Running from the Deity
by Alan Dean Foster
Pip and Flinx: publishing order (11), Humanx Commonwealth: timeline (558 AA: Pip and Flinx 10), Humanx Commonwealth Universe (Pip & Flinx — 4.10)
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Description
In the outer depths of the universe lies the Great Emptiness, where something dreadful lurks, hidden behind a great gravitational lens of dark matter. Something horrific that howls and writhes and rages across three hundred million light-years of space -- and is now heading straight for the Commonwealth and moving faster all the time. One slim chance exists to avert catastrophe, and only Flinx can take it. Roaming the galaxy is a conscious planet-size weapons system, the legacy of a show more long-extinct race. As Flinx is the only one who has ever experienced mental contact with the machine, it is his job to find the powerful alien artifact and coax it into joining the battle against the behemoth from beyond. So Pip and Flinx valiantly sail into the unknown aboard their little spaceship, which is immediately forced down for emergency repairs on planet Arrawd, home to less advanced sentients and therefore off-limits to space travelers. But what with Arrawd being very beautiful, and Flinx being Flinx, this particular rule doesn't stand a chance. Now, Flinx is no stranger to murderous attacks and stalking assassins -- evading them occupies most of his waking hours -- but to be besieged by hordes bent on worshipping him as a god? Worse still, escaping this fate is going to be as impossible as fulfilling his dire mission. What's a deity to do? show lessTags
Recommendations
Member Reviews
Running from the Deity felt like padding for the overall series. Less innovative, with a slow pace in the middle, it was only saved by the last part of the story.
The newly introduced aliens were largely uninspired and failed to provide any interesting hooks.
Flinx’s naivety was frustrating and unrealistic. The cliched sprained ankle was a groan inducing trope.
I would hazard to guess that Foster was contracted to provide a certain number of Flinx novels during this particular period, and in the absence of inspiration hacked out a filler story.
If I revisit this excellent series in the future, this is one book I can overlook.
The newly introduced aliens were largely uninspired and failed to provide any interesting hooks.
Flinx’s naivety was frustrating and unrealistic. The cliched sprained ankle was a groan inducing trope.
I would hazard to guess that Foster was contracted to provide a certain number of Flinx novels during this particular period, and in the absence of inspiration hacked out a filler story.
If I revisit this excellent series in the future, this is one book I can overlook.
I expected something light for Flinx's ongoing adventure and kinda expected the big galaxy consuming monstrosity to feature big because of the title, so what I did actually get is rather funny.
Running from the Deity? LOL Who is it? FLINX.
Oh, Flinx, what have you done?
Really, what could have been kinda corny or a flashback to C3PO among the Ewoks was actually rather cool in a Flinx-specific kind of way. He's not a bad kid, after all. He's just kinda stupid sometimes and he never watched Star Trek. Or maybe he did and he took all the wrong lessons from Janeway or something.
What could be the harm? Just heal some locals while I wait for my ship to fix itself. NO BIG DEAL.
Right. Well, the aliens are cool which is kinda a standard thing for show more ADF and the implications and runaway events are suitably wild and Flinx just can't keep up with the crazy.
Light fun, indeed. I'm quite happy with this series. :) show less
Running from the Deity? LOL Who is it? FLINX.
Oh, Flinx, what have you done?
Really, what could have been kinda corny or a flashback to C3PO among the Ewoks was actually rather cool in a Flinx-specific kind of way. He's not a bad kid, after all. He's just kinda stupid sometimes and he never watched Star Trek. Or maybe he did and he took all the wrong lessons from Janeway or something.
What could be the harm? Just heal some locals while I wait for my ship to fix itself. NO BIG DEAL.
Right. Well, the aliens are cool which is kinda a standard thing for show more ADF and the implications and runaway events are suitably wild and Flinx just can't keep up with the crazy.
Light fun, indeed. I'm quite happy with this series. :) show less
Pip goes to a low tech world to hide and get repairs. Instead of staying hidden in his ship, he goes out and makes contact with the natives, setting a war in motion. He, and the A.I. of the ship, stop the war and take off.
This was PATHETIC! Nothing but Pip feeling bad for himself and doing stupid things and feeling bad about those, etc, etc. Foster has totally lost the FUN that started this series. Boooo!
This was PATHETIC! Nothing but Pip feeling bad for himself and doing stupid things and feeling bad about those, etc, etc. Foster has totally lost the FUN that started this series. Boooo!
Flinx is looking for the intelligent Tar-Aiym weapons platform in the Blight when the shipmind tells him the ship needs some repair. While to Commonwelth law forbids landing on a primative world, Flinx and the ship think they can remain hidden. That's when things start to go wrong.
All the recent Pip and Flinx books have been disappointing.
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Author Information
363+ Works 74,051 Members
Bestselling science fiction writer Alan Dean Foster was born in New York City in 1946, but raised mainly in California. He received a B.A. in Political Science from UCLA in 1968, and a M.F.A. in 1969. Foster enjoys traveling because it gives him opportunities to meet new people and explore new places and cultures. This interest is carried over to show more his writing, but with a twist: the new places encountered in his books are likely to be on another planet, and the people may belong to an alien race. Foster began his career as an author when a letter he sent to Arkham Collection was purchased by the editor and published in the magazine in 1968. His first novel, The Tar-Aiym Krang, introduced the Humanx Commonwealth, a galactic alliance between humans and an insectlike race called Thranx. Several other novels, including the Icerigger trilogy, are also set in the world of the Commonwealth. The Tar-Aiym Krang also marked the first appearance of Flinx, a young man with paranormal abilities, who reappears in other books, including Orphan Star, For Love of Mother-Not, and Flinx in Flux. Foster has also written The Damned series and the Spellsinger series, which includes The Hour of the Gate, The Moment of the Magician, The Paths of the Perambulator, and Son of Spellsinger, among others. Other books include novelizations of science fiction movies and television shows such as Star Trek, The Black Hole, Starman, Star Wars, and the Alien movies. Splinter of the Mind's Eye, a bestselling novel based on the Star Wars movies, received the Galaxy Award in 1979. The book Cyber Way won the Southwest Book Award for Fiction in 1990. His novel Our Lady of the Machine won him the UPC Award (Spain) in 1993. He also won the Ignotus Award (Spain) in 1994 and the Stannik Award (Russia) in 2000. He is the recipient of the Faust, the IAMTW Lifetime achievement award. Alan Dean Foster's Star Wars: The Force Awakens, was a 2015 New York Times bestseller. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Series
Pip and Flinx: publishing order
19 works (11)
Humanx Commonwealth: timeline
29 works (558 AA: Pip and Flinx 10)
Humanx Commonwealth Universe
1 works (Pip & Flinx — 4.10)
Belongs to Publisher Series
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- Running from the Deity
- Original publication date
- 2005
- People/Characters
- Flinx (Philip Lynx); Pip the minidrag
- Important places
- Planet Arrawd
- Dedication
- For my nephew, Shawn Lee Stumbo
- First words
- At first thought, you'd think it would be easy to find a missing planet
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)The difference was that in this instance, instead of seeking help for himself, Flinx had been called upon to provide it for someone else.
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 512
- Popularity
- 58,850
- Reviews
- 7
- Rating
- (3.38)
- Languages
- English, German
- Media
- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 5
- ASINs
- 4
