I read and enjoyed Alan Dean Foster’s stories of Flinx and Pip when I was a teen/college student. This was the mid-80’s and there were a half dozen books or so. They’ve recently been re-released (and apparently several more books have been written). My younger son, the voracious SF-Fantasy reader, picked up a few from the library, so I decided to give it a re-read.I typically like to read extended series in the order they were written, not the order things occur chronologically in the series. Even when the book is earlier in the series chronology, later written books tend to have spoilers because the author assumes that you have already read the previously published volumes, or because they feel they have to explicitly show the tie-in to the other books. I also typically find it jarring to go from the prequel written with a writer’s mature voice back to the chronologically later books by the fledgling author (Mercedes Lackey and Katherine Kurtz are two good examples of this).From reading the front covers of the books my son brought home, it appeared that For Love of Mother-Not was the first book in the series. And it is, it is the origin story of how Flinx met Pip. The book is plot driven, adventures and peril abound, but I found the book lacking something and the digressions to other points of view disruptive. And then I went to Mr. Foster’s website and discovered that For Love of Mother-Not was actual a prequel, written in the mid-80’s and not actually the first Flinx story. I don’t know if that explains my sense of missing something, but when next I return to this universe, I will go back to The Tar-Aiym Krang, which is the first book in the Commonwealth Universe.
He was just a slightly unusual boy with a very unusual pet: a flying snake with a very deadly venom. Flinx has grown up under Mother Mastiff's care, and when she's kidnapped, he sets out to rescue her. But the adventure will prove to be more than he anticipated, the stakes higher, and the mysteries deeper. After all, what could anyone want with him?The story of yet another adolescent boy and his pet has enough twists to keep everything fresh. Flinx's unstable and unpredictable Talent is only part of the story: he's fast, clever, and as stubborn as the woman who raised him. When she goes missing, he takes it very personally, and goes all-out to get her back. And the pet in question is an extremely lethal miniature dragon named Pip, who can spit venom so corrosive it eats through metal in seconds. Nor is the plot as simple as "bad guys took Mom and the good guys get her back." Flinx has gained the attention of more than one outside agency, and those agencies have vastly different agendas for Flinx. The interesting thing is that neither group is easier to root for: the "mad scientists" want a better life for Flinx than the people who would spare him from their grasp. But both groups have underestimated what Flinx and Pip can do together.Overall this is an enjoyable read, and a very quick one. The dynamic between Flinx and Pip is a lot of fun, and the unanswered questions leave wide horizons for future novels. I rate this book Recommended.
What do You think about For Love Of Mother-Not (1987)?
I've seen the Flinx books in bookstores for years, but never really got around to buying them. Mostly because I hate to enter mid-series. This was a free Kindle offer as the first(timeline-wise, not as written) in the series. It was pretty good. Without any of the others, I'm not sure how it compares, but hopefully the main character is set up properly for his more "grown-up" character in the rest of the series.I guess since this involve other world and space travel I should classify it as science fiction - but I'm leaving it in fantasy also, because of the telepathy aspect.
—Tracy Dobbs
Orphan Flinx is adopted (bought) by a quarrelsome old woman who owns a small shop. Her shop is located in the only large city on a planet where it rains most of the time (sounds like the Pacific Northwest). She becomes the mother he never had.One night, he "hears" a lonely thought using an unreliable "talent" for feeling emotions and traces it to a strange winged snake in a garbage heap which immediately "adopts" Flinx as his new owner (buddy?). He names it "Pip". Well, it turns out that Pip is a very dangerous snake that can spit a highly corrosive neurotoxin when threatened.When his "mother" is kidnapped and spirited across the mostly wild planet, Flinx and Pip pursue to rescue her.This is the first book in a rather extensive series. It sold very well as did the series. The writing is very smooth and moves along without boring pauses.I recommend it to science fiction fans who like to read of struggles and personal mysteries. The reader ends up knowing where Flinx comes from and how he acquired his talent, but Flinx only gets a couple of hints.A great set-up for the series.
—Al
This was the first book I read in the Pip and Flinx series - I'm a sucker for reading things in chronological order.It was pretty good, and kept my interest, for the most part.My only complaint was the bad people/the villains. They talked way too much and spent too much time spelling out their plans to the point of making me want to skip their passages entirely. I know this is a fantasy world, but how much of it was really necessary? Did we really need to have the characters talk for paragraphs and paragraphs detailing things that the person they were talking to should already know?I do look forward to reading the next one...or I guess it would be the actual first book of the series ;)
—Amy
