The Best Alan Dean Foster Books for Every Reader

When the world is under threat of attack, its only hope is a disparate and unlikely trio. Spearheading this rescue effort is Olkeloki, an African elder with a connection to this world, and to the spirit world that this threat is emanating from. This covert invasion is being carried out by small and mischievous spirit creatures known as the shetani. 

If Olkeloki has any hope of saving the world, he must recruit a government agent, and a high-spirited young woman. If they fail, the world will never be the same. 

When a college student is transported through an interdimensional portal, anything goes. This first book in Alan Dean Foster’s eight-book Spellsinger series finds Jonathan Thomas Meriweather as an average college student. 

Once he crosses through the portal, however, he finds himself laced with magic, in a world where animals can talk. Jonathan learns to play an instrument called a duar, and manages to conjure a magical force, one that could save the world that he finds himself in, and the world that he left behind. 

No one’s family is normal, but the Deavys are especially unique. In fact, they’re considered non-Ord, or Non-Ordinary, for their magical abilities. 

Simwan and his younger sisters are far more focused on learning magic in school than they are on mathematics. Despite this, Simwan’s life isn’t going badly. However, when someone steals a bottle of Truth, a substance that the Deavy matriarch’s life depends on, the family’s life is upended. 

It’s up to them to find the Truth, and that may lead them to a very dark place. 

Asian carp, European starlings, and Burmese pythons are among the few invasive species that have had adverse effects on the ecosystem once they were brought into the United States. The Quozl are no different—but they come in peace. 

This race of extraterrestrial rabbits have a tendency to reproduce like, well...rabbits. Some have left their overpopulated home world in favor of a new home, and they find a lovely new planet that they name Shiraz. 

However, as they’ve just settled into their new home, they realize that the planet is already inhabited—and that the Shirazians are in the middle of a brutal conflict that the locals call ‘World War II.’

When the Sonderberg family depart on a road trip and kindly pick up a hitchhiker, they find themselves traveling into an alternate dimension. The hitchhiker that they picked up is actually an alien—and if the Sonderbergs have any hope of saving the world, they need to help her. 

This memoir is a recollection of the dangerous predators that Alan Dean Foster has encountered throughout the course of his travels. Over the last four decades, his adventures have taken him all over the world in search of evasive and deadly beings. 

The species that he has crossed paths with range from the smallest of insects to some of the largest mammals in the world. He discusses riding elephants across the plains of central India, and diving with great white sharks off  the coast of Australia, drawing the reader into the reality of danger in the wild.

When faced with the prospect of being colonized, the inhabitants of a rainforest planet must make a harsh decision. Midworld is home to a primitive society whose existence emphasizes the importance of living in balance with the world around them. 

However, when a human company that neither knows of nor cares about Midworld’s environment arrives, the villagers face a question: should they help these new arrivals, or fight to protect their planet? 

Born, an inhabitant of Midworld, chooses to guide Jan and Logan, two humans. Born doesn’t realize that in doing so, he puts Midworld on the path to chaos.

This trio of books follows an ordinary herder and father, Etjole Ehomba, on an honorable mission to rescue a Visioness. 

In Carnivores of Light and Darkness, Etjole begins his quest by entering the Unstable Lands, where people are swallowed up by unreality and and impossibilities. 

In Into the Thinking Kingdoms, Etjole and two new companions set out to cross the Semordria Ocean, by way of the dangerous Thinking Kingdoms. 

In A Triumph of Souls, Etjole and his have crossed the ocean and have reached their final challenge: a showdown between humble Etjole and the malevolent wizard holding the Visioness captive.

In this laugh-out-loud funny sci fi novel, all of humankind's electric gadgets suddenly gain sentience and stop performing their normal duties. The machines begin a quest in search of a nonhuman species with high intelligence. 

Their mission ends in an unlikely place: at an alien spaceship that has long been laying dormant, beneath the ground of a retirement community in upstate New York. Awakened by the machines, the spaceship is programmed to wage war against an enemy race. The only people that can stop it now are five cantankerous senior residents… and their food processor. 

Kees vaan Loo-Macklin was once at the very top of the criminal underworld. One day, he gave it all up, walking the straight-and-narrow and acting as a common member of Evenwaith. 

This interest in a normal life seems to fade fast as Loo-Macklin reaches out to dangerous and powerful adversaries, an alien race called the Nuel. While he seems to be working toward peace, no one really knows what Loo-Macklin is after, and whether he’s working in his own interests or the interests of the galaxy.

Set in the nineteenth century, this novel follows a young man that looks for fortune—and finds conflict. 

Robert Coffin leaves his wife and infant son in favor of the South Pacific port of Kororareka, an island primarily populated by the native aboriginal people. Coffin begins to build a successful career as a merchant, finds a healthy respect for the Indigenous people, and falls into the arms of an Irish woman. 

However, the sudden arrival of his wife and infant son shifts the balance of Coffin's new life. These issues are complicated by the mounting tension between the aboriginal tribes and the “pakehas”, or the white inhabitants of New Zealand.

For over a century, the Colligatarch, an artificial intelligence, has guided relations both on earth and between humans and interstellar aliens, leading earth to become a near utopia. 

Eric Abbott has always been a model citizen with a well regarded career as a design engineer, but when he sees Lisa Tambor, everything changes. Lisa is the most beautiful woman he has ever seen and he will stop at nothing to find her. Suddenly, Eric finds himself defying authority and discovering superhuman abilities he didn't know he possessed. 

But there are large interplanetary powers who have noticed Eric and see him as a formidable threat who must be eliminated.

Wizard Susname Enyndd used to be an important protector of the Gowdlands’ kingdom, but a band of goblin-warlocks cast a curse that turned Enydd to ash and drained the color from the land. 

However, Enydd's death released a spell that caused his six pets to became human and possess magical powers. The six beings must now journey into a rainbow to find the White Light which can lift the curse from the kingdom. The quest will not be an easy one, as the heroes must defeat enemy powers, learn how to use their powers, and get used to being human. 

Inspector Angel Cardenas must investigate a murder like no other on the Montezuma Strip, an urban hub of the Western hemisphere. The victim's ID doesn't match his DNA and his wife and her preteen daughter, Katla, are missing.

Cardenas uses his intuit abilities to learn that they are on the run from Katla's father, a dangerous felon. The inspector embarks on a journey that takes him from the seedy urban underworld to the lush jungle on the hunt for Katla, for he know that she holds a secret and that many dangerous people are willing to kill to get to her. 

Thousands of years ago, earth's marine mammals were rescued from near extinction and sent to Cachalot, an aquatic planet where they have been able to thrive and gain intelligence due to the lack of human interference. But when humans decide to build floating towns on the planet, everything is disrupted. Now, the humans on Cachalot are dying, killed by someone or something on the planet. A team of marine biologists travel to Cachalot and risk their lives to investigate the deaths of the human population.

Husband and wife duo Etienne and Lyra Redowl are the first humans to ever explore Tslamaina, a planet with a river valley like no other in the universe and three intelligent species living along it's banks. 

The planet's harsh conditions and a growing tension between themselves puts pressure on the geologist-anthropologist pair. They believe they are well prepared for their adventure, with a high tech hydrofoil and assistance from native inhabitants, but they could never have been prepared for the danger awaiting them on their trek to the source of the river.

Jake Pickett lives in Riverside, California, a town that has become full of toxic waste do to a corporate cover up. Pickett uses his unique powers to entertain the poor kids in the town and to communicate with his disabled niece. 

The corrupt corporation responsible for the putrid waste employs most of the town, paying them to keep their secrets from any government investigations. Pickett is not interested in taking any of the corporate money, but when the company's executives notice his unusual talents, they become extremely interested in him and the profit he could make for them.