The Man Who Used the Universe

By Alan Dean Foster

Book Overview

No one knows the true motives of Kees vaan Loo-Macklin. He's a mastermind criminal who gave up his place at the head of the dark underworld to become a legitimate member of Evenwaith's cities. But... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0446903531
• ISBN13: 9780446903530
• Release Date: July 1985
• Publisher: Warner Books
• Length: 361 Pages
• Weight: 0.52 lbs.

Customer Reviews

I liked it, but it's not for everyone

I agree with most of the prior review by Justus, and I too enjoyed this book. The meteoric rise of this mysterious uberman from poor abandoned orphan to master manipulator of the known universe was entertaing and I was able to get into in and want to watch it unfold. That being said, it's not wonderfully written and I give it 4 stars because I happen to enjoy this type of plotline. It's a bit of a guilty pleasure, like being into kung-fu movies, and I can't justify the rating based on the writing itself. The book could have used more editing, and most of the characters aren't three-dimensional nor especially engaging (in fact only one character is close to three-dimensional and he's not that interesting). The "main" character is a cold-blooded super-achiever but he's not well fleshed out and we're not given enough to really get a feel for him -- we just observe his progress as he grows his empire. I still found him pretty cool, but he's superficial. There are inconsistencies in the characters' behaviors, and they will occasionally do or say things that are awkward/unnatural/out-of-character. Some of the attempts to insert futuristic "slang" into the dialog fall flat, and I would have preferred the use of "sass that hoopy frood" more than some of the terms randomly spliced into the characters' speech. Basically, there are a bunch of flaws in the book but I took them in stride and had fun reading the story anyway. If you don't find the overall plot engaging, you probably won't like the book, but if you do you may like it quite a bit.

Re-readable to the point of destruction

I've liked this book since I first read it, 10 year ago, and I still find myself picking it up and re-reading it again and again. The flow of the plot is simply to absorbing to put it down, and the complex plans made by the main character amaze me afresh every time. I've read this book so often, and lent it to so many people, that my first copy fell apart. So I got another one ;-)

Keeps Me Coming Back

This book is one of my guilty pleasures. I have read it more times than I can count and am about to purchase my third copy, having worn out two previous copies. The main character is a man driven unlike any other. He seems at times to be in search of something (a theme I find in many of Foster's books), but in the process of his quest he reshapes the entire known universe. As intriging a read the twentieth time as it was the first.

A Vacuum of a Book

I started reading SciFi 7 years ago because a friend of mine lent me this book. The main character in this book is often unpredictable and has a cool, sly personality that draws you to him as often as the characters in the book are drawn to this most likeable(or is it unlikeable?) deviant. Though I appreciated most of the settings in this book, it's the way in which Foster managed to create such an interesting plot through such a unique, deceptive character. He's as calm, collective and mean as "Dirty Harry" but oh so much smarter. I've read several Foster books since then, but this ultimately remains my favorite.

A fun, fun read.

A sci-fi story set in a non-Commonwealth(Flinx) universe, it nonetheless has a rich and engrossing setting. (In fact, it's a shame there weren't additional books set here) The main character is an enigmatic, brilliant, and incredibly driven man that we never really get to know. Instead, we perceive him through his interactions with a varied cast of interesting "side" characters. We track our mysterious and chillingly efficient protagonist as he works his way to the top, and along the way we get to look inside the minds of the facinating supporting characters that his actions affect. Overall an engrossing, well-told story. One of Alan Dean Foster's best efforts.