Quofum (Humanx Commonwealth)

by Alan Dean Foster

Book Overview

The mission to planet Quofum to investigate unknown flora and fauna is supposed to be a quickie for Captain Boylan and his crew. The first surprise is that Quofum, which seems to regularly slip in and... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 034549606X
• Release Date: August 2009
• Publisher: Del Rey
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 1.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 6.8" x 0.8" x 4.2"

Customer Reviews

Quofum -good stuff

I have been awaiting the ending of the series. Alan Dean Foster always writes an interesting tale, that one never knows how it will end... I thoroughly enjoyed it, pretty much read it on arrival...

The Mystery Planet

Quofum (2008) is the twelfth SF novel in the Humanx Commonwealth series, following Drowning World. It is set on the uncertain world of Quofum, which occasionally vanished from its solar system. When a probe returned to Science Central with its data and startling news, a team was sent to the planet to perform a preliminary investigation. In this novel, Nicholai Boylan is the captain and crew of the KK-drive starship Dampier. He is a gruff man with an obsession with trivial detail. In other words, he is the perfect captain of a longrange starship. Salvador Araza is a technician who maintains all the various equipment that the scientists will use on the expedition. He has little to do with the starship itself, which is mostly self-repairing. However, he does an adequate job on other maintenance and repair. Esra Tellenberg, Moselstrom (Mosi) N'kosi, Tiare Haviti and Valnadireb are xenologists. Valnadireb is a Thranx, Tiare is a woman and the other two are men. All four are polymaths, scientific generalists with varied skills. Still, they all have the focused attention of true scientists. In this story, the expedition finds Quofum in the expected orbit within the system. They leave the Daimper in orbit around the planet and shuttle down the items necessary for their mission and comfort. Boylan and Araza do most of the work of establishing the camp, for all four xenologists rush out to do their studies as soon as the captain will allow them to go forth. Venturing out in separate directions, the two teams both find different sapients near the camp. In later explorations, they find even more sapients. The planet seems to be overfull of thinking beings. Quofum also contains a wide diversity of flora and other fauna. They find plants and animals whose metabolisms are based on carbon, silicon or sulfates. They start considering the possibility of seeding from other planets. Then the four xenologists take a boat up the river to contact one of the sapient species. They arrive in time to see a raid on the village by two other species. The fuzzies and stick-jellies are defending the village from the spikers and hardballs. While the scientists are gone, Araza has a confrontation with Boylan and kills him. Returning to the base camp, the xenologists discover the captain's body. Then they find Araza preparing to take the shuttle and depart the planet. Araza explains his reason for the killing to the returned scientists. As he turns to leave, Tellenberg draws against the technician and is also killed. The remaining three scientists are now stranded on the planet. This tale leaves the scientists nothing else to do besides involving themselves in their work. They all explore the immediate vicinity of the base. After a long while -- weeks, months or maybe years -- Valnadireb continues studies near the base, but Tiare takes the skimmer to the north and Mosi rides a scooter south to expand the explorations. Tiare finds more sapients

good book

I started reading this series back in 1984 and I have injoyed all of Mr Fosters Books. please keep up the good work. this story stand by itself and I think it is money well spent, kept me out of troule for the three days it took me to read it.

well written set up tale

The Humanx Commonwealth is intrigued with the unique planet Quofum, which is outside their sector, because the orb appears to vanish and reappear off their monitors. Captain Boylen is assigned to escort four xenologists to study the planet especially the life forms since the oceans contain alcohol. Thus he and his crew bring two men, one woman and a Thanx to the mysterious planet. Upon arrival they find three shockers. First there are several primitive but intelligent species that are so dissimilar they could never evolve on the same orb. Second they encounter thousands of other various life-forms never seen anywhere else. Finally as mysterious as the diversity findings prove, the visitors have no idea who made a gigantic underground compound containing technology and gadgetry none of the scientists recognize. This is a well written tale crucial to the expected final Pip and Flinx novel though the two stars never appear in QUOFUM. The story line is fast-paced and exciting, but disappointingly never finishes any key thread; instead it sets the background for that Pip and Flinx finale. Consequently fans of the saga will have mixed feelings about the trip to QUOFUM.