Customer Reviews

Flinx in Flux

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

 

 

Flinx is 19 and about to fall in love. While on Alispan, releasing Pip's children he see's a beautiful woman washed up along a rivers edge. When she wakes up he finds out that her name is Clarity Held and a group of fanatic tree huggers are trying to distroy the business she works for. She is a gengeneer (genetic engineers) who makes plants and fungus, etc. into marketable things. Flinx decides to help Clarity, whom he has fallen in love with. Unfortuntly he tells her, as an explination of why he can't be with her, that he is an experiment from the Melioraire Society and has an unpridictable sixth sense. Clarity's boss finds out and kidnaps him and wishes to exploit his talent. Sadly enough Flinx and Clarity never truly get together. That really riled me. Finally I'd like to tell a previous reviewer that Foster is not cutting off the Pip and Flinx series, he still hasn't answered all the questions that keep his fans coming back. Eli@

I just finished re-reading the book again for the umpteenth time. As always it was a great read, I really enjoy the Flinx series in the common wealth. Flinx is such an interesting character to watch develop. Just a note as to the comments below that the author is not going to be writing any more Flinx novels, that is untrue. Another one will be out latter this year(2000), or early next (It is titled Reunion).

Finx in Flux is probably the most polished Flinx book. Clearly Foster learned a little more about writing between this one and the last (The End of the Matter). This is another direct sequel in which we find Flinx rescueing a beautiful gengineer (genetic engineer) who is under assault by eco-terrorists. The character development in Flinx in Flux is much richer than the other Flinx books, but what really set this one apart (for me) was the dramatic conclusion where Flinx learns of the existence of a great malevelolence, perhaps great enough to destroy the entire universe. Sadly, that is no delved into very deeply, instead leaving that open for another novel.

"Flinx in Flux" takes place soon after the previous novel, "The End of the Matter". Flinx and Pip are still on Alaspin, and attempting to release Pip's offspring into the wild. Heading back into town, they encounter a beautiful woman, Clarity, lying half-dead next to a river. Flinx takes her in, and assists her in healing. Flinx learns that Clarity was kidnapped by fanatics, as she is an important gengineer on the planet Longtunnel. Flinx promises to take her to Longtunnel, and find out why these fanatics are after her. Once they reach Longtunnel, more adventures await as the fanatics are back to finish the job they started.

I did enjoy Foster's novel, and appreciated all of the descriptive imagery. This was especially true, once Flinx and Clarity become lost in the caverns and tunnels of Longtunnel. There are some interesting and dangersous underground wildlife that try to make a meal of them. In this novel, Flinx's mental emotional "reading" of people is explored more. On to the next Flinx book.

Another in the superb Flinx and Pip series.

This time Flinx finds himself playing rescuer to a beautiful and intelligent woman. Flinx, now 19, is immediately attracted to her, even though she's a few years older, which drags him out of his normal reticent ways. Especially, when she gives him signals that she likes him as well.

Thus starts another adventure for Flinx, his pet mini-drag Pip, and one of Pip's children, a small mini-drag called `Spark'.

This story has all the great writing I've come to expect from Alan Dean Foster and like the other books in the series, I was completely immersed in Flinx' world and problems. It's a real joy to see Foster's "boy" grow up and start to realize his true mental powers (I won't spoil it by telling you what new things he gains).

this is a light weight series with fun characters and evil to overcome. I bought more of the series to read

This one was fun, the first time Flinx gets to explore psycic abilities, this time with another race in the mix. If you have read all the other books in the series, you will love this one too.

It was a terrible disappointment to learn that Flinx in Flux was the last in the series. Such an abrupt-like ending! When I was a young teen, I read the Tar-Aiym Krang, then moved to For Love of Mother Not, then Flinx in Flux, then Bloodhype. I didn't follow the "chronological" order, but I loved the series anyway! There was something in me that identified with Flinx, he was a hero to me. Over the years, I read other books by Alan Dean Foster, also set in the same universe as the Flinx and Pip series: Cachalot, Voyage to the City of the Dead, etc. Each were wonderful books, but they were also my way of associating with the series even though it had ended.

Yet, I guess in a way, the series HAD TO end. Foster wrote of Flinx the young child in a loving, caring way... but also knew that Flinx could not be like that forever. Very likely, with this last book in the series, he deliberately propelled Flinx into the seriousness of adulthood to bring about a sense of closure.

I'll never forget that Pip loved salty snacks (she needed the NaCl to make that special corrosive poison), or that the "fish" in Oboweir could make Earth whales feel as tiny as goldfish, or that furry cuddly bearlike creatures on a cold, cold world could be such adorable prodigies...

This book is the start of what I call the Foster money crank phase. It seems all of his books written with the Pip & Flinx characters from this book on are template books; take a successful character and stamp out books, dragging it out as long as you can.

I read the other books in the Flinx series years ago and enjoyed them. This one was only fair-to-middlin'.

The characters seems wooden and two-dimensional. The plot line was predictable and didn't seem to have much content. The emotional communication portion was overdone and a fairly tedious. There just wasn't a lot there.

Perhaps it's just my tastes have changed...I'll have to go re-read Tar-Aiym and Mother Not to see...but this one just seemed a bit pro forma.