Drowning World (Humanx Commonwealth)

_Drowning World_ is one of the most recent adventures set in Alan Dean Foster's fascinating Humanx Commonwealth setting. As in previous installments (it is not really a series as with the exception of the _Icerigger_ trilogy, they are stand-alone adventures in a shared universe), the setting is an alien world, rich with life, a native sentient species, and far from the centers of power in the Commonwealth. The planet in this novel is Fluva, the Drowning World, the "Big Wet," a rain-drenched planet covered in dense tropical forest over most of its two main continents, unique flooded forests that for all for except about a month a year are under tens of feet of water, the result of near constant rain and vast, muddy, overflowing rivers. Dry land is very rare on this world, and the native sentient race (the bipedal, arboreal, cat-like Sakuntala) as well as the two immigrant races (the numerous rather alien Deyzara and the much less numerous humans) live in the trees, on suspended walkways and buildings hanging well over the waters, though with the advent of the Commonwealth most of these walkways are made of synthetic material generally hung not from trees (as the Sakuntala traditionally did) but from sturdy pylons sunk deep into the unseen bedrock below. A rough, dismal world by human standards, one with a vast array of dangerous predators and venomous fauna, relatively few make their home there, generally either as a result of being assigned there by Commonwealth officials for administration purposes or to make money, particularly as bio-prospectors, searching out alien biota to produce lucrative new drugs, foods, and chemicals. Most of the non-native sentient population are Deyzara, imported to work as laborers, shopkeepers, and the like from Tharce IV. Highly mercantile (some say money-grubbing and greedy), they are disliked and resented by many of the Sakuntala, despite the fact that some Deyzara are fifth generation Fluvans. Further causes of resentment are their growing population - close to that of the rather sparse Sakuntala population - and their taking advantage of the Sakuntalans relative lack of knowledge of Commonwealth laws and trade. Foster followed two plotlines in this novel. The dominant one revolved around bio-prospector Shadrach Hasselemoga, a rather disagreeable man who went missing while in a deep and dangerous part of the flooded forest. When no one heard from him after his departure and his supposedly indestructible rescue beacon was discovered to be silent, Chief Administrator Lauren Matthias sent a highly skilled Sakuntala by the name of Jemunu-Jah and a Deyzara pilot known as Masurathoo on a rescue mission. The other plot line involved an uprising of dissatisfied Sakuntala against the Deyzara, with Matthias and the other Commonwealth officials caught in the middle. The rescue mission plotline to me was the more interesting, not that the other one did not have its merits. The first plotline was actually two, a rescu

With each book Foster writes, the texture of his flagship Humanx Commonwealth milieu keeps getting richer and more complex. Characters and places that were mentioned in passing in one opus become central to another, and vice versa. And like all good fiction, Drowning World manages to make a statement without ever becoming preachy.

Because it seems to never stop raining, the planet Fluva has been nicknamed THE DROWNING WORLD from members of the Commonwealth. On Fluva, the wettest spot is probably Viisiiviisii Jungle where the combination of constant torrents with extreme humidity has led to one of the Commonwealth's greatest natural treasures. Exotic flora and strange animal life abound here and not anywhere else.When bioprospector Shadrach Hasselemoga disappears while on a biological expedition on Fluva, an irritated Commonwealth Chief Administrator Lauren Mathias puts together a team to rescue the missing fool lost somewhere in the jungle. Though the right species make up the squad to include an ape-like native and a Deyzara, the rescuers vanish too. At about the same time of the second disappearance, the Sakuntala make a play for power with one goal being the genocide of the Deyzara leadership. As Deyzara refugees flee in terror, Lauren wonders whether the Sakuntala are involved in the vanishing or is her paranoia justified that the enemy reptilian empire is causing the disturbances?Move the 1950s and 60s confrontations through third world nations between the US and the USSR into outer space and one will understand the premise of the Commonwealth series. The alien races appear real and fully developed. Few writers make other species seem so authentic as Alan Dean Foster does. The exciting story line will delight fans of the series that will enjoy the latest strife between empires through surrogates.Harriet Klausner