The Founding of the Commonwealth(2002)

Alan Dean Foster

Over 20 of bestselling author Alan Dean Foster's novels have been set in the Humanx Commonwealth, a far future alliance of planets and their colonies. Now,in this trilogy, Alan Dean Foster explores the early days of the alliance and the events that joined humans with their alien neighbors. PHYLOGENESIS -- In the years after first contact, humans and the intelligent insect-like Thranx agree to a tentative sharing of ideas and cultures, despite the mutual repulsion they have yet to overcome. Thus a slow, lengthy process of limited contact begins. Yet they never plan for a chance meeting between Desvendapur, a misfit Thranx poet bored with his life, and Cheelo Montoya, a small-time criminal with big dreams of making a fast buck. Together this odd pair embark upon a journey that will forever change their beliefs, their futures, and their worlds. DIRGE -- Takes place after First Contact, when the thranx and the citizens of Earth settle into an uneasy partnership. Both species have much to learn from one another, but the humans are slow to set aside their ingrained revulsion to the giant bugs. Further complications arise when a new humanoid alien species makes contact with Earth and inadvertently undermines thranx and human relations by stealing the media spotlight. DIUTURNITY'S DAWN -- From the beginning, contact between humankind and the thranx has been tenuous at best. After a century, the likelihood of closer humanthranx relations is as far away as ever. Both races find each other physically repulsive. Yet idealists on both sides refuse to surrender their dreams of achieving a thranxhuman alliance. Among the most dedicated are a minor diplomat named Fanielle Anjou and her thranx counterpart. Others intend to make sure such a liaison never comes to pass. Meanwhile, on a faraway planet, the duplicitous AAnn watch as archaeologists labor to discover what happened to an advanced human race that perished thousands of years ago.