#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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