Customer Reviews

Tar Aiym Krang

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The Tar-Aiym Krang (1972) is the first SF novel in the Flinx series. It is also the first novel about the Humanx Commonwealth and Church founded by the Amalgamation of humans and the insectoid thranx. And it introduces their adversaries, the reptilian AAnn.

In this novel, Philip Lynx is an orphan in Drallar on Moth. He was fairly normal as a poor street kid, but he was also highly intelligent and avidly curious about many things. Flinx has developed some unusual powers as he grows older. He seems to be aware of things that he shouldn't know and he can often sense the emotions of most people.

Pip is an Alaspin minidragon, a flying reptile with a deadly toxic venom. A much younger Flinx found her scavenging for food in the garbage and they have been inseparable ever since. Although she is carnivorous, Pip also eats plant foods such as bread, raisins and pretzels.

Pip has a highly developed telempathic sense and generally knows whether a person is friendly or hostile. If anyone acts out his hostility, she is likely to spit in their eyes. They usually die within a minute.

Mother Mastiff is very old and definitely not getting any younger. She had bought Flinx from the slave coops and raised him to be independent. She had hired various performers to teach him a trade, but they were understandably nervous around Pip and tended to spend little time with him. Fortunately, he has grown into his own unusual trade.

In this story, Flinx is performing outside Mother Mastiff's shop, answering questions asked by his audience. After correctly answering the question of how much change is within the pocket of somebody in the crowd, two tough looking characters ask the location of a red-headed man with a treasure map. As Flinx is searching for an answer, a red-headed man suddenly leaves the crowd and the two toughs chase after him.

After the performance, Flinx heads toward Small Symm's bar for liquid refreshment and food for Pip and himself. On the way, they hear sounds of a fight in an alley. Flinx is ready to ignore the clash, but Pip flies off to investigate.

When Flinx enters the alley, he finds the two toughs hovering over the red-headed man. The toughs are swatting at Pip and then attack Flinx. Defending themselves, Pip and Flinx kill the toughs, but they discover that the red-headed man is already dead. Still, the red-headed dead man is clutching a treasure map in his hand.

Sticking the map in his pouch, Flinx continues on to Small Symm's bar. There he takes a job as a guide for Bran Tse-Mallory and Truzenzuzex. He shows the human and thranx around the city and then they enter the inburb where the very rich live. To his surprise, Eint Truzenzuzex shows the guard a card and they are readily admitted. Then they are admitted within the House of Malaika by identifying themselves as highly ranked scholars.

Flinx has performed in the tower, but never in the private section where they meet with Maxim Malaika. Bran and Tru speak to Malaika about an excursion that might be very profitable to him. After a while, Malaika encourages Flinx to retire to the pantry and have some refreshments.

While eating and feeding Pip, Flinx discovers a partially open door into a bar area and an eavesdropper listening to the conversation in the next room. He kicks the eavesdropper through a vent into that next room. Atha is very angry at Flinx and tries to damage him, but he successfully avoids her blows until Malaika stops the fight.

Malaika reminds Atha that she has been told many times before not to eavesdrop on his conversations. Then he sends her to prep his shuttle. When Malaika continues his conversation with Bran and Tru, Flinx is now included. The human and thranx mention a contact who hasn't shown up with data on the target planet and Flinx produces the star map.

This tale takes Flinx and the others into the Blight looking for a Tar-Aiym relic. The device is either a musical instrument or a weapon. They don't even know how big it is. Nonetheless, they are on their way, but somebody else is following them.

This book is the initial offering by the author. He has gone on to write many other books in other series, but he still comes back to the Humanx Commonwealth (see Quofum). And he still writes novels about Pip and Flinx, the latest being Patrimony.

Highly recommended for Foster fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of psionic talents, alien technology and high adventure.

-Arthur W. Jordin

Meet Phillip Linx known to his friends as Flix,an orphan sold at the Drallar slave markets, taken in by a kind local Mother Mastive. Thus starts one of the most memorable sagas that I have read, Fosters charecterization brings to vibrant life the players in the marveously evolving galaxy of the Commonwealth. I would thoroughly recommend this book as a spring board into the wonderously convoluted world of Flix of the Commonwealth.

This one's an old favorite of mine, but I must say I like this new cover much better than mine! Flinx is an orphan living in the slums of the planet Drallar with his venomous, flying minidrag, Pip. Flinx yearns to find out his heritage and the orgin of his strange mental powers. He stumbles across a map leading to a strange alien artifact on an abandoned world and is swept up in a grand adventure. Foster's Humanx Commonwealth and Flinx and all his companions are fascinating creations. If you like this one, try and find all Flinx's adventures, as well as the Icerigger Series. (Icerigger, Mission to Moulokin, & The Deluge Drivers)

The book that started it all. It is a must have, if you plan on reading Mid-Flinx and Reunion, A Pip and Flinx Novel. I might add that Alan Dean Foster's Midworld should also be enjoyed prior to reading Mid-Flinx. In all four books, Alan paints a tapestry full of vivid characters, larger than life environments and surprise endings. I highly recommend them!

Tar-Aiym Krang was his first novel, and pretty much the reason I've continued reading his stuff. Fine ideas, my favorite theme for science fiction (main character confused with unknown and possibly unlimited power). Frankly, I like it better than anything else he's ever written.

They are definately ordered, otherwise it's a little confusing if you care about the details.

I have to say seriously that this is one of my favorite series. The main character, Flinx, is one of the best, well rounded, deep characters I have ever read about. The author writes in a manner which is engaging, and incorporates a lot of research, so that the book is believable. Bad things happen to Flinx, and he is not perfect. An excellent series. Equal to Ender's Game, and the Drizz't books, easily.

The Tar-Aiym Krang was, I believe, the first proper speculative fiction book that I ever read. I bought it used at a sale held by the local library. It set me on the path of a life-long love affair with the character of Flinx and the Commonwealth-- books that I still enjoy to this very day.

Although chronologically The Tar-Aiym Krang is the second in the series, it was actually the first novel that Foster ever had published. It is the real introduction to the character of Flinx and his pet snake Pip. The book does an excellent job of introducing us to both, as well as setting up the Commonwealth and its respective species for further exploration.

Unlike the Spellsinger series, which I enjoyed at the time but now experience as a kind of guilty pleasure, the Commonwealth novels have aged very well. The races and their roles are well-constructed and the character very well-rounded inhabitants in them.

Potential new readers to the series can either start here or For the Love of Mother-Not-- either will do as an introduction.

This was Alan Dean Foster's first published book about Flinx of the Commonwealth. It was a very good story about a young man with incredible talents searching for the secrets of his mysterious talents. It is truly a very creative piece of work on Foster's part. It really set in motion one of the greatest series of SF stories ever written. I enjoyed it thoroughly!

I'm afraid that I was not as enthusiastic about this book as the other reviewers. I liked For Love of Mother-Not. There was lots of action and some mystery that wasn't fully resolved at the end. For the most part, this book is not a continuation of the issues in Mother-Not. Mother Mastiff plays a small role at the beginning of the book and is then left behind. I don't know if this means that she's bowing out of the series because I'm reading it in order. I thought she was a good character, however, so I hope she makes her way back in. There was also very little new information on the backgrounds of Pip or Flinx. Maybe it won't be possible to do more with Pip's background, but it seems like there could be more there. The culmination of this book gave a hint of a possible future book on Flinx's background, but not much more. I like action, and there was surprisingly little of it here. It was almost like a transition building up to a later book, but the transition itself was kind of disappointing.

Normally I remember a story too well to enjoy re-reading them, but I've had this book for over 20 years, and I can re-read it still.