Alan Dean Foster (born November 18, 1946) is an American writer offantasy andscience fiction. He has written severalbook series, more than 20 standalone novels, and manynovelizations of film scripts.
Foster was theghostwriter of the originalnovelization ofStar Wars, which was credited solely toGeorge Lucas.[1] When asked if it was difficult for him to see Lucas get all the credit forStar Wars, Foster said, "Not at all. It was George's story idea. I was merely expanding upon it. Not having my name on the cover didn't bother me in the least. It would be akin to a contractor demanding to have his name on aFrank Lloyd Wright house."[2]
Foster also wrote the follow-up novelSplinter of the Mind's Eye (1978), written with the intention of being adapted as a low-budget sequel toStar Wars if the film was unsuccessful. However,Star Wars was ablockbusting success, andThe Empire Strikes Back (1980) would be developed instead. Foster's story relied heavily on abandoned concepts that appeared in Lucas's early treatments for the first film.[3]
Foster has written novelizations of several films in theAlien franchise, beginning with thefirst film. He was not allowed to viewH.R. Giger's design for thetitular creature,[5][6] leading to the use of vague descriptions such as "something man-shaped but definitely not a man".[7] This adaptation has been noted as a "classic" of novelizations that is "almost as timeless as the movie".[7][8] It was later collected inomnibus form with Foster's novelizations ofAliens andAlien 3. During the writing of the latter, he attempted to avoid killing off two characters as in the screenplay but was overruled by the film's producers.[9] This led to him turning down the novelization of the following film,Alien: Resurrection,[10] although Foster later returned to the series to novelizeAlien: Covenant and write a further spin-off,Alien: Covenant – Origins.[6]
Foster wrote 10 books based on episodes of theanimatedStar Trek, the first six books each consisting of three linked novella-length episode adaptations, and the last four being expanded adaptations of single episodes that segued into an original story. In the mid-seventies, he wrote originalStar Trek stories for the Peter Pan-labelStar Trek audio story records. He has thestory credit forStar Trek: The Motion Picture,[11] as he wrote atreatment based on a two-page outline by Gene Roddenberry.
He later wrote the novelization of the 2009 filmStar Trek, his firstStar Trek novel in over 30 years,[12] and forStar Trek's sequel,Star Trek Into Darkness.[13]
"Serenade" (2004), a novelette set immediately afterThe Time of the Transference,[22] was first published in the anthologyMasters of Fantasy and was later reprinted in Foster's short story collectionExceptions to Reality.[23]
^Bently, Lionel; Biron, Laura (2014). "The author strikes back: Mutating authorship in the expanded universe".Law and Creativity in the Age of the Entertainment Franchise. Cambridge University Press. p. 44.ISBN978-1-107-03989-6.
^"Kaiburr crystal".StarWars.com.Archived from the original on September 13, 2011. RetrievedNovember 17, 2018.
