Author: Alan Dean Foster
Cover Artist: Robert Hunt
Published By: Del Rey Books
Binding: Hardback
Publication Date: June 2009
The much-anticipated conclusion of Alan Dean Foster’s Pip & Flinx series, Flinx Transcendent,is finally here, and it’s a satisfying finale that fans of the series (like moi) are sure to want to check out. The hero of the series, Philip Linx (Flinx, for short) and his famous venomous minidrag, Pip, visit the planet of Blasusarr, home to the race of sentient reptilian enemies of the Commonwealth and the Thranx known as the AAnn.
Flinx does it because he is a person who always thirsts for knowledge of other races, and because of the fact that no human has ever tried to infiltrate and assimilate with the AAnn before. The only humans that have come into contact with the AAnn have either been emissaries, or enemy combatants, and it was often the case that they would wind up on the AAnn’s dinner menu. Flinx, always up for a challenge, therefore wants to have a little fun doing what had previously been the impossible, before then living out his fate as the savior of the universe, a mission that he knows inevitably lies ahead of him.
There is an inexorable force, a being of almost unimaginable proportions, consuming all matter it comes into contact with. Flinx has had contact with it in the past, and though he is unsure how to ultimately deal with it, some of the people he knows believe that he is the only one who has the special abilities and skill set to be able to stop the continued destruction that threatens the existence of the Commonwealth, the Thranx Empire, the AAnn, and virtually everything else that exists.
Flinx’s spaceship, Teacher,plays an important role in this novel, as it does in many others in the series. It is in orbit, prepared to pick up Flinx when needed. Teacheris using chameleonware to disguise itself as an innocuous, non-Commonwealth craft. Despite all of Blasusarr’s impressive security measures, they are no match for Flinx and his spaceship, and Flinx, wearing an AAnn simsuit, integrates successfully with the very aggressive, bloodthirsty, status-seeking natives. With creatures all around Flinx who would happily eat him if they knew that he was a human, what could possibly go wrong?
How about a city wide alert to be on the look-out for someone meeting his simsuited description who has been passing illegal currency? And, just when Flinx believes he’s located a relatively safe place to hide out for awhile, when he bypasses the security of an nye estate (“nye” is the term for adult AAns), he gets word from his spaceship that AAns who had been monitoring it finally grew suspicious enough, due to its mechanical responses, to investigate the craft further by sending up a ship to see if its crew were ill. Teachertells Flinx the options – it could destroy the ship easily, but that wouldn’t prove favorable to Flinx’s continued existence – or, it could leave him stranded there for several days while it left and reconfigured itself, allowing it to then pick up Flinx much more safely.
Not having much of a choice, Flinx resorts to the second option. However, even though he has made a friend in Kiijeem, the adolescent male offspring of the inhabitants of the estate he’s hiding out at, some of Kiijeem’s relatives get fairly close to his location on the estate when they decide to take a stroll. Flinx worries that it’s only a matter of time before he’s detected, and he asks his young friend to help him by taking him to some other, more mature, AAnn who he can convince to assist him in leaving the planet.
Alan Dean Foster is a master at world building, and Flinx Transcendent proves no exception to the rule. He’s had lots of experience, since Flinx and Teacher travel to at least one different planet in almost all of the Pip & Flinxnovels. Blasusarr is a desert world, with an intensely hot sun that beats down upon it. It has little vegetation, but that doesn’t matter much to the AAnns, because they are carnivores. They have evolved enough to be intelligent, and to have cities and businesses and interstellar travel, and an interplanetary Empire; but, they still are largely creatures of base instincts, who have ritualized fights on a daily basis. Anyone taking the center path on a walkway, for instance, instead of the left or right options, can be challenged at any time by someone else on the path to a fight.
Much in the life of the AAnns is based on their striving for status. They can gain or lose status based on the decisions they make and whether they win or lose a fight, or accept challenges. When one loses, or when one of a higher status meets an AAnn of a lower status, it’s customary to turn one’s head and bare one’s neck as a sign of trust and acceptance of defeat or an admittance of a lower status.
The description of the houses the AAnns live in was also a good touch, and to me, aided greatly in the realism the author was trying to create. The houses are generally partially underground, and often have only one floor, with the windows at ground level. This is because the AAnns often ambushed prey in the past, sometimes by hiding in pits, and their dwellings attempt to approximate this sort of attitude by letting the AAnn have a similar view of the world outside their homes. Their homes also have warmed sandpits in them, and their interiors are made to look like caves as much as possible. The wealthier AAnns have simulated or real gems embedded in the walls.
Quite a few of the books in the Pip & Flinx series have been about Flinx’s search for his origins and his father. Flinx discovered the truth about this in the previous, penultimate novel, Patrimony.Flinx is a empath, as is his minidrag, and he can (and does) use his Talent both defensively and offensively. He learned a truth he really didn’t want to in the last book – that he was a part of an experiment, and was created in a test tube, with paternal DNA created in a laboratory.
The adventures Flinx &aPip have on the various planets they travel to, and the relationship Flinx has with the almost human Teacher,are very entertaining and often involve multiple conflicts, some which are resolved in each individual novel, and others that are ongoing (like Flinx’s attempts to discover his paternity) throughout several novels.
They also all have a quirky, humorous streak, which is an aspect I really like in general in novels. There are many examples of this in Flinx Transcendent,but I’ll give just one here so you can have a taste of Foster’s writing style. Kiijeem thinks of how he can take Flinx to someone who is more mature than he is, Lord Eiipul, who can help Flinx leave Blasusarr without any automated sensors or AAnns recognizing him. Kiijeem brings him a brown translucent veil to wear over his head, and Flinx asks him if he might look silly wearing it:
“Not ssilly.” Kiijeem corrected him somberly. “Pathetic.”
“Pathe…?” Flinx set the material aside. Pip immediately commenced an investigation of the intriguing soft folds. “Why? What does the wearing of this signify? Come to think of it, I don’t remember seeing it on any other nye.”
“Not all who are allowed to wear the ijkkchoosse to do sso,” Kiijeem explained. “You see the metallic hem? The iijkk itsself ssignifiess a dessire for privacy. The color of the metal band indicatess that the wearer iss impotent.”
Much of the rest of the novel is spent with Flinx seeking out an ancient sentient weapons platform which is wandering around somewhere in the galaxy and then communicate with it, and try to convince it to help him stop the entity Flinx refers to as the Great Evil from consuming the entire galaxy. Oh, and, if that wasn’t enough, he also is pursued by oblivion-craving assassins who are hell bent on stopping Flinx from preventing total annihilation from occurring. It’s all in a day’s work for Flinx, who never is one to shy away from the impossible.
Whether you’re a Pip & Flinx fan or a newbie, Flinx Transcendentis a novel you’re sure to love, if you like action-packed SF stories with quirky characters who find themselves often involved in life and death situations. Despite being involved in them though, Flinx, in particular, has an ironic take on life and his place in it, and sometimes questions whether or not the galaxy and the inhabitants of it are worth his efforts to save them. On his trip to Blasusarr, he learns that even the bloodthirsty AAnn had their good qualities, and were worth saving from annihilation. And, after having read Flinx Transcendent, I’d say that itis definitely worth a place in any SF lover’s personal library. It is an excellent conclusion to the series – though, I’d like to send a word out to Alan Dean Foster here – “Please, please write at least further short stories about Pip & Flinx! They’re too wonderful of literary creations to not write more adventures about them!”
