Books: Icerigger by Alan Dean Foster (1974)

“Following a criminal kidnapping gone wrong, Ethan Frome Fortune, a simple salesman and sophisticated interstellar traveler, finds himself stranded on the alien, deadly frozen world of Tran-Ky-Ky. With him are professional adventurer/soldier of fortune Skua September, the interstellar tycoon and his daughter who were the targets of the kidnapping, a vacationing schoolteacher, and the sole surviving kidnapper. They survive the frigid conditions and indigenous flora and fauna in their wrecked lifeboat long enough to be rescued by representatives of the local feudal government – who are facing a crisis of their own. Their arrival, and the fantastic wealth represented by the worked metal of their lifeboat, has coincided with an upcoming visit of The Horde. This nomadic swarm descends on various city-states every one-to-two years, exacting tribute as the price for not destroying their community... while rampaging through it. This time, the locals have decided to put up a fight.”

ICERIGGER, after 50 years, is solid novel, from accident to discovery to getting to know the locals and get into fisticuffs with them to fighting barbarian hoards. However, despite the traditional sci-fi cover, this first book in a trilogy plays out like high fantasy. 

I must note that at one time, the now 77 year-old Foster used to be a competitive weight-lifter, and like most of them, they take on contempt for those who don’t fit their own standards. This is notable because Foster created an intelligent female protagonist who is significantly overweight. This seemed to break the mold of these male-centric written novels where the smart women are also very beautiful. But like what Donald E. Westlake did in a recent novel I read, Foster seems mainly interested in telling fat joke. While in 1974 this probably played well with the readers, in 2024, it’s a bit off-putting.

It’s definitely cheesy, pulp, and one of Foster’s earliest works – I think his second novel after 1972’s The Tar-Aiym Krang. While he remains well-know writer, for most people it’s his long association with movie and TV tie-in novels, that started with DARK STAR (1974), THE BLACK HOLE (1979), and adapting all the episodes of STAR TREK: THE ANIMATED SERIES (1974-1978). His association with that franchise continued with a story credit for 1979’s STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE, as well as adapting the first two films in the rebooted film series, STAR TREK (2009) and STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS (2013). He also penned an original novel set within this new timeline, THE UNSETTLING STARS (2020). That book, however, was delayed over a decade due to issues with BAD ROBOT and their vision for the rebooted franchise. After 2016’s lackluster STAR TREK BEYOND, and with no new film set within the Kelvin timeline coming anytime soon, this book finally saw the light of day. 

Foster was also the ghostwriter of the original novelization of STAR WARS (1977), which was credited solely to George Lucas. He 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 if the film was unsuccessful. That obviously changed when the film took off and they went in a different story direction, because Foster's novel relied heavily on abandoned concepts that appeared in Lucas's early treatments for the first film. His association with STAR WARS continued in later years, penning THE APPROACHING STORM (2002) and adapting the first film of the sequel trilogy in 2015.

Beyond the STAR TREK and STAR WARS universe, he’s adapted TERMINATOR: SALVATION film, four TRANSFORMER novels, ALIEN, ALIENS, ALIEN 3, and ALIEN: COVENANT; multiple standalone film novelizations that include CLASH OF THE TITANS (1981), OUTLAND (1981), THE THING (1981), KRULL (1983), THE LAST STARFIGHTER (1984), STARMAN (1984), PALE RIDER (1985), ALIEN NATION (1988), and THE CHRONICLES OF RIDDICK (2004).

He also has well over 70 original novels, which ICERIGGER is the first in a trilogy (set early within his Humanx Commonwealth universe that most of those books take place in) of tales. 

Books: Star Wars: The Force of Awakens by Alan Dean Foster (2015)

As noted, Alan Dean Foster wrote the original Star Wars novelization back in 1977, even though the book was credited to franchise creator George Lucas. But with no knowledge of what the success of this film was to become, Foster fleshed out Lucas’ script so much, expanding the backstory of planets, races, the history, and technology with such detail, that they became canonical to the movies and books that would follow. In 1978, the author released Splinter in the Mind’s Eye, one of the first (though not known at the time) stories that became known as the Expanded Universe.  Foster's novel relied heavily on abandoned concepts (that were originally intended as a cheap-to-make-sequel had Star Wars bombed at the box-office) that appeared in Lucas's early treatments for the first film, although a lot of what happened in that book –like the bits dealing with some romantic energy between Luke and Leia- would be later contradicted by later movies. 

And while the prolific author has written well over seventy novels of his own, edited a bunch of anthologies, he’s also made a career out of the novelizations of movies, including the Star Trek Universe, the Alien Universe, Alien Nation Universe, Transformers, and Terminator franchise among others; he’s written well over fourteen other stand-alone film adaptations, including Pale Rider, Starman, The Black Hole, and Clash of the Titians.

But since Splinter, the author has written only one other book set in the Star Wars universe, 2002’s The Approaching Storm, a story set between Episode I and II of the film franchise. Now he’s been given a chance to expand the Star Wars universe again with this adaptation of The Force Awakens.

But I suspect, unlike back when writing the original novel, Alan Dean Foster was limited to what he could expand on in the script. But the book does give many answers that fans asked about after seeing the film, including (I hope) more scenes with the critically underused Leia. I’m hoping these scenes that appear here are ones written in the script and just deleted for time and flow. Abrams admits that a lot was filmed, and a good percentage will end up in the deleted scene section on the DVD/Blu ray. But there are no revelations here, but I do think that Rey is probably the granddaughter of Obi Wan (though my wild theory is she really is the reincarnation of Anakin Skywalker). Foster makes no direct correlation to Rey’s heritage (and does very little to expand on her past, though that was written about in Before the Awakening book), but there is an vague, sort of implied but not by dialogue, that Kylo Ren may know whom Rey truly is (because my belief is that when he probed her mind earlier in the film, he would’ve discovered if she had some familial aspects).