Interlopers" as a great read, I appreciate its positive belief in human nature. Something that is often lacking in today's fiction.

Ever wonder why bad things happen to good people? Why do war, famine, pestilence, and other calamities occur? Blame it on the INTERLOPERS, parasitic malignant beings who exist in nature's products like wood and rock. They have been around humanity forever while feeding off the misery of mankind. They inhabit humans until their host dies. The Interlopers are not of this world, residing in a parallel dimension.

Dr. Cody Westcott does not know they exist until he partakes of a dig in an isolated part of Peru. One of his helpers is fellow archeologist Kelli who he falls in love with and marries. Together they accept a teaching job in Arizona where Cody deciphers a formula on a frieze he brought back from the Peruvian dig. He makes it, drinks it, and now can see the Interlopers, who warn him not to interfere or else. He ignores them and they attack his wife sending her into a coma.

Alan Dean Foster, author extraordinaire, gives a unique reason for the misery and suffering that exists in the world today. He makes the malignant creatures seem real. The story line is fast-paced, exciting, and contains a unique premise that absolves humanity from evil. The author uses his imagination to provide a magnificent urban science fiction thriller that will stun the reader.

Harriet Klausner

Very clever to take a novel that needed either a whole cast of people to narrate or one outstanding actor. Ben Browder proves himself to be able to leap tall metaphors in a single bound. He takes you around the world and makes you feel like you are going through these incredible experiences with the characters. Ben leaves you wanting to hear and see more of this extraordinary world that Alan Dean Foster has created. By all means enjoy this in audio. Hope some clever producer picks up both book and actor and gives us a something truly wonderful to watch on the big screen.

Alan Dean Foster gives explains why misery and suffering exists. It is the fault of the Interlopers, beings from another dimension who exist by feeding off misery and evil itself. The main character drinks a solution that allows him to see these creatures, and the story takes off. The story line is fast-paced and will keep you turning page after page. I would classify this as a Sci-Fi/Horror.

Ben Browder is an outstanding in the way he makes this book come alive. His acting combined with Alan Dean Foster's story craft make an unbeatable combination. I won't give away as much as I've seen in other reviews of the story but I will say the story spans 3 continents, with places as far away as you can get on planet earth...and beyond. With all of that it doesn't lose the very human story that is at the heart of the why the protagonist is willing to give up everything to protect the one he loves. Plus there are the nifty audio and visual excursions that Ben Browder delivers. Not every boy from Tennessee can do a convincing Aboriginal accent !!

Synopsis: An archaeologist discovers a recipe for a drink that allows him to see creatures (Interlopers) from another dimension that feed on human misery. They are everywhere and people get infected by touching some natural substance that has an Interloper in it. Since they feed on misery, they try to make people feel as bad as possible. Thus they are the root of all human misery and evil. The main character sets out on a quest to find a cure for those who are infected.

This book isn't too bad. It isn't the kind of book I would read again in the future but it was somewhat interesting. Some things in the book just don't add up, so you have to suspend belief sometimes (like when you're watching most movies). For instance, if these Interlopers are everywhere then why isn't everyone infected from the time they are babies? The story kind of reminds me of something Stephen King would think up except it doesn't take place in a small town in Maine. It seems more like horror than sci-fi. The writing is pretty good except I frequently found myself scanning over pages looking for substance amongst the fluff. On a good note, the book wasn't predictable. Most of the time I couldn't tell where the story would go next.

I give it three stars because IMHO I think it's average (which isn't to say it's bad).

This is your basic fun sci-fi book about alien invaders on Earth with an archeological twist. In order to explore an idea of a mysterious and omnipresent extra-terrestrial presence, Fosters uses an Indianna Jones aproach in the beginning to set the stage for the main character to access an alternative and invisible, "that explains it", reality. This strange unseen world is the best part of the book. The concept is quite unique and makes for a mildly psychadelic read.

The book is outstanding. The author brings the subject matter to life and takes the reader on a fantastic trip. It needs to be a movie because it would be a box office hit for sure. I would love to read a sequel because I think Mr. Foster could go even further with this idea.

Interlopers is to date the worst Alan Dean Foster novel I've read. As he is a consistently good author, that puts it in the middle of the road as far as pulp fiction goes, neither time-wastingly bad nor anything to write home about. An author needs to put out books to pay the bills and keep the family fed, and I received the strong impression that Interlopers was penned to keep food on the table rather than a labor of love. While it has an interesting premise, the 'tentacly boogeymen infest humans and spread evil' heart of the story, it falls apart in the execution.

The story kicks off with a terribly improbable opening, involving the drinking of a concoction full of poisons on the say-so of an ancient tablet. It then follows up with ample deus ex machinae when characters are introduced who are unflappable, never mistaken, and always capable. Any tension that existed before the appearance of these characters immediately vaporizes; a giant polka-dotted cyclops monster that shoots lightning bolts from its eye could appear in the middle of the street, and doubtless they would calmly and cooly dispatch it. At the same time the antagonists, who started off with a great, creepy sort of unified front against the main character, stop being either creepy or clever, and just sort of sit back and wait to be defeated.

Add to that a few logical questions (ala 'If these things exist in a significant percent of the rocks and wood and other plants of the world, why isn't everyone full of them all the time?') and you wind up with a novel that, while very promising, needed a lot more finishing to live up to its concept.

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Archaeologist-in-training Coshocton Westcott is helping to excavate
Apachetarimac, a pre-Inca site high in the Peruvian Andes. He
discovers a mysterious sealed cave, full of spectacular Chachapoyan
carvings and pictographs, and meets his future wife, beautiful fellow
student Kelli Alwydd.

Cory and Kelli finish their Ph.D's, and both win appointments to the
faculty of ASU in Tempe, Arizona. Cory deciphers the recipe for a

Chachapoyan shamanistic potion. With the help of an ASU chemist,
he brews the stuff and drinks it. Nothing much happens -- he gets
terrible stomach-cramps -- until he passes the Chemistry building and
sees a raging fire in his colleague's lab -- and he starts seeing weird
creatures, with teeth & tentacles, in every tree and rock in Tempe.
*Hungry* creatures.... that no one else can see!

And, as he finds out, the invisible monsters --the Interlopers -- can
burrow *inside* a person, to feed on their sorrow, pain, anger,
discontent -- and control the victim to produce maximum food-
value. Or to eliminate a threat -- as Cory discovers when he's visited
by Uthu, a possessed Asian, with a 'friendly' warning to stop his
research -- or else.

Possession by invisible aliens, who force the hag-ridden to do horrible
things, was a common SF theme in the paranoid 1940's and 50's --
and is still a popular explanation for all the troubles in the world:
"the devil made me do it." Interlopers reminds me most of an old
Jack Vance novel, Nopalgarth (aka The Brains of Earth -- which is
worth looking for if you like this sort of thing). And, of course, the
fear of a 'demon-haunted world' dates back to the flickering
campfires of prehistory....

Interlopers is competent commercial fiction, and I enjoyed reading it.
I particularly liked the explanation for all those horrible sitcoms: the
Interlopers *hate* a good belly-laugh (it gives them indigestion), so
they've heavily infiltrated TV and Hollywood, to kill off all the good
humor shows. And the globe-trotting scenes are nicely done -- the
author is a noted traveller. But the book would have benefitted (sigh)
from a more diligent editor, who might have blue-pencilled stuff like
(in sketching a senior archaeologist) "beneath his shirt and shorts,
small, corded muscles exploded like caramel popcorn." Or, describing
a tropical town, "aspects of the old South Seas clung to it like lost
adjectives from a novel by Conrad." Sheesh.

The bottom line: Interlopers is a "B" book, decent airplane reading --
but Foster's done better.

review copyright 2001 by Peter D. Tillman
http://www.sfsite.com/08b/lo110.htm