Book Review – The Mocking Program

Author: Alan Dean Foster
Publisher: Aspect
Binding: Hardcover
Publication Date: 2002

Set in the vivid and clearly thought-out world located on the Montezuma Strip in the violent and futuristic Mexamerica, Alan Dean Foster’s The Mocking Program takes one federale—Inspector Angel Cardenas—on a cat-and-mouse chase to find a wanted criminal. The manner in how Cardenas comes to the plot of finding renowned mastermind The Mock is well played out in a series of nosy-inspector-meets-bad-people scenes. Foster knows how to handle these scenes to keep the reader on the edge of the page; the character of Cardenas makes for a very real hero to root for.

I have to give Foster credit for the amount of detail he infused into The Mocking Program; by the end of the book I’d swear I knew a little more Spanish than I had planned to. This is because of the Mexamerican culture thriving on the Strip that Cardenas frequents. With so much to the background, it was wise of Foster to include a glossary of the Spanish-English words found in his work. Without it, I’d have been much more lost.

Now that proper credit has been given, I must say I was happy with the book until it got really close to the end. The last four or five chapters were a letdown to me, and it seemed that The Mocking Program in itself was mocking me; the plotline was set up perfectly to feature a final showdown between Cardenas and the criminal he sought. Unfortunately for the reader, things turned out a bit differently. If it was done to be amusing, I don’t get it. To get the both bests of Foster—vivid worlds and stunning, original stories—I’d suggest his Spellsinger series.

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