Customer Reviews

Flinx Transcendent (Pip & Flinx Series)

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

 

 

One final story in which our guy again overachieves, one final grand adventure for Philip Lynx and his empathetic (and very venomous) Alaspinian flying snake, Pip. This series began in 1972, and after more than 35 years of regaling us with Flinx's evolution and his search for identity and his quest to halt an encroaching cosmic evil, Alan Dean Foster has at last produced the finale. In one sense, I honestly don't know that this has been worth the wait because, frankly, the past decade or so hadn't produced a lot of terrific Pip & Flinx novels. Somewhere along the way, these books lost the heart and fun that made the earlier books so enjoyable to read. Somewhere along the way, the series started dragging. FLINX TRANSCENDENT, however, is a return to what's good, and I really liked how Foster paced the story. There were rarely lulls. Of course, if you've been tracking this series all along, this has to qualifiy as a must-read, if only so that you know how everything turns out.

It's the longest Pip & Flinx installment yet, and it does seem as if Foster had just opted to paste three story arcs together. The first segment informs us that a jaded Flinx has breached the AAnn's homeworld and has been skulking around in a lizard suit, passing himself off as AAnn (just because he can). But Flinx isn't as clever or as circumspect as he thought he was. The AAnn soon enough suspect something shady, and Flinx has to go on the run. Finding himself trapped in the AAnn's capital, his salvation may rest on an unpredictable young Aann. What happens next demonstrates yet again that, despite his best intentions, Flinx just cannot do things on a small scale. His actions will have a profound effect on Humanx-AAnn relations. This story arc, which just may be my favorite of the three, is highlighted by the interactions between Flinx and the young AAnn, Kiijeem.

The middle arc finds Flinx reunited with his sweetheart Clarity Held and with his old scholarly mentors Truzenzuzex and Bran Tse-Mallory. There's time enough also for another assault from the Order of Null, that murderous cult that worships oblivion, worships the impending cosmic "Great Cleansing." And then, in one of them deus ex machina moments, a character I was pretty fond of, who debuted way back in ORPHAN STAR, resurfaces. She pulls Flinx's asssterisk out of the fire.

The third and final arc has Flinx once and for all addressing the Great Evil, that malignant entity hurtling from the Great Emptiness and speeding ever nearer to our galaxy, consuming all matter in its path... and accelerating. Down the years, Flinx and his companions have criss-crossed the breadth of the Humanx Commonwealth, desperately seeking a solution. They've just about run out of options. More than ever, Flinx, with his wild, erratic Talents, is the key. He still doesn't know what this means.

Longtime readers will enjoy this. New readers may get lost a bit. Alan Dean Foster ties loose threads that have been dangling from previous novels. This being the final book, it's apropos that familiar faces we met in those previous novels make a curtain call. My most favorite aliens introduced in the Pip & Flinx series have always been the massive, vastly inventive, very inquisitive Ulru-Ujurrians. So I'm very glad they showed up. What I didn't like was the manner in which they were summoned by Flinx. I thought he pulled a chump move on that one, and you can see why Clarity was so ticked off. Foster throws us another bone by providing an epilogue to another of his Humans Commonwealth novels, QUOFUM. Of course, if you haven't read QUOFUM, that bit of closure won't signify diddly.

I enjoyed reading this book; it had me reminiscing a lot about those fantastic early novels in the series. I am definitely glad this cosmic threat was resolved at last. It's been a long time coming. I still hope to see more of Flinx and Pip and friends. Just because the writer's done writing novels about Flinx doesn't preclude his featuring him in short stories. Philip Lynx, he isn't even thirty yet. Surely he can top that "God's Ruler" thing he did.

Since Flinx Transcendent by Alan Dean Foster is the last book in the Pip and Flinx series, I've been looking forward to it, but before ordering it, I read the reviews on amazon, which as usual were mixed, so it was a pleasant surprise that I enjoyed the first part of the book, which some readers thought was too unrelated to the rest of the book; but I thought that it did fit in with his thoughts about saving the universe. There was more action in the latter half, I admit, but it was all well written and suspenseful with a good--and believable--ending. I'm glad to have that wrapped up, but I'd love to see those characters again in a completely different adventure!(And it doesn't have to involve saving the universe.)

Flinx Transcendent (2009) is the fourteenth SF novel in the Flinx & Pip series, following Patrimony. The initial work in this series is The Tar-Aiym Krang.

In the previous volume, Flinx discovered someone on Gestalt who could be his father. On the way to the remote cabin, his skimmer was shot down. The Tlel found him in the wilds and accompanied him on his way.

Then an avalanche buried Flinx and his companions. With a little help from Pip, Flinx dug himself out of the snow. He was the only survivor, so he and Pip continued on toward the cabin. Local scavengers followed them and even attacked whenever he seemed exhausted.

In this novel, Philip Lynx discovered that he was gengineered from human DNA. He has the intermittent ability to read emotions and occasionally to project them. Flinx lives in a universe of mental noise and has frequent headaches.

Pip is an Alaspinian minidrag. Her species are natural empaths. They are also very dangerous pets, at least to those who attack them or their kin.

Kiijeem AVMd is the youngest scion of a very rich AAnn merchant. He has a vivid imagination and enjoys night excursions into the wilder parts of his family's estate. He arms himself with small, but real weapons and defenses.

Clarity Held is Flinx's sweetheart. She was injured in an attack upon Flinx and left behind upon New Riviera for treatment. Flinx very much misses her presence.

Bran Tse-Mallory is a human and had been half the crew on a Humanx sting ship. He is now a sociologist within the Church.

Truzenzuzex is a thranx and had been the other half of the sting ship crew. Tru is now a philosoph within the Church.

In this story, Flinx is visiting the AAnn homeworld in a simsuit. He and Pip look like a nye as they wander around the capital. They have quarters in the suburbs, where they eat and air out the suit.

Flinx is observing the AAnn as they work and play. He probably knows more about the creatures in their normal environment than anyone else from Humanx space. He is learning much about their typical behavior in an urban setting.

After a couple of weeks in the city, someone notices that Flinx is using counterfeit money. Armed enforcers are waiting for him at his rented quarters. He runs with them in close pursuit, but manages to shake them using his Talent.

The search spreads out faster than he can move. He is driven away from the wildlands where he had landed and expects to catch the shuttle back to his ship. He eventually finds a hiding place in a private estate.

Kiijeem lives and hunts on his family's estate. One night he finds something more dangerous than he had expected in his hunts. At first, he thinks that the intruder is another nye, but then Flinx reveals that he is a softskin.

Flinx gradually becomes a friend of Kiijeem, telling him stories of Humanx space. Finally, Flinx explains the situation and asks if he knows anyone that can help. Kiijeem takes him to some friends.

Meanwhile, Clarity has been on New Riviera for about a year. Bran and Tru took her to the medical facility and have been keeping an eye on her as they wait for Flinx to return. She has almost recovered from the injuries.

This tale is the last volume in the series. Other tales of the Humanx Commonwealth may be forthcoming, but probably no more novels about Philip Lynx. Read and enjoy!

Highly recommended for Foster fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of interplanetary adventures, alien cultures and extraordinary young men.

-Arthur W. Jordin

This book has two parts. The first part is another "wander around" sort of Flinx & Pip adventure. Flinx is on the AAnn homeworld, in disguise as an AAnn. I loved this part--well written, interesting, inspired even. 5-stars.

The second part wraps up the whole Flinx&Pip series, as promised on the book cover. It was very nice to have closure, but I just couldn't get excited about the writing or the plot.

Overally, I would recommend this to any Flinx & Pip fan.

This is a very good book, but I'm sad to see the series end. He keeps the action fast and the story is up to his usual standards. He ties up most loose ends and the ending is nice. Amazon delivered in their usual fast time.

The fourteenth and final installment in the Flinx and Pip Adventures Series opens with Flinx in disguise on the AAnn homeworld, an expedition he has undertaken simply because no other Human ever did this. There's a Commonwealth embassy staffed by Humans and Thranx, but never has one of his kind lived among the AAnn incognito. Of course Flinx finds himself on the run soon enough, hiding in the garden of an AAnn estate. There he's discovered by the estate owners' adolescent son, who is so intrigued by this "enemy" that the youngster not only allows Flinx to remain; he eventually arranges access to adults who can help Flinx both leave safely, and further his quest to save the galaxy (AAnn included) from the oncoming Great Evil.

That's the first arc in this three-part tale. Flinx reunites with Clarity Held, his one great love, and with his Human and Thranx mentors. A young Thranx church official from one of the earlier books also reappears, and despite the best efforts of the Order of Null - and even a hired Quarm assassin - they all set off to find the great Tar-Aiym weapons platform on which they have pinned their hopes. Flinx, as readers of this series well know, is the one Class A mind (or is he?) in all the Commonwealth and its known space. This makes him the only person who can communicate with the ancient Tar-Aiym devices. But what if even the weapons platform cannot stop the Great Evil that accelerates constantly as it heads toward the Milky Way? Or at least, if it cannot do this by itself?

The first part of this book might just as well have been another of the many "Flinx on a planet" tales in the series. While it entertained me as Flinx stories always have, ever since I read the first one back in the 1970s, I wondered whether or not the conclusion would ever come; and whether, when it did, it would let me down. I'm glad to say that it didn't let me down one bit. It drew together all the threads that Foster began to spin in earlier installments, and it kept within the boundaries of the universe created by those installments. I do wish that Scrap the minidrag hadn't temporarily changed genders in the last chapter; but that is poor editing, not poor writing. I also wish that whoever handles cover art for Del Rey might have used a red-headed cover model instead of a blond one - if that's not Flinx on the cover, who is it, pray tell? Those are minor quibbles, though; as is my initial annoyance at the AAnn home-world tale taking up the book's first third instead of appearing somewhere else and letting the series conclusion get rolling in Chapter 1. Foster satisfied this reader after 14 books and 35 years. That's definitely worth 5 stars.

--Reviewed by Nina M. Osier, author of 2005 EPPIE science fiction winner "Regs"

For some reason the MMPK and hard cover do not reference each other on Amazon.

This is supposedly the final story of Pip and Flinx (the 14th book). I'll believe it when I see it <g>. <spoiler> The name of the book really should have been _Back_to_the_Krang_. </spoiler>

I read _The_Tar-Aiym_Krang_ in 1975 or so. Great, great, great book (yes, a five star) and was hooked. 13 books later, the series has dropped off severely. Most of the books seem to be based on Foster's latest vacation out of the USA. However, I still read them all when they came out in MMPK and I will read any follow on book.

My rating ? 4 out of 5 stars. It did not reach my coveted 5 star rating because I could put it down and go do something else. And, it is not a 3 star because the book still managed to surprise me and I looked eagerly forward to resuming it each night.

Lynn

This was one of the best books of the 35 year series. The book tied up loose ends found in the other books about Pip and Flix.

D.L. Helm