Exceptions to Reality

by Alan Dean Foster

As is evident in his many thrilling novels, Alan Dean Foster is a master at creating other worlds in an array of genres. Now he turns his imagination to the short story in these spectacular tales of outer space, cyberspace, ancient gods, modern demons, and mortal horror, including

Panhandler A predatory lawyer encounters a fabled boyhood hero and falls victim to the less innocent intrigues of eternal youth.

Growth Not even his minidrag Pip can save Flinx from the overly intimate advances of an intruder who goes entirely too far.

Basted A lowly, hen-pecked Egyptian discovers that the Pharaoh’s tomb holds exactly what he needs for a whole new life.

The Killing of Bad Bull A man with a knack for getting gambling’s one-armed bandits to give it up finds himself at the top–of several hit lists.

At Sea A poor Scandinavian captain forced into running drugs is shown a way out of his desperate straits with the help of five beautiful blondes who are simply out-of-this-world.

Open Exceptions to Reality to find these amazing stories and nine other irresistibly unearthly tales!

Genres: Science Fiction, Short Stories, Fantasy, Fiction, Anthologies

272 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 2008

About the author

Bestselling science fiction writer Alan Dean Foster was born in New York City in 1946, but raised mainly in California. He received a B.A. in Political Science from UCLA in 1968, and a M.F.A. in 1969. Foster lives in Arizona with his wife, but he enjoys traveling because it gives him opportunities to meet new people and explore new places and cultures. This interest is carried over to his writing, but with a twist: the new places encountered in his books are likely to be on another planet, and the people may belong to an alien race.

Foster began his career as an author when a letter he sent to Arkham Collection was purchased by the editor and published in the magazine in 1968. His first novel, The Tar-Aiym Krang, introduced the Humanx Commonwealth, a galactic alliance between humans and an insectlike race called Thranx. Several other novels, including the Icerigger trilogy, are also set in the world of the Commonwealth. The Tar-Aiym Krang also marked the first appearance of Flinx, a young man with paranormal abilities, who reappears in other books, including Orphan Star, For Love of Mother-Not, and Flinx in Flux.

Foster has also written The Damned series and the Spellsinger series, which includes The Hour of the Gate, The Moment of the Magician, The Paths of the Perambulator, and Son of Spellsinger, among others. Other books include novelizations of science fiction movies and television shows such as Star Trek, The Black Hole, Starman, Star Wars, and the Alien movies. Splinter of the Mind's Eye, a bestselling novel based on the Star Wars movies, received the Galaxy Award in 1979. The book Cyber Way won the Southwest Book Award for Fiction in 1990. His novel Our Lady of the Machine won him the UPC Award (Spain) in 1993. He also won the Ignotus Award (Spain) in 1994 and the Stannik Award (Russia) in 2000.

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a nice selection of Foster's short fiction that originally appeared from 1999-2005, with some horror and fantasy pieces along with the predominant science fiction. It's interesting that the majority of the stories came from Martin Greenberg's DAW anthologies rather than from the traditional genre magazines... there's even one story that first appeared on AOL. There's a very short original Pip & Flinx story, but it wasn't too substantive. Foster's short stories are always slick and smooth, rarely very memorable, but pleasant and well-crafted fun.

[Riju Ganguly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although famous for his novelisations of blockbuster movies, it would be unjust to remember the author only for such works. As evident from these stories, he can create his worlds deftly, with gentle touch, and a reasonably taut narrative, with particularly bright jewels getting produced when he laces the tales with humour, while some stories got bogged down by endless dialogues.
Preceded by an honest 'Introduction', and accompanied by story-notes, the stories in this collection, as well as my points against each of them (out of 5) are: -
1) The Muffin Migration: 3.5
2) Chauna: 4
3) At Sea: 3
4) The Killing of Bad Bull: 2.5
5) Rate of Exchange: 2.5
6) Wait-a-While: 2
7) The Short, Labored Breath of Time: 4.5 (call me romantic, but I just can't resist such stuff)
8) A Fatal Exception Has Occurred at: 4
9) Basted: 3.5
10) Serenade: 5 (simply awesome)
11) Redundancy: 2.5
12) Panhandler: 2
13) The Last Akialoa: 2
14) Growth: 2

Overall rating 3.07, so I would stop at 3.
Your call.

[Frank R. · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was done after reading “Panhandler,” that the author himself notes—as there are authors’ notes before each story, most of which seem condescending and overly-explanatory—is “by the way, a triple pun…” (225).

You know why it’s a “triple pun?” Because it’s about Peter Pan prostituting and knocking out a potential John with his crew as they fight to survive during a disagreement with Tinkerbell…

Additionally, at least three or four other stories on this collection (of 15) are about gambling, gambling debts, or some issue with crime and gambling. Does Foster have a problem he’s not telling us about in his copious notes?

These were chores to read and I kept wondering why I hated it so much. I think Foster attempts to sound complex by piling on archaic and clunky similes and/or references in multiple dependent clauses per sentence that didn’t flow well. It makes for unenjoyable reading and I just couldn’t get into his characters or plot lines because of it.

Here are a few examples of things I found odd (maybe you will not):

“Sandino was a big man with a squinched puss and huge arms the color of aged bratwurst” (47). Auto-correct does not like “squinched” and the bratwurst image revolted me.

“Right now his expression was slowly subsiding into his face, like a backstreet into a Florida sinkhole, swallowing his features whole. It was left to his voice, which had the consistency of toxic cheese-whip, to convey his confusion” (47-48).

“Businessmen preoccupied with affairs of the ledger long-strided between the heated hobbit-holes of favorite luncheon spots and the blandness of dead-end lives they knew no longer had any meaning” (225).

Yikes…Go ice your sore bratwurst arms, head back to your hobbit hole of meaninglessness, and avoid this one.

[Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have said it before, Foster can spin some great yarns. He creates compelling characters and thoughtful situations, all of which entertain. This short story collection includes a Pip and Flinx story, a Humanx Commonwealth story, and a Spellsinger story (a cool series I need to catch up on.) Foster is always worth reading and he has an extensive book list. Check this and his other books out.

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

The introduction penned in 2006 lamented the death of print magazines supporting the short fiction market and showing pessimism about the internet being able to fill the void they made. I wonder what he would think now? I hope I have the chance to ask him some day. “Rate of Exchange” is exactly the sort of silliness I expect from Foster with a cross-dimensional hedge currency trader running afoul of dangerous moneylenders. Extra delightful is the social archaeology that this was a story originally released as a bonus to America Online subscribers, and that kinda circles back to the “death of print magazines” lament. Now that amazon has killed online magazine distribution, magazines are being actively hunted towards extinction again. I wonder how evolution will shift to respond.

Another interesting time capsule is “Redundancy” which is a heartwarming tale to help counter the bleak and not-unfounded fear of machine learning and AI. This is what machine learning can provide, rather than devaluing creatives. The space dragon in “Chauna” was absolutely gorgeous. “Basted” is a story about cats and pharoahs and a fun stinger about what it means to be influential in this modern world. “Serenade” is a delightful addition to the Spellsinger world that any fan of that series should seek out. This reminded me that I need to re-read those books.

While reading this collection I learned that Foster has written not one but TWO Lovecraft pastiches. “A Fatal Exception Has Occurred At . . .” shows the American side of the same sort of universe as Stross’s Laundry Files. Delightful, and sent me hunting down the other story immediately. (It’s in the collection WITH FRIENDS LIKE THESE . . . for those curious like me. It is also worth seeking out for those who appreciate the slow revelation of ephemera.)

This collection comprises Foster’s early 2000’s short stories. I wish they had been organized more thematically, as some of the transitions in mood are jarring. But all-in-all a worthwhile read.

[Skycloud86 · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've not read anything by Foster before, so whether this is a good place to start or not, I can't say. Each story begins with a short introduction from the author, which I thought was a good inclusion. I noticed that Foster tends to use more complex vocabulary than is perhaps necessary, but he at least uses it correctly.

[Rob Caswell · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm reminded in reading this just how much of a master storyteller Foster is. He is consistently good and in comparison to many contemporary short works illustrates how the art of satisfactorily ending a story has become a dying art. Foster's work has an ageless quality that's rare in the SF genre.

[Rebecca Hill · Rating 4 out of 5]

A new author for me, in a genre I love dearly. A diverse selection of short stories, and I mean short, which was nice change to most compilations like this. Most of the stories were fabulous; I laughed out loud, cringed and was surprised a few times with the various stories in the book. Some still turn up in my dreams from time to time, which doesn't happen often.there is definitely an interest with getting lost, stranded or alienated for this author, but the settings, characters and overall stories were great. Only two were a little lack luster, but still worth the few pages it took to read. A good quick read for work, you can actually finish a whole story during lunch and not leave yourself hanging.and still get the separation between stories to enjoy each independently.

[Kylie · Rating 3 out of 5]

As this book has been in my "currently reading" books for literally years, I decided to just pull it off the shelf already. I have not read every story in the book, and I probably wont get back to it for years. I read the stories that interested me, and I read a bunch that I thought would interest me but bored me to tears. The stories are a bit too fluffy for me. They have lots of fantasy elements that hold no interest for me at all. I like Foster for his science fiction. I am not a fantasy fan.

I only really enjoyed one story that I recall, and I probably only enjoyed it because I am a Foster fan. I would recommend this for fans only. I don't think the stories are strong enough for a non-fan to be satisfied.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of short stories by Alan Dean Foster rather than a novel in its own right, this is, perhaps perforce, a bit hit and miss in the quality contained therein.

Each story features a short introduction by the author, explaining how the idea for that particular one came about (including one rather controversial story, and one that - to my mind - doesn't really belong in a sci-fi/fantasy collection). None are really outstanding, but neither are any dire, even if that rather controversial one included is disturbing reading.

[wittierninja · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a collection of short stories by the author. It's well written and the stories are wonderful. The author has an introduction in which he mourns the dying art of the short story and is fighting to bring back its popularity. The stories average about twenty pages in length, are captivating, and are utterly clever.

[Randy · Rating 5 out of 5]

An eclectic collection of stories: a man who dies every night and wakes up refreshed every morning, a man who can "smell" when a slot machine is nearing payoff, even a new Pip and Flinx story.

[Chris · Rating 2 out of 5]

The stories are slight and unimpressive. It's clear Foster likes the wilderness, but not much else sticks out.

[Lynne · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some of the tales were very good, bit dated

[Norman Howe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a bad collection. The Flinx story was so short I felt cheated by the cover blurb.