The four friends go to another planet since Marc is now a chef. End up meddling in politics to further their journey home. Still pursued by the aliens that originally kidnapped them. Ends with them leaving for a part of the galaxy that might" be familiar with one of the non-terran aliens. Nice and light and not crass like the first." ( )

I'm usually a fan of Alan Dean Foster - his books are usually a fast read. This one, not so much. I found myself wondering when he'd get around to something happening. Perhaps because this is the second book of a trilogy in which I have not read the first book, I found the main character uninteresting, and his situation difficult (for him) but not one I wanted to spend time to sympathize with. It felt like the author was trying to write a "Hitchhiker's Guide", throwing in gratuitous alien names and physiognomies. The human hero and his dog were kidnapped on Earth some time ago by pirates, and were rescued by an impossibly benevolent race, and provided with every luxury but useful employment. So he decides to learn to be a cook using their alien technologies and alien ingredients. This leads to a job further out on the Galactic Arm, which might or might not put him closer to Earth. The new society has a different outlook on war than what he is accustomed to.... and then we get the author's ruminations on a new kind of war. At this point, I set the book down, and likely will not pick it up again. ( )

http://www.sfreader.com/read_review.asp?ID=582 ( )

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