Phylogenesis: Book One of The Founding of the Commonwealth (Founding of the Commonwealth, Bk 1) (Mass Market Paperback)

by Alan Dean Foster (Author) "No one saw the attack coming..." (more)
Key Phrases: Cheelo Montoya, Grand Council, High Thranx (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
The Humanx Commonwealth is Alan Dean Foster's signature fictional universe, the setting of, among others, his Adventures of Flinx series (which begins with For the Love of Mother Not) and the Icerigger trilogy. But how did the Commonwealth come to be? How did two seemingly dissimilar races--the gregarious, warm-blooded humans and the reserved, insectile thranx--form a union that would become so strong and prosperous as to eventually dominate our part of the galaxy?

The actual first contact between the humans and the thranx takes place in the quite exciting Nor Crystal Tears, but you don't have to have read that novel to follow what happens in Phylogenesis. In this book, which takes place soon after the first contact, the races have embarked on a program of slow, careful cultural exchange. If all goes well, the planners feel, in some decades a few tentative agreements might be reached. But they never planned on the chance meeting of a rogue thranx poet and a human thief who's hiding in the Amazon jungle. The events that surround the friendship of these two, each an outcast from his own society, will force scientists and politicians of both races to alter not only their plans but also their beliefs about human/thranx compatibility.

Foster makes excellent use of his knowledge of Latin American culture to paint a picture of a vibrant yet realistic future South America. The Amazon jungle is presented in such vivid detail it seems almost an alien world itself. Fans of the Commonwealth novels won't want to miss this crucial chapter in its history. --Brooks Peck --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly
Some centuries in the future come the earliest days of contact between humans and the insect-like thranx. Both species carefully try to keep contact in the hands of approved experts, but the thranx have slipped a covert base into the Amazon rain forest. Desvendapur, a thranx poet obsessed with finding new sources of inspiration through contact with humans, escapes from this base into the jungle. There he encounters Cheelo Montoya, a small-time gangster fleeing a mugging that turned into a murder, a man with no poetry in his soul but abundant street smarts. Their initial misunderstandings and suspicion give way to cooperation, and then to friendship after the two survive an encounter with deadly poachers. The author of more than 40 novels, Foster does a fine job with his misfit heroes and even with his minor characters (such as the reptilian AAnn). He shows his usual mastery of narrative pacing and slips in a great deal of wry wit (the sexiness of a female thranx depends on the slenderness of her ovipositors). The novel will be a treat for those who have followed Foster's tales of the Humanx Commonwealth, to which this is a kind of prelude and which began way back in 1972 with The Tar-Aiym Krang, and can also serve as a splendid introduction to both the Commonwealth and its creator.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Del Rey (July 5, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0345418611
• ISBN-13: 978-0345418616
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 4.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #630,718 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Back to his and homanx' roots, September 25, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Phylogenesis: Book One of The Founding of the Commonwealth (Founding of the Commonwealth/ Alan Dean Foster, Bk 1) (Hardcover)

Having read nearly all books of ADF, I am very glad about his return to the Homanx area, where ADF really has his most intensive moments. The story is tough, sometimes moving, even thrilling and leaves me curious for the sequels. Des and Cheelo are interesting characters, especially the always enjoying way of getting to know a thranx personality (well done, ADF !). My best moments: seeing Amazonian nature (as I have already seen live) through the eyes of Cheelo (kind of alter ego of Alan, I presume) and even more through the multiple eyes of Desvendapur. I don't want to tell too much, it's just a little bit sad, never to hear again of Cheelo & Des... Keep on, Alan !

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars ADF - Please try to remember what has gone before??, March 12, 2002

By	Patrick Erbeck-McKinnion (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

After the wonderful "Nor Crystal Tears", this book is a huge disappointment. You cannot get into the headspace of either character, neither one is agreeable to the reader, and it contradicts a lot of elements in Thranx society that "Crystal Tears" introduced.

And since **WHEN** did the Thranx become vegetarian??? In "Crystal Tears", Ryozenzuzex eats some meat his human captors/friends provide him, and his only comment was it wasn't in a "proper stew or soup". There's a few other scenes in the book where he eats meat as a normal part of thranx culture. Yet in this book, the poet character gets sick at the mere thought of eating meat, and gives the impression that the thranx are natural vegetarians. Come on!! This was just the most glaring error in a batch of them.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Founding: Book One, October 1, 2002

By	Chadwick H. Saxelid "Bookworm" (Concord, CA United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Alan Dean Foster has been knocking his varied future narratives around the Humanx (Human/Thranx) Commonwealth for decades, so it should come as no surprise that the prolific pulp writer would eventually roll up his sleeves and dig out the dark and dirty tale of just how the Commonwealth was formed...

Phylogenesis is predominantly the tale of the slightly mad and very driven Thranx poet Desvendapur, who aspires to create beautiful art that will surpass all around him. His ferocious drive to contact and glean inspiration from the recently discovered humans leads Desvendapur to commit several transgressions, including an accidental murder. What Desvendapur does not know is that his almost ruthless drive to acheive something more than what he is is mirrored by the Human Cheelo Montoya, who likewise commits a crime and accidently kills someone to further his own goals.

With a sure hand, ADF crafts two very different and yet quite similar characters that are destined to meet and, in an even more unlikely yet completely logical twist, become friends of a sort. That this unlikely and illegal meeting and befriending of two iconoclastic criminals of different species should mark an important step in a larger scheme shows that the Human and Thranx have a lot more in common than they like to think.

Several reviews of this book point out its weak story (and sometimes it does read like a travelogue), so potential readers should understand that Phylogenesis is the first part of a trilogy. Plot points and schemes are introduced but not completely resolved for they play integral parts in the remaining two chapters. Taken as a part of a much bigger whole, Phylogenesis is a satisfying opening chapter. Recommended.