Sliding Scales

Alan Dean Foster's Pip series (and the Humanx consortium) is a great, untapped Space Opera - every story has twists and turns, and the Pip-verse is full of rich detail that rivals Star Wars/Star Trek or the Barrayaran saga. I'm both surprised and glad these have not made it to film - I'd rather enjoy Foster's imagination without seeing it adapted into opblivion.

I was just thinking to myself what could we possibly do to Flinx that hasn't been done before and I started to draw a little blank. Fortunately, we've got STANDBY PLOT FIXES. Amnesia!

Oh, wait.

Well, fortunately, it's not even a tenth as bad as it may seem. Truly. I mean, Flinx does have a HONKER of a brain tumor and getting it knocked about is sure to scramble SOMETHING. In this case, I simply didn't mind in the slightest. It's because of the setting. Our favorite evil lizards and our poor Flinx have been getting on swimmingly. More or less.

Stranded on a somewhat neutral slithery tentacular alien world being inducted into the lizard political machine, the memory-less Flinx gets taken in by an artist colony.

Yeah! Isn't that cool! And show more you'll never guess who the artists are.

This one is still a great adventure, but alien exploration and subtle commentary on art as well as a reflection for ADF are quite apparent and delightful... or at least to me. :) I never expected to like the lizards more than that charming elderly couple a few novels back, but I am well mistaken. :)

It was also rather cool to see another side of Flinx, freed from the weight of his cares for once. show less

Probably my most disappointing reading experience from this otherwise enjoyable series.
The shifting of the focus from Flinx did not elevate the story, and while I understand the reason for the amnesia, I find it a greatly overused trope.
The side story of the sole native terrorist campaign was neither interesting nor enlightening. And while I usually enjoy the presence of the Aann in these tales, the greater exposure was fairly uninteresting.
I hope the series picks up in the next book.

Interesting and memorable story about....losing memory.

With his memory lost, Flinx is almost peripheral to this story, but in a good way. Interesting exploration of Aan culture, as well as a fascinating ecology of the planet Jast.

Pip and Flinx. Tries to take a vacation on a remote world. Ends up getting amnesia, joining up with an artsy, hence outcast, group of Aann, gets one of them killed, and then gets his memory back and leaves. Feels like Foster is just spinning this whole Pip and Flinx thing out as long as he can. I’m not impressed.

Acting on the advice of his shaceship, Flinx goes on a vacation to an out of the way planet - out of the way to avoid the increasing number of people chasing him. Unfortunately, he looses his memory and only has Pip, his pet minidragon, around at first.

I liked this one since you learn more about the AAnn.