Now Hasa hovered above the treetops just outside Taulau Town, his craft on idle, contemplating the vast rain-swept swath of the Viisiiviisii, the Fluvan varzea. In a few minutes, as soon as the skimmer’s internals had finished plotting out all the details of his new zigzagging course, he would leave the town and its brew of Deyzara, Sakuntala, and humans behind. It couldn’t come soon enough for him. Good riddance to them all! Despite the ferocity of its flora and fauna, Fluva wouldn’t be such a bad place, he thought. If only you could get rid of all the people.
A telltale winked to life in front of him and a small beep sounded. He voiced a curt command, making it sound like a curse. The skimmer, bless it, offered no objection. Its mechanical innards found him perfectly personable. Smoothly the restored vehicle began to move forward, accelerating over the treetops and away from civilization.
Discovering a new intelligent species was all very well and good, he mused crossly, but there was never enough money in it.
Drowning World is a work of fiction. Names, places, and incidents either are a product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
A Del Rey® Book
Published by The Ballantine Publishing Group
Copyright © 2003 by Thranx, Inc.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by The Ballantine Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto.
Del Rey is a registered trademark and the Del Rey colophon is a trademark of Random House, Inc.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Foster, Alan Dean, 1946–
Drowning world : a novel of the Commonwealth / Alan Dean Foster.—1st ed.
p. cm.
“A Del Rey book”—T.p. verso.
eISBN 0-345-45034-5
1. Humanx Commonwealth (Imaginary organization)—Fiction. 2. Life on
other planets—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3556.O756 D76 2003
813'.54—dc21
2002026279
v1.0
Alan Dean Foster, Drowning World
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