The Taken Trilogy Series

From science fiction legend and New York Times bestselling author Alan Dean Foster comes the climactic final novel in The Taken trilogy, his electrifying space epic about a man and his dog for whom the expression “out of this world” takes on a whole new meaning.

Location is everything. In Chicago, Marcus Walker was a hotshot commodities broker. In the cargo hold of the alien Vilenjji spaceship, he and a laconic dog named George, who has been speech-enhanced to increase his value, are just two more primitive creatures being shipped to the civilized part of the universe, where the market for cuddly extraterrestrial “pets” is busting wide open.

Though Walker and George manage to escape, man and dog are far from overjoyed, being even farther from Earth—billions of miles, in fact—and without a clue as to whether the direction home is up, down, or sideways. Possessing universe-level social skills, Walker becomes the leader of his own armada. Yet even a fleet commander is hard pressed to find a piece of space that no one’s ever heard of, much less cares to find.

To make matters worse, it seems the Vilenjji are proving to be notoriously sore losers. Even if Walker does pull off the impossible and pinpoint his needle of a solar system in the universe haystack, there’s a good chance that the unrelenting Vilenjji will get to him before he ever gets to Wrigley Field.

Yep, it’s a wide-open universe out there, bursting with possibilities—and Walker’s going to get hit with all of them.

“Foster is in top form here, entertainingly mixing politics, comedy, and intriguing alien anthropology.”—Booklist

Abducted by aliens to be sold as pets in a more civilized part of the galaxy, earthlings Marcus Walker and a scruffy dog named George (speech-enhanced to increase his market value) have managed to escape their captors. Walker loves being humankind’s first galactic traveler—until he remembers he hasn’t a clue where home is or how to get there. So the erstwhile commodities broker becomes a chef, whipping up delicacies for demanding alien palates. Of course he never imagined that the way back to Chicago would involve swapping his easy-living adopted planet for an all-out, age-old war many parsecs away. But hey, it’s all for a good cause, he has George and their two fellow escapees for company, and what else is there to do, besides avoid nasty aliens? Plenty, as it turns out.

“An enjoyable read . . . Foster’s writing is smooth and his characters engaging.”—SFReader

“Sometimes humorous, sometimes serious, and always entertaining.”—Library Journal

Ever since his classic debut, The Tar-Aiym Krang, the first of the wildly successful Pip and Flinx adventures, New York Times bestselling author Alan Dean Foster has captivated readers around the world. Now this writer of bold imagination and stunning originality has created an electrifying space epic set in a universe at once strangely familiar and starkly terrifying. Familiar because the universe is ours; terrifying because the human condition might soon be. . . .

Not so long ago Marcus Walker was just another young commodities trader in Chicago, working hard and playing harder. But that’s all in the past, part of a life half forgotten—a reality that vanished when he was attacked while camping and tossed aboard a starship bound for deep space.

Desperately, Walker searches for explanations, only to realize he’s trapped in a horrifying nightmare that is all too real. Instead of being a rich hotshot at the top of the food chain, Walker discovers he’s just another amusing novelty, part of a cargo of “cute” aliens from primitive planets—destined to be sold as pets to highly advanced populations in “civilized” regions of the galaxy.

Even if he weren’t constantly watched by his captors, Walker has few options. After all, there is no escape from a speeding starship. Another man might resign himself to the inevitable and hope to be sold to a kindly owner, but not Walker. This former college football star has plenty of American ingenuity and no intention of admitting defeat, now or ever. In fact, he’s only just begun to fight.

The adventure will continue with two more novels