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The Damned #1-3
The Damned Trilogy: A Call to Arms, The False Mirror, and The Spoils of War
Humans are caught up in an alien war in this epic from the #1 New York Times –bestselling author of Star The Force Awakens and Star Trek Into Darkness . For millennia, the Weave, an alliance of species, have fought to resist the telepathic Amplitur, who strive to unite all self-aware life-forms in their great "Purpose." The Weave is slowly losing ground, but for both sides, warfare focuses more on outthinking and outmaneuvering your foe than destruction. In fact, most regard violence as hideously barbaric, and even the thought of harming another sentient being is beyond imagining. Then they come to Earth . . . A Call to Arms
When one of its scout ships lands on Earth, the Weave quickly realizes that humanity's almost innate ability to wreak havoc and death may hold the key to turning the tide in their fight. Unfortunately for all, the Amplitur have the same idea—and mankind is caught in the middle. The False Mirror
When the Amplitur unleash an elite cadre of fighters, it soon becomes clear that they have subjected their human prisoners to horrific genetic manipulation. But if the Weave attempts to undo the effects, they may change the former warriors into something far, far worse. The Spoils of War
With mankind's help, the Weave is finally on the verge of victory against the Amplitur. Until an alien scholar uncovers a terrifying Earthlings might not even be capable of being civilized—and a shadowy group of powerful humans is already poised to unleash war across the entire galaxy.
When one of its scout ships lands on Earth, the Weave quickly realizes that humanity's almost innate ability to wreak havoc and death may hold the key to turning the tide in their fight. Unfortunately for all, the Amplitur have the same idea—and mankind is caught in the middle. The False Mirror
When the Amplitur unleash an elite cadre of fighters, it soon becomes clear that they have subjected their human prisoners to horrific genetic manipulation. But if the Weave attempts to undo the effects, they may change the former warriors into something far, far worse. The Spoils of War
With mankind's help, the Weave is finally on the verge of victory against the Amplitur. Until an alien scholar uncovers a terrifying Earthlings might not even be capable of being civilized—and a shadowy group of powerful humans is already poised to unleash war across the entire galaxy.
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First published May 30, 2017
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About the author
Alan Dean Foster
499 books2,038 followersBestselling 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 35 reviews
November 3, 2020
Given that this is the collection of the trilogy, the fact that this spans years and light-years is not surprising. What startled me was the epic proportions of many intriguing topics. Each book covers a phase of the galactic war, and presents new and unusual challenges.
I started reading this author's early books (Flinx and Co) soon after they were released. Most were constrained to a small group of characters on one or two planets. This saga has 10+ species interacting across many planets. There are some head-hopping and other perspective issues which threw me off a bit, but the differing alien philosophies were well developed. Several plot points could be extrapolated to present-day Earth. Lots of war and politics, but also some courage and wisdom shared.
The writing is solid, and the language is not confusing. If you enjoy stories with broad scope and relatable characters, you should enjoy this.
I started reading this author's early books (Flinx and Co) soon after they were released. Most were constrained to a small group of characters on one or two planets. This saga has 10+ species interacting across many planets. There are some head-hopping and other perspective issues which threw me off a bit, but the differing alien philosophies were well developed. Several plot points could be extrapolated to present-day Earth. Lots of war and politics, but also some courage and wisdom shared.
The writing is solid, and the language is not confusing. If you enjoy stories with broad scope and relatable characters, you should enjoy this.
June 25, 2017
I first read this trilogy years ago, probably when it was just published or shortly thereafter. I remembered it ever since because this is the universe where all civilized intelligent species are inherently peaceful, except for humans, because the others all evolved on planets with a single large landmass, but earth has many, and lots of languages, so we couldn't communicate with each other. Or something like that. But in this universe, humans are not only able to fight, they're good at it, and the aliens who discover them are in a war with these creatures who are sort of like kindly Borg. They want to assimilate everyone into their purpose. The trilogy follows the 200 or so year progress of the war, most often through alien characters. It's interesting, but what stuck with me through the decades since I first read it was that humans are so warlike and everyone else is so bad at fighting. It's kind of about how to maintain humanity's essential nature while rubbing off some of the harsh edges, and kind of about how evil purposes can be carried out through non-violent means. And kind of about none of the above. It was good in an adventure- intellectual exercise- exploration of alien cultures kind of way. I enjoyed it.
December 7, 2018
Alan Dean Foster's "The Damned Trilogy: A Call to Arms, The False Mirror, and The Spoils of War" is a 2017 omnibus containing three of his early 1990s novels (1991, 1992, and 1993, respectively). I've only finished the first of the three novels ("A Call to Arms") and can continue no more. Oh, the concept is interesting. But, essentially, the book consists of Foster belaboring the same couple of points over and over again with character introspection and conversation. I'd say that takes up about 90 percent of the book. Worse, the position the main Earth character belabors is ridiculously simple-minded and self-centered. And finally, even though, as I've said, the concept is interesting, just about everything in the book is painfully obvious. So, I'm not reading the remaining two novels and I'm rating the whole thing at a Pretty Bad 2 stars out of 5.
August 9, 2019
This set reminded me that sometimes Amazon reduces the price of kindle books for a reason--they're not very good or popular. My previous reading history with Alan Dean Foster was with his Icerigger trilogy, which I enjoyed. The same is not the case with this group. I found A Call to Arms to be annoying and pretentious, and the main character to be unlikable. The False Mirror was the best of the bunch, but at that was uneven. The Spoils of War was overly long and not that interesting. Overall, this set was not worth the price of admission.
May 14, 2021
What if humankind are the deadliest race in the galaxy?
This series is a perfect example of the "Humanity! F*** yeah!" subgenre of science fiction. Aliens make first contact with one of the most unassuming and docile examples of our race and are in abject terror of how violent and fierce he is. So despite his objections, they recruit humanity to fight for their coalition against the Purpose, an enemy coalition seeking to assimilate all sentient life into itself.
In the second book, a human colonized world is captured and its residents experimented to enable the Purpose to counter the humans.
In the final book, a scholar from an allied alien species who are the polar opposite of humanity seeks to better understand humans and their interactions with their allies.
I found this well-written but occasionally wordy. I had to consult dictionaries much more frequently while reading this than while reading anything else. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but it does tend to disrupt my comprehension of the story. Also, the need for other species to have "safe spaces" from humans gets a little annoying after a while.
This series is a perfect example of the "Humanity! F*** yeah!" subgenre of science fiction. Aliens make first contact with one of the most unassuming and docile examples of our race and are in abject terror of how violent and fierce he is. So despite his objections, they recruit humanity to fight for their coalition against the Purpose, an enemy coalition seeking to assimilate all sentient life into itself.
In the second book, a human colonized world is captured and its residents experimented to enable the Purpose to counter the humans.
In the final book, a scholar from an allied alien species who are the polar opposite of humanity seeks to better understand humans and their interactions with their allies.
I found this well-written but occasionally wordy. I had to consult dictionaries much more frequently while reading this than while reading anything else. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but it does tend to disrupt my comprehension of the story. Also, the need for other species to have "safe spaces" from humans gets a little annoying after a while.
February 18, 2019
Great war story
As do all great war stories is explored the humanity and civility of the characters and civilization involved. It is a fascinating story, very well written, interesting and fully realized characters. While definitely not for short attention spanned video game crowd who can't deal with any thing but mindless non-stop action. The War against the Amplitur defines the lives of dozens of races and the development of humans. Ranges from hard core action to exploration of why humans fight. All with a great multi generational story. It offers interesting insight into our nature.
As do all great war stories is explored the humanity and civility of the characters and civilization involved. It is a fascinating story, very well written, interesting and fully realized characters. While definitely not for short attention spanned video game crowd who can't deal with any thing but mindless non-stop action. The War against the Amplitur defines the lives of dozens of races and the development of humans. Ranges from hard core action to exploration of why humans fight. All with a great multi generational story. It offers interesting insight into our nature.
July 6, 2023
Interesting premise: the galaxy is at war but every species involved has a pathological aversion to combat...until Humans arrive on the scene. However, this series would have much better as short stories. The books are full of long passages which tediously circle around the same ideas, often aliens remarking over and over on how unique the humans are. It doesn't make the aliens seem more alien, it just makes them seem dimwitted.
The final book was my favorite because it goes beyond the war a bit and into interspecies intrigues and hidden agendas. Which was was much more interesting than the halfhearted attempts at philosophy. Still doesn't quite earn the word count, though.
The final book was my favorite because it goes beyond the war a bit and into interspecies intrigues and hidden agendas. Which was was much more interesting than the halfhearted attempts at philosophy. Still doesn't quite earn the word count, though.
August 24, 2025
Prior to starting The Damned Trilogy, the only Foster work I had read was "Midworld" which I enjoyed immensely. So, I thought, why not read his three book space opera?
It bothered me that Foster failed to clearly delineate the "Purpose". I don't know if this is a planned strategy or an omission. If he wants the reader to infer its meaning/definition, I think that weakens the book at the outset since it is the entire driving force of the plot of the books. On its surface the Purpose as presented by Foster seems to be the equivalent to unquestioning "holy war" upon the unenlightened (ie. convert or die). In which case the entire trilogy is merely a SF/galactic reenactment of the Crusades as stated in this paragraph from very early in book one:
"How could they stand against the peoples, who fought from a position of moral as well as physical and intellectual strength? Racial or planetary sovereignty counted for nothing when ranged against the Purpose. Furthermore, the Amplitur* possessed the patience of the ages, and the confidence that victory was inevitable."
*For this review, you could easily substitute "true believers" for "Amplitur" and it would not change the meaning or intent of the paragraph.
It bothered me that Foster failed to clearly delineate the "Purpose". I don't know if this is a planned strategy or an omission. If he wants the reader to infer its meaning/definition, I think that weakens the book at the outset since it is the entire driving force of the plot of the books. On its surface the Purpose as presented by Foster seems to be the equivalent to unquestioning "holy war" upon the unenlightened (ie. convert or die). In which case the entire trilogy is merely a SF/galactic reenactment of the Crusades as stated in this paragraph from very early in book one:
"How could they stand against the peoples, who fought from a position of moral as well as physical and intellectual strength? Racial or planetary sovereignty counted for nothing when ranged against the Purpose. Furthermore, the Amplitur* possessed the patience of the ages, and the confidence that victory was inevitable."
*For this review, you could easily substitute "true believers" for "Amplitur" and it would not change the meaning or intent of the paragraph.
September 22, 2022
Long: three books combined which comprise one 1100 page story.
Very well done with world-building. Some head hopping issues as someone else mentioned but maybe just an omniscient viewpoint. A little confusing as to who said what. Lots of long philosophical discussions that, in my opinion could’ve been shorter.
But all in all, a good page turner which brings up some good, thought-provoking issues.
Very well done with world-building. Some head hopping issues as someone else mentioned but maybe just an omniscient viewpoint. A little confusing as to who said what. Lots of long philosophical discussions that, in my opinion could’ve been shorter.
But all in all, a good page turner which brings up some good, thought-provoking issues.
March 15, 2020
A strong premise
I loved the idea behind this trilogy but not always the execution. I wish there had been more action. Each story was better than its predecessor. The alien characters and species were intriguing. The Turlogs, Wais, and Lepers had especially important parts. I'd love to see this as an anime.
I loved the idea behind this trilogy but not always the execution. I wish there had been more action. Each story was better than its predecessor. The alien characters and species were intriguing. The Turlogs, Wais, and Lepers had especially important parts. I'd love to see this as an anime.
October 18, 2023
Great
This is a replacement for a paperback series I've had in my library for decades. It is as good today as it was the first time I read it, and I terribly terribly miss how the wonder can sometimes seep around even the most discouraging things. You will enjoy reading it, and if you have any hope for the future then this will reward you.0
This is a replacement for a paperback series I've had in my library for decades. It is as good today as it was the first time I read it, and I terribly terribly miss how the wonder can sometimes seep around even the most discouraging things. You will enjoy reading it, and if you have any hope for the future then this will reward you.0
December 11, 2017
Outstanding alien race fiction l
A very intriguing treatment of human interface with multiple species and how humanity can become more peaceful. The treatment of the strengths and weaknesses of various species is superb and there are many surprising twists.
A very intriguing treatment of human interface with multiple species and how humanity can become more peaceful. The treatment of the strengths and weaknesses of various species is superb and there are many surprising twists.
January 8, 2018
Great story
I loved it - excellent, interesting concept, very good writing, highly recommended. If you have ever seen posts about "humans are space orcs" and wanted more than this is a great series to read.
I loved it - excellent, interesting concept, very good writing, highly recommended. If you have ever seen posts about "humans are space orcs" and wanted more than this is a great series to read.
November 30, 2019
Each time I was sure about where things were headed , the plot shifted a bit. Fun storytelling.
Thought provoking and fun to read. These three books kept me guessing. Great characters and interesting ideas. I recommend it.
Thought provoking and fun to read. These three books kept me guessing. Great characters and interesting ideas. I recommend it.
January 1, 2020
I felt like it was slow. The first book was all over the place at first. The author beat the dead horse of humanity being too violent. It felt like a slog for so long. There were some really interesting thoughts in it, though.
September 11, 2024
Action packed, complex plots, interesting aliens
Riveting, very strong alien character development with suspense. Hard to put down. I think this trilogy is Alan Dean Foster’s best work along with his Flinx series.
Riveting, very strong alien character development with suspense. Hard to put down. I think this trilogy is Alan Dean Foster’s best work along with his Flinx series.
September 13, 2025
A new book by a known Author
This series is a good read, actually getting better as you read more. Alan Dean Foster. I remember reading books by him decades ago. His books are always a good read.
This series is a good read, actually getting better as you read more. Alan Dean Foster. I remember reading books by him decades ago. His books are always a good read.
June 29, 2018
Read the first one, started the second, didn't want to go on. Not my kind of SF.
November 3, 2018
Great Book
Loved the books, they were hard to put down, lost some sleep until I read them all. I am on to another ADF book
Loved the books, they were hard to put down, lost some sleep until I read them all. I am on to another ADF book
October 15, 2019
Another new world and the problem of survival. Interesting characters and situations.
September 23, 2020
I know that this series doesn't get much love compared to other ADF work but this is my favorite. This would be an amazing animated series/movie. Love Will Dulac as the reluctant hero.
April 17, 2021
Unusual, peculiar, a bit odd at times, but well written and pleasant to read. It managed to positively surprise me while I didn't expect much from it at first.
Read
January 22, 2022Goodread
Good book had some twist and surprises I would recommend it not 5 stars but 4
4 more words required
Good book had some twist and surprises I would recommend it not 5 stars but 4
4 more words required
February 19, 2022
A great and unique sci-fi novel!
Love every minute of it...it was a little weird at first but it slowly grew on me. Worth checking out!
Love every minute of it...it was a little weird at first but it slowly grew on me. Worth checking out!
May 6, 2022
HFY with a twist.
The series paints a different picture of humanity than is normal, but still satisfying. There were enough twists to be entertaining.
The series paints a different picture of humanity than is normal, but still satisfying. There were enough twists to be entertaining.
December 1, 2022
Trilogy. Pretty good, interesting stories, 3 separate novels each with an ending, but in the same universe.
April 3, 2023
Spot on
Rip roaring action and mentally stimulating as always with this author. Do love the diversity of his characters and the worlds he creates for them. Thanks.
Rip roaring action and mentally stimulating as always with this author. Do love the diversity of his characters and the worlds he creates for them. Thanks.
July 27, 2023
An unusual book that really made me think about humans and our evolution.
Confused me and enlightened me. And made me wonder where we are going to end up.
Confused me and enlightened me. And made me wonder where we are going to end up.
May 8, 2024
Book 1 was good.....Book 3 was great.
Book 2 not so
Book 2 not so
January 9, 2026
Fascinating
At first I got bored but
then wow! I would like to see a movie of this. Totally fascinating. Excellent read. Thank you.
At first I got bored but
then wow! I would like to see a movie of this. Totally fascinating. Excellent read. Thank you.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 35 reviews