#130 Thousand island blessing: The Howling Stones (1997) by Alan Dean Foster

It's been over a year since we last covered a novel in Alan Dean Foster's expansive Humanx Commonwealth setting. In these far-future novels, humanity has allied with the insectoid thranx species, which resemble huge, intelligent ants. Together, the two species create a benevolent, star-faring civilisation.

The thranx are disappointingly absent from the sixth standalone book in the setting, The Howling Stones. What this 1997 novel does have is a pair of bickering xenologists, warlike lizard-like aliens, and the apparently magic rocks of the title. How does it stack up against Foster's earlier novels, like the excellent Midworld from 1975?

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Transcript

Originally published by Del Rey in January 1997, The Howling Stonesis the sixth standalone novel in the Humanx Commonwealth setting by Alan Dean Foster. It represented a belated return by Foster to this set of books, coming 12 years after Sentenced to Prism (1985). 

This entry is set in the year 558 AA - that is to say, 558 years after the human and insectoid thranx species bound their fates together into the Humanx Commonwealth. This benevolent interstellar association has recently discovered the planet Senisran, an ocean world with thousands of mostly tiny islands. The Commonwealth is working to befriend the many tribes of local sentients, in a bid to gain permission to exploit the planet’s bounty of mineral wealth. Unfortunately, the lizard-like and warlike AAnn have also arrived with the same intentions.

The novel follows two human xenologists working for the Commonwealth to try to broker a trade deal. Pulickel Tomochelor and Fawn Seaforth do their best to understand the local culture, while avoiding conflict with the AAnn. What both sides fail to account for is the mysterious stones which the locals revere, and which prove to have extraordinary properties.

Pulickel Tomochelor is a supremely confident troubleshooter, brought to Senisran to resolve the Commonwealth’s struggles. A stickler for protocol, he comes into conflict with Fawn Seaforth, who is almost as qualified but neglects to follow the rules. The pair diligently try to convince the locals of their worthiness in order to secure an alliance. Unfortunately, a key tribal group proves extremely resistant to anything that they think could threaten their way of life.

The tribe have in their care a large number of glassy stones, which they use in religious ceremonies and guard carefully. The xenologists are more than sceptical about the claims that these stones have enigmatic powers - that is, until they see them in action. Individual stones have no abilities, but in combination they can produce startling effects. For example, two growth stones can hugely accelerate the growth of food crops. Tomochelor and Seaforth quickly conclude that the stones are remnants of alien technology, left behind on Senisran by a progenitor race before local intelligence evolved. 

While the humans’ intentions and methods are good, the local AAnn mission operates very differently. Their arrogant commander, equally frustrated by the caution of the locals, resorts to extreme methods. Having also become aware of the stones, he will do anything to obtain them, even if it means murdering the humans and their would-be allies. Meanwhile, it seems that some stones have extraordinary abilities that even the Seni are not aware of, with potentially galactic ramifications.

While the first novel set in the Humanx Commonwealth universe was The Tar-Aiym Krang(1972), the series of standalones began with the excellent Midworld (1975). Over the course of the following novels, the quality slowly declined. Foster’s follow-ups had much of the same appeal, but their vitality seemed to ebb slightly. That trend accelerates somewhat in The Howling Stones. Too often, this is a merely adequate SF novel.

One issue is that the setup feels too much like a remix of elements that Foster had already used before. The ocean planet setting recalls Cachalot (1980) and the pair of bickering xenologists in a tribal society feels too close to Voyage to the City of the Dead (1984). The novel also sidesteps some of the most interesting aspects of its own setting. Humanity’s insectoid allies, the thranx, are again completely absent. The militaristic AAnn are the ostensible villains, but they make only fleeting appearances. The threat they present simply resolves itself, without any intervention from the protagonists, and it feels anticlimactic.

Senisran had the potential to be an interesting setting, but the enthralling descriptions of alien ecology that were such a feature of Midworldare largely missing from The Howling Stones. Only briefly does Foster’s troubleshooting xenologist encounter an intriguing aquatic predator with a unique hunting method. Senisran ultimately comes across as a bland, thinly detailed world.

Much of the novel boils down to a hunt for, and exploitation of, the apparently magical stones of the title. It is clear from previous books in the setting that the stones must be of alien origin, connected to one of the hugely powerful races lurking on the periphery of Foster’s setting. With the novel, these artefacts simply aren’t very interesting, and the plot never does anything satisfactory with them.

With a perfunctory plot, characters, and setting, The Howling Stonesis easily the weakest of the first six standalone novels in Foster’s Humanx Commonwealth setting. Unfortunately, it can be recommended only to die-hard completists.