When a Sakuntala and a Deyzara are dispatched by Matthias to rescue the unfortunate soul, their ship crashes, too. Or die trying.Bio-prospector Shadrach Hasselemoga has come to the jungle to get rich if he survives the terrain once his sabotaged ship goes down. Yet the same evolutionary process responsible for creating toxic creatures has made the jungle a treasure trove of undiscovered botanicals potentially useful in engineering everything from pharmaceuticals to perfumes. Thanks to the endless rains and humid conditions, exotic animals and plants have thrived there, many of them deadly predators. Her primary goal: keeping Fluvas indigenous species, the warlike Sakuntala and immigrant species, the timid but hard-working Deyzara, from annihilating one another.The wettest place on Fluva is Viisiiviisii, an immense, mostly unexplored jungle. Chief Administrator Lauren Matthias is fairly new to the position. It is Fluva, a planet on the fringes of the Commonwealth where it rains torrentially, ceaselessly, and maddeningly for all but one month of the Fluvan year.
Filled with rigorously imagined aliens and sophisticated cultures, spiced with humor and passion, and driven by relentless adventure and intrigue, Fosters remarkable Commonwealth series just keeps getting better.They call it the Drowning World. Book by book, his star-spanning saga of the Humanx Commonwealth has evolved into one of science fictions most notable achievements. But whether that will be enough to alter the course of the oncoming catastrophe is anyone’s guess.Alan Dean Foster doesnt just build worlds, he creates entire universes.
One thing the scientists do know, however, is how to ferret out the truth. Nor do they know that Quofum could play a crucial role in defeating the all-devouring monster from beyond. Of course, the marooned teammates know nothing about the Great Evil racing toward the galaxy, and they certainly have never heard of Flinx, the only person with half a chance to stop it.
But the crew members are not ready for the real shockers, because none of them expect to find a killer in their midst, or to discover that their spaceship is missing and, with it, all means of communication. There are more revelations, more highly evolved species waiting to be identified, even tantalizing clues to a civilization light-years ahead of the Commonwealth’s. But if it is by design, then by whose, and for what purpose? Quofum’s wild biodiversity doesn’t appear to be natural.
The team encounters three intelligent, warring species–some carbon-based, others silicate-based, all bizarre–along with thousands of unique, often unclassifiable life-forms. The second surprise is more about what Quofum is not: The planet is not logical, ordered, or rational. The first surprise is that Quofum, which regularly slips in and out of existence on Commonwealth monitors, is actually there when Boylan and company arrive. Boylan is tasked with delivering four scientists–two men, one woman, and one thranx–to the unknown world, setting up camp while the experts investigate flora and fauna, then ferrying them safely home. The mission to planet Quofum is supposed to be a quickie for Captain Boylan and his crew.
Although the dynamic redhead and his daring minidrag do not appear in Quofum, this knockout thriller sets the stage for their explosive date with destiny in the duo’s final climactic adventure, Flinx Transcendent. Bestselling author Alan Dean Foster’s new adventure takes place in the amazing Humanx Commonwealth, home of the ever-popular Pip & Flinx.