Flinx at his most passive

kw: book reviews, science fiction, pip and flinx series

While preparing a series of posts for a history book, I read Running from the Deity by Alan Dean Foster, one of his "Pip and Flink" series. A mix of space opera and cautionary tale, Deity has Philip Lynx becoming a god as an unanticipated side effect of avoiding boredom while his ship repairs itself on a "Class IVb" planet.

Philip, AKA Flinx, suffers from an excess of empathy, or rather telempathy. He can't turn it off—though it comes and goes capriciously—, so visiting populated areas is quite uncomfortable for him. Pip is a minidrag, a small (meter-length?) flying reptile that spits poison, but most importantly, is also a telempath that can link with Flinx (I had to!), and is a comforting companion.

Flinx is also a thief, so must keep one step ahead of the law. Fortunately, he did a big favor for members of an advanced species, and they built him a starship, one of the few that can land on a planet. Nice trillion (quadrillion?)-credit bonus, that! So, he bombs around the galaxy, in a loose league with a few sympathetic humans and thranx, who are trying to save the universe from an evil bigger than a galaxy cluster.

Foster writes like a house afire. This has the great benefit that his most suspenseful scenes don't drag on too long. On the other hand, I wonder to what extent he thinks things through. This novel has Flinx at his most blindlingly naïve ever. He seems compelled to spill his guts to every interviewer, trusting his ability to read emotions. Of course, he can't discern accompanying thoughts, so how is he to know the joy a creature feels is to his benefit? I'd be suspicious of Stalin's joy, for example.

Anyway, a fun book, with yet another nonhuman sentient species to show for it. The author is one of the better inventors of aliens.