title: Phylogenesis: Book One of The Founding of the Commonwealth
author:  Alan Dean Foster 
description: "Foster does a fine job with his misfit heroes and even with his minor characters (such as the reptilian Aann). He shows his usual mastery of narrative pacing and slips in a great deal of wry wit. The novel will be a treat for those who have followed Foster's tales of the Humanx Commonwealth."<br />-Publishers Weekly
zlib_text:  
   
  PHYLOGENESIS 
  Book One of The Founding of the 
  Commonwealth 
   
  Alan Dean Foster 
   
   
   
  
   
  PROLOGUE 
   
   
   
  Things have a way of working out, if not always as planned. So it 
  was with the Amalgamation that marked the estab-lishment of the 
  sociopolitical organization that came to be known as the Humanx 
  Commonwealth. Contact having been established and maintained for some 
  sixteen years, it was assumed by those advising both of the hesitant, 
  uncertain species that procession to second-stage contact would take 
  place within a predesignated time frame and would involve the 
  implementation of carefully considered procedures, intri-cately 
  designed programs, and closely scrutinized agendas. 
   
  That it did not happen this way was no fault of those charged 
  with implementing the voluminously compiled and mutually agreed-upon 
  contact strategy. All those involved, thranx and human alike, had done 
  their work conscientiously and well. It was simply that, as history 
  shows, there are times w