"Into the Out Of" - Alan Dean Foster

[Randy Shipp]

I haven't read the book myself, but my fiancee (who is a voracious reader) tells me that the Alan Dean Foster book "Into the Out Of" is a modern story that involves traditional African demons/creatures, etc. Again, I haven't read it yet, but thought I'd put it out here anyway...

[Nyambefan]

Alan Dean Foster also wrote a series that has a pseudo african character. The series is called "Journes of the Catechist". A friend of mine just loaned it to me so I can't vouch for it yet. Le us know what you think of "Into the Out OF".

[Mindobwe]

Jim said:

Alan Dean Foster also wrote a series that has a pseudo african character. The series is called "Journeys of the Catechist". A friend of mine just loaned it to me so I can't vouch for it yet."

The Catechist series is fun reading. It would be especially useful for DM's who want some ideas for adventures that break out of the typical european fantasy mold. It has some neat settings and the main character has a unique way of looking at the world that could make for a good inspiration for a PC or NPC.

You know the other stories that come to mind are the middle books in the Tarzan series by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Burroughs developed a lot of really cool settings and adventures that you don't see portrayed in the mass media versions of Tarzan. There were a bunch of fantasy elements to many of the books that would be fun to dig up and use for inspiration.

[Nyambefan]

Could you dig up some titles of which Tarzan books would be inspiring?

[Mindobwe]

It's been ages since I've read them, but there is a cool web site with lots of Tarzan info at: www.ac.wwu.edu/~stephan/Tarzan/tarzan000.html.

I seem to recall that the Jewels of Opar, the Ant Men and Forbidden City were all pretty fantastic. Then there is the Earth's Core that spun off a whole set of other books (or was it vice versa?).

Some of the stories look to be availale in whole on the above mentioned web site.

Happy reading.