Alan Dean Foster (born November 18, 1946) is an American writer of

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction that involves supernatural or Magic (supernatural), magical elements, often including Fictional universe, imaginary places and Legendary creature, creatures. The genre's roots lie in oral traditions, ...

and

science fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...

. He has written several

book series A book series is a sequence of books having certain characteristics in common that are formally identified together as a group. Book series can be organized in different ways, such as written by the same author, or marketed as a group by their publ ...

, more than 20 standalone novels, and many

novelization A novelization (or novelisation) is a derivative novel that adapts the story of a work created for another medium, such as a film, TV series, stage play, comic book, or video game. Film novelizations were particularly popular before the advent ...

s of film scripts.

Career

''Star Wars''

Foster was the

ghostwriter A ghostwriter is a person hired to write literary or journalistic works, speeches, or other texts that are credited to another person as the author. Celebrities, executives, participants in timely news stories, and political leaders often h ...

of the original novelization of ''Star Wars'', which was credited solely to

George Lucas George Walton Lucas Jr. (born May 14, 1944) is an American filmmaker and philanthropist. He created the ''Star Wars'' and ''Indiana Jones'' franchises and founded Lucasfilm, LucasArts, Industrial Light & Magic and THX. He served as chairman ...

. When asked if it was difficult for him to see Lucas get all the credit for ''Star Wars'', Foster said, "Not at all. It was George's story idea. I was merely expanding upon it. Not having my name on the cover didn't bother me in the least. It would be akin to a contractor demanding to have his name on a

Frank Lloyd Wright Frank Lloyd Wright Sr. (June 8, 1867 – April 9, 1959) was an American architect, designer, writer, and educator. He designed List of Frank Lloyd Wright works, more than 1,000 structures over a creative period of 70 years. Wright played a key ...

house." Foster also wrote the follow-up novel '' Splinter of the Mind's Eye'' (1978), written with the intention of being adapted as a low-budget sequel to ''

Star Wars ''Star Wars'' is an American epic film, epic space opera media franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the Star Wars (film), eponymous 1977 film and Cultural impact of Star Wars, quickly became a worldwide popular culture, pop cu ...

'' if the film was unsuccessful. However, ''Star Wars'' was a blockbusting success, and '' The Empire Strikes Back'' (1980) would be developed instead. Foster's story relied heavily on abandoned concepts that appeared in Lucas's early treatments for the first film. Foster returned to the franchise for the prequel-era novel '' The Approaching Storm'' (2002), and also wrote the novelization of the first sequel trilogy film, '' The Force Awakens'' (2015).

''Alien''

Foster has written novelizations of several films in the ''Alien'' franchise, beginning with the first film. He was not allowed to view H.R. Giger's design for the titular creature, leading to the use of vague descriptions such as "something man-shaped but definitely not a man". This adaptation has been noted as a "classic" of novelizations that is "almost as timeless as the movie". It was later collected in omnibus form with Foster's novelizations of ''Aliens'' and ''

Alien 3 ''Alien 3'' (stylized as ''ALIEN3'') is a 1992 American science fiction horror film directed by David Fincher and written by David Giler, Walter Hill, and Larry Ferguson, from a story by Vincent Ward. Starring Sigourney Weaver reprising her ...

''. During the writing of the latter, he attempted to avoid killing off two characters as in the screenplay but was overruled by the film's producers. This led to him turning down the novelization of the following film, '' Alien: Resurrection'', although Foster later returned to the series to novelize '' Alien: Covenant'' and write a further spin-off, ''Alien: Covenant – Origins''.

''Star Trek''

Foster wrote 10 books based on episodes of the animated ''Star Trek'', the first six books each consisting of three linked novella-length episode adaptations, and the last four being expanded adaptations of single episodes that segued into an original story. In the mid-seventies, he wrote original ''Star Trek'' stories for the Peter Pan-label ''Star Trek'' audio story records. He has the

story credit The Writers Guild of America (WGA) credit system for motion pictures and television programs covers all works under the jurisdiction of the Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE) and the Writers Guild of America, West (WGAW). The WGA, originally ...

for '' Star Trek: The Motion Picture'', as he wrote a treatment based on a two-page outline by Gene Roddenberry. He later wrote the novelization of the 2009 film ''

Star Trek ''Star Trek'' is an American science fiction media franchise created by Gene Roddenberry, which began with the Star Trek: The Original Series, series of the same name and became a worldwide Popular culture, pop-culture Cultural influence of ...

'', his first ''Star Trek'' novel in over 30 years, and for ''Star Trek''s sequel, '' Star Trek Into Darkness''.

Dispute with Disney

In 2020, Foster, together with the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA), alleged that

The Walt Disney Company The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was founded on October 16 ...

, which acquired rights to his ''Star Wars'' and '' Alien'' novels via their acquisitions of Lucasfilm and

20th Century Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc., formerly 20th Century Fox, is an American film studio, film production and Film distributor, distribution company owned by the Walt Disney Studios (division), Walt Disney Studios, the film studios division of the ...

, had not paid him

royalties A royalty payment is a payment made by one party to another that owns a particular asset, for the right to ongoing use of that asset. Royalties are typically agreed upon as a percentage of gross or net revenues derived from the use of an asset or ...

for

e-book An ebook (short for electronic book), also spelled as e-book or eBook, is a book publication made available in electronic form, consisting of text, images, or both, readable on the flat-panel display of computers or other electronic devices. Al ...

sales of his books. The issue was resolved in May 2021, when Disney arranged to pay Foster and his fellow ''Star Wars'' novelization authors James Kahn and Donald F. Glut their royalties.

Awards

Foster won the 2008 Grand Master award from the International Association of Media Tie-In Writers.

Bibliography

Humanx Commonwealth Universe

See the Humanx Commonwealth page.

The Damned Trilogy

# ''A Call to Arms'' (1991) # ''The False Mirror'' (1992) # ''The Spoils of War'' (1993)

Dinotopia Universe

* ''Dinotopia Lost'' (1996) * ''The Hand of Dinotopia'' (1997)

Journeys of the Catechist

# ''Carnivores of Light and Darkness'' (1998) # ''Into the Thinking Kingdoms'' (1999) # ''A Triumph of Souls'' (2000)

Marexx

# ''Builder'' (unpublished)

Spellsinger series

# '' Spellsinger'' (1983) # ''The Hour of the Gate'' (1984) # ''The Day of the Dissonance'' (1984) # ''The Moment of the Magician'' (1984) # ''The Paths of the Perambulator'' (1985) # ''The Time of the Transference'' (1986) # ''Son of Spellsinger'' (1993) # ''Chorus Skating'' (1994) "Serenade" (2004), a novelette set immediately after ''The Time of the Transference'', was first published in the anthology ''Masters of Fantasy'' and was later reprinted in Foster's short story collection ''Exceptions to Reality''.

The Taken trilogy

# ''Lost and Found'' (2004) # ''The Light-Years Beneath My Feet'' (2005) # ''The Candle of Distant Earth'' (2005)

The Tipping Point trilogy

* ''The Human Blend'' (2010) * ''Body, Inc.'' (2012) * ''The Sum of Her Parts'' (2012)

''Montezuma Strip''

* ''Montezuma Strip'' (1995) * '' The Mocking Program'' (2002)

Standalone novels

* '' The Man Who Used the Universe'' (1983) * ''The I Inside'' (1984) * ''Slipt'' (1984) * '' Into the Out Of'' (1986) * ''Glory Lane'' (1987) * ''Maori'' (1988) * ''To the Vanishing Point'' (1988) * ''Quozl'' (1989) * ''Cyber Way'' (1990) * ''Cat-a-lyst'' (1991) * ''Codgerspace'' (1992) * ''Greenthieves'' (1994) * ''Design for Great-Day'' (1995) , with

Eric Frank Russell Eric Frank Russell (January 6, 1905 – February 28, 1978) was a British people, British writer best known for his science fiction novels and short stories. Much of his work was first published in the United States, in John W. Campbell's ''Asto ...

) * ''Life Form'' (1995) * '' Voyage of the Basset'' (written and Illustrated by James C. Christensen with Foster and Renwick St. James) (1996) * ''Jed the Dead'' (1997) * ''Parallelities'' (1998) * ''Primal Shadows'' (2001) * '' Interlopers'' (2001) * ''Kingdoms of Light'' (2001) * ''Sagramanda'' (2006) * ''Relic'' (2018)

Collections

* ''With Friends Like These ...'' (1977) * ''... Who Needs Enemies?'' (1984) * ''The Metrognome and Other Stories'' (1990) * ''Mad Amos'' (1996) * ''Impossible Places'' (2002) * ''Exceptions to Reality'' (2008) * ''The Flavors of Other Worlds'' (2019) * ''The Taste of Different Dimensions'' (2019)

Anthologies edited

* ''Smart Dragons, Foolish Elves'' (1991) with Martin H. Greenberg * ''Betcha Can't Read Just One'' (1993) * ''Short Stories from Small Islands: Tales Shared in Palau'' (2005)

Novelizations

''Star Trek'' universe

=''Star Trek: The Animated Series''

= # ''Star Trek Log One'' (1974) # ''Star Trek Log Two'' (1974) # ''Star Trek Log Three'' (1975) # ''Star Trek Log Four'' (1975) # ''Star Trek Log Five'' (1975) # ''Star Trek Log Six'' (1976) # ''Star Trek Log Seven'' (1976) # ''Star Trek Log Eight'' (1976) # ''Star Trek Log Nine'' (1977) # ''Star Trek Log Ten'' (1978)

=''Star Trek'' movies

= * '' Star Trek: The Motion Picture'' (1979), story credit * ''

'' (2009) , movie novelization * '' Star Trek Into Darkness'' (2013) , movie novelization * ''Star Trek: The Unsettling Stars'' (2020) , movie tie-in

''Star Wars'' universe

* '' Star Wars: From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker'' (1976) , novelization of ''

ghost writing A ghostwriter is a person hired to write literary or journalistic works, speeches, or other texts that are credited to another person as the author. Celebrities, executives, participants in timely news stories, and political leaders often h ...

* '' Splinter of the Mind's Eye'' (1978) * '' The Approaching Storm'' (2002) * '' Star Wars: The Force Awakens'' (2015), movie novelization * "Bait" (2015), short story

Alien universe

# '' Alien'' (1979) # '' Aliens'' (1986) # ''

'' (1992) # '' Alien: Covenant'' (2017) # '' Alien: Covenant - Origins'' (2017)

Terminator universe

* '' Terminator Salvation'' (2009) , movie novelization

''Transformers''

* ''

Transformers ''Transformers'' is a media franchise produced by American toy company Hasbro and Japanese toy company Tomy, Takara Tomy. It primarily follows the heroic Autobots and the villainous Decepticons, two Extraterrestrials in fiction, alien robot fac ...

'' (2007) * '' Transformers: Ghosts of Yesterday'' (2007) * '' Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen'' (2009) * '' Transformers: The Veiled Threat'' (2009)

Standalone novelizations

* '' Dark Star'' (1974) , movie novelization * ''Luana'' (Italian film) (1974) , movie novelization * ''Maude'' (unpublished 1974), television novelization (" Maude's Dilemma") * '' The Black Hole'' (1979) , movie novelization * '' Clash of the Titans'' (1981) , movie novelization * '' Outland'' (1981) , movie novelization * '' The Thing'' (1981) , movie novelization * '' Krull'' (1983) , movie novelization * '' The Last Starfighter'' (1984) , movie novelization * ''The Last Starfighter Storybook'' (1984) with Lynn Haney and Jonathan Betuel * '' Shadowkeep'' (1984) , also a computer game (1984) * '' Starman'' (1984) , movie novelization * '' Pale Rider'' (1985) , movie novelization * '' Alien Nation'' (1988) , movie novelization * '' The Dig'' (1995) , also a computer game * '' The Chronicles of Riddick'' (2004) , movie novelization

Filmography

* '' Star Trek: The Motion Picture'' (1979, story) * '' Welcome to Paradox'' (1998, story for episode "Our Lady of the Machine")

Notes

References

External links

* * *
FYC Conversations with Alan Dean Foster (Part One)

For Your Consideration
' podcast, September 2017
FYC Conversations with Alan Dean Foster (Part Two)

For Your Consideration
' podcast, October 2017 {{DEFAULTSORT:Foster, Alan Dean 1946 births 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American novelists 21st-century American male writers 21st-century American novelists American fantasy writers American male novelists American science fiction writers Living people Novelists from Arizona Novelists from New York (state) University of California, Los Angeles alumni Writers from New York City 20th-century pseudonymous writers 21st-century pseudonymous writers Ghostwriters