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The Hour of the Gate: 2 (Spellsinger Adventures) Paperback – 29 April 2014

by Alan Dean Foster (Author)
4.5 out of 5 stars 380 ratings
Marooned in another universe, a young American musician leads a motley army in battle against an enemy that threatens to destroy their world and ours Jon-Tom just wanted to go home. Trapped in a world where animals speak and magic is real, the American college student yearned for an ordinary dorm-room life. But here his music has magical power—even if he can’t control it—which may be able to save the world from the army of the Plated Folk, whose sinister queen plans on killing and eating every warm-blooded mammal she can get her pincers on and taking over their lands. The great battle is coming, and Jon-Tom, whose posse includes a wizarding turtle, a cowardly bat, and an otter with a filthy mind, must raise an army to fight it. To find allies they must make an impossible journey, across mountains and rivers no one has ever passed before. Survival will be a miracle—but Jon-Tom is no ordinary musician.
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  1. Book 2 of 8
    The Spellsinger Adventures
  2. Print length
    340 pages
  3. Language
    English
  4. Publisher
    Open Road Media Sci-Fi & Fantasy
  5. Publication date
    29 April 2014
  6. Dimensions
    13.34 x 2.16 x 20.32 cm
  7. ISBN-10
    1497601738
  8. ISBN-13
    978-1497601734
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Product description

Review

"One of the most consistently inventive and fertile writers of science fiction and fantasy." --The Times
"Alan Dean Foster is a master of creating alien worlds." --SFRevu
"Foster knows how to spin a yarn." --Starlog
"Foster does a fine job with his misfit heroes and even with his minor characters." --Publishers Weekly

About the Author

The New York Times-bestselling author of more than one hundred ten books, Alan Dean Foster is one of the most prominent writers of modern science fiction. Born in New York City in 1946, he studied filmmaking at UCLA, but first found success in 1968 when a horror magazine published one of his short stories. In 1972 he wrote his first novel, The Tar-Aiym Krang, the first in his Pip and Flinx series featuring the Humanx Commonwealth, a universe he has explored in more than twenty-five books. He also created the Spellsinger series, numerous film novelizations, and the story for Star Trek: The Motion Picture. An avid world traveler, he lives with his family in Prescott, Arizona.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Open Road Media Sci-Fi & Fantasy
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ 29 April 2014
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 340 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1497601738
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1497601734
  • Item weight ‏ : ‎ 386 g
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 13.34 x 2.16 x 20.32 cm
  • Book 2 of 8 ‏ : ‎ The Spellsinger Adventures
  • Customer reviews:
    4.5 out of 5 stars 380 ratings

About the author

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Alan Dean Foster

Alan Dean Foster

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Alan Dean Foster's work to date includes excursions into hard science-fiction, fantasy, horror, detective, western, historical, and contemporary fiction. He has also written numerous non-fiction articles on film, science, and scuba diving, as well as having produced the novel versions of many films, including such well-known productions as "Star Wars", the first three "Alien" films, "Alien Nation", and "The Chronicles of Riddick". Other works include scripts for talking records, radio, computer games, and the story for the first "Star Trek" movie. His novel "Shadowkeep" was the first ever book adapation of an original computer game. In addition to publication in English his work has been translated into more than fifty languages and has won awards in Spain and Russia. His novel "Cyber Way" won the Southwest Book Award for Fiction in 1990, the first work of science-fiction ever to do so.

Foster's sometimes humorous, occasionally poignant, but always entertaining short fiction has appeared in all the major SF magazines as well as in original anthologies and several "Best of the Year" compendiums. His published oeuvre includes more than 100 books.

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4.5 out of 5 stars
380 global ratings

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  • Anonymous XYZ
    5.0 out of 5 stars Fun and exciting but you should read Spellsinger first.
    Reviewed in the United States on 28 February 2016
    Verified Purchase
    This is the second book in the spellsinger series. More properly it is part 2 of the first book in the spellsinger series. It is a direct carry on from Spellsinger and there is no real point in reading it if you haven't read the first book. Alan Dean Foster has created a fantasy world where animals walk on their back legs, talk and wear clothes. They have all the characteristics of humans and humans are a minority.
    In this book Jon has to defeat the plated folk as they attempt to take over the world. His weapons are songs which become spells when played on his guitar. He is aided by Clothahump who is a turtle and the world's greatest magician and a cast of characters who amaze and amuse in equal measure.
    Alan Dean Foster creates a vivid and exciting world with dangers and pleasures at every turn. The book is fast paced and laced with humour. If you squint hard enough you can see where the guitar in Soul Music came from too. It's a great book but you'll enjoy it more if you've read the first book in the series.
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  • Holger Schmitz
    5.0 out of 5 stars Ein Klassiker
    Reviewed in Germany on 5 September 2013
    Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase
    Schön, daß jetzt als E-Book wiederzulesen. Kann ich nur empfehlen für Freude der Fantasy. Allerdings hat Mr Foster einen umfangreichen Wortschatz, ohne Lexikon war es für mich schwierig und ich lese rel viel auf Englisch !
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  • Eric Schissel (Kindle)
    4.0 out of 5 stars I first read this a decade or so ago
    Reviewed in the United States on 4 July 2021
    Verified Purchase
    and more recently, in late April/early May of this year (2021.) It was fun re-joining this story and others in its general world, where a certain light-hearted authorial skepticism holds sway even in the midst of an undeniably magical (but to its inhabitants perhaps rather mundane) sort of place :)
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  • Nillspace
    5.0 out of 5 stars Spellbinding dimensions ripped fun.
    Reviewed in the United States on 30 March 2023
    Verified Purchase
    I base looked forward to reading this set of books for a long time. I'm not disappointed in any way. Never liked giant cockroaches, or preying mantisis . had a pet one that got so big it started to look at my finger as a smack.
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  • The Grey Lion
    5.0 out of 5 stars Superlatives beyond mortal imagination
    Reviewed in the United States on 21 December 2020
    Verified Purchase
    I have loved all the Flinx and Pip books since I first found them. And all the super ways that are mind blowing and unexpected twists and turns. This book series has all that also.
    While in many ways down to earth. Yet it’s no earth we know.
    Thank you once again Alan Dean Foster.
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