Bestselling science fiction writer Alan Dean Foster is an author of dozens of fiction and non-fiction works and has had his works in more than 100 books. He received a B.A. in Political Science from UCLA, Los Angeles in 1968 and a Master of Fine Arts in Cinema in 1969.
Foster's fiction includes science fiction, fantasy, horror, mystery and westerns. He has written non-fiction articles on film, science and scuba diving, as well as having produced the novelizations of many films, including Star Wars, the first three Alien films, and Alien Nation. He has also written The Damned series and the Spellsinger series, which includes The Hour of the Gate, The Moment of the Magician, The Paths of the Perambulator, and Son of Spellsinger, among others. Foster's love of exotic places has taken him to Europe, Asia, through the Pacific Ocean, and the back roads of Tanzania and Kenya. He has lived in Tahiti and French Polynesia.
Foster has had his works translated into over 50 languages. He wrote the novelization of "Star Wars - Episode IV: A New Hope", as George Lucas' ghost writer, and the earliest Star Wars Expanded Universe novel, "Splinter of the Mind's Eye", centering on adventures featuring Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia Organa. He later returned to Star Wars writing with the Republic-era novel The Approaching Storm. Alan Dean Foster wrote the novelization of "Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens" (2015). He wrote the novelizations for Star Trek (2009) and Star Trek Into Darkness (2013), two films directed by J.J. Abrams. In 1995 he wrote the novelization for the LucasArts video game, The Dig, based on an original idea by Steven Spielberg. Currently resides in Prescott, Arizona, in a house built of brick that was salvaged from a turn-of-the-century miners' brothel.