As an avid reader of science fiction since my teenage years, I have been reading the work of Alan Dean Foster for more than two decades. This amazing author has a gift for creating new worlds, new species and new futures that few others have ever possessed. One of the first novels that I picked up as youngster was Foster's novelization of the classic Disney movie THE BLACK HOLE. Through his words I saw this story in my mind's eye long before I ever saw the movie. Once I had seen the movie, I realized how much more enjoyable the experience of reading this story had been.

From there, I was hooked. I was a fan of science fiction. Of course, I had been a fan of science fiction movies and television long before I ever thought to actually pick up a book for "fun." I was brought up watching monster movies on Saturday mornings, old black and white thrillers like THEM and THE THING, as well as Star Trek reruns on WPIX Channel 11 out of New York. However, the printed word was not something that had ever attracted my attention. Until I picked up Foster's book, THE BLACK HOLE. From there, I tried other Foster titles. His Spellsinger series, the ICERIGGER Trilogy, his tales of the Commonwealth featuring Pip and Flinx. Over the years, Foster has also penned the novelizations of the movies ALIEN, OUTLAND, ALIEN NATION and STARMAN, just to name a few. All in all, I have read thirty-five of Alan Dean Foster's books and enjoyed every one of them. My favorites? Hard to say, although I think that CYBER WAY and QUOZL would be near the top of the list.

The most recent Alan Dean Foster novel to be read by this reviewer is THE MOCKING PROGRAM, a tale set in a future where North America as we know it today has combined forces into one huge country: Namerica—The North American Union. This book focuses on Namerican Federal Police Inspector Angel Cardenas and a peculiar case that has sparked his interest. Together with his partner Fredoso Hyaki, Inspector Cardenas continues to investigate the bizarre murder of a man whose corpse yields two separate identities, something that shouldn't be possible with present technology. Intrigued, Cardenas tracks down the man's last known address and contacts a woman who claims not to be the dead man's wife yet matches the description of the wife contained within one of the dead man's identification.

It is at this point that the book explodes into action and begins to go down many different paths. One of those paths includes a trip to Central America and a colony of genetically engineered and intelligent simians but you will have to read the book to learn more about that. Foster has researched this variation of our future so intensely that the very back of the book contains a Glossary of Spang, or Spanish English Slang, in order to allow the reader to become familiar with some of the not-so-familiar terms that appear within the story. If you decide to pick up THE MOCKING PROGRAM, which I highly recommend that you do, take it from me—read the Glossary first. It really helps the novel flow better once you have read the definitions associated with Foster's new language. Sound tedious? It might sound that way but, strangely enough, it isn't. Foster's dialogue throughout the book flows very naturally, despite the fact that the characters are speaking words that shouldn't mean anything to the reader. This is the skill that Foster possesses. He is able to tell a story so naturally that even though the reader shouldn't be able to understand exactly what it is that's being read, the words flow smoothly and understanding follows. I know, it sounds weird, but it worked. At least it worked for me.

THE MOCKING PROGRAM contains a few twists and turns that will keep you guessing, keep you reading and keep you wondering what in the world is going to happen next. It's a rollicking ride of a novel that introduces new technology and new patterns of human behavior so fluidly that the reader is quickly able to absorb the content as if we were familiar with it all this time. That, my friends, is a gifted talent. Granted, Foster has had a lot of time to perfect his writing style and a great many books in which to iron that style out. But, when it's all said and done, only a writer of great skill can tell a story like this as successfully as Foster was able to with THE MOCKING PROGRAM.

For all of you Alan Dean Foster fans out there, this is a different type of Foster novel—it's a story that isn't rich with aliens and it doesn't take place hundreds of years in our future. It takes place not too far from now in a world that will seem somewhat familiar but is sufficiently different to make things interesting. This book seems to set the scene for possible sequels featuring Cardenas or other stories that might reside in this new "universe" and for that I am happy. I just put down this book today but I immediately began looking for the other unread Foster titles that still lurk in the dark depths of my as-yet-unread bookshelves. I was lucky enough to find a few back there, mostly some of his older novels that I haven't gotten around to reading yet. As I sit here writing this Book Review, I can only wonder—how have I let these other Foster titles escape my greedy clutches all these years and how quickly will their plots grab on tight and not let go?

Let's find out, shall we?