Sliding Scales: A Pip & Flinx Adventure [Hardcover] Foster, Alan Dean

Product Description From New York Times bestselling author Alan Dean Foster comes a fantastic new Pip and Flinx adventure starring a certain twenty-four-year-old redhead with emerald eyes and uncanny abilities and his devoted mini-dragon protector. Time and again, the daring pair have braved countless dangers to emerge victorious. But now Flinx attempts something that may be impossible for the heretofore undefeated hero. His mission: to take a vacation. Never have the cares of the universe lain so heavily on Flinx’s shoulders, nor the forces arrayed against him seemed so invincible. Pursued by a newly revealed sect of doomsday fanatics, hunted by factions inside and outside the Commonwealth for transgressions real and imagined, expected to single-handedly avert a looming galactic crisis (or bear responsibility for the consequences), Flinx can be forgiven for feeling a slight touch of melancholy. There’s only one solution for what ails Flinx, according to his ship’s AI. But taking time off is tricky business. With an increasing number of enemies chasing him with ever-greater enthusiasm, Flinx must find a getaway shrouded in obscurity. Jast, a planet smack in the middle of nowhere, is the perfect locale. Yet even in a place where hardly anyone’s ever seen a human, Flinx and trouble can’t stay separated for long. Unfortunately, Flinx hasn’t a clue that his vacation paradise is in reality a danger zone of the highest magnitude. And by the time he learns the truth, it may be too late. From Publishers Weekly Flinx and Pip, that daring duo of man and "minidrag" (a flying snake), take a break—or try to—from fighting the forces of evil in Foster's surprisingly dark ninth entry (after 2003's Flinx's Folly) in an SF series usually considered light on substance but heavy on fun. Philip "Flinx" Lynx, the young Commonwealth hero, is exhausted. He may hold the key to saving the universe, but he doesn't care. He broods over Clarity Held, the injured girlfriend he left behind in Flinx's Folly. Teacher, his ever-helpful ship-mind, suggests a vacation. Unfortunately, Flinx travels to Jast, a planet caught in a rising conflict between two sentient species, the mushroom-like Vssey and the reptilian AAnns. An ambitious AAnn secondary administrator, Takuuna, wants Jast allied with the Empire at any cost, including subterfuge, terrorism and murder. His mistrust of "softskinned" humans leads to an attempt on Flinx's life, but Chraluuc, an AAnn artisan, finds Flinx and nurses him back to health as the outcast artists of Tier courageously welcome him into their family. Foster exhibits a keen eye for depicting alien art forms and injects a cohesion lacking in some earlier installments, giving the series a much-needed energy boost. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From School Library Journal Adult/High School–On the run, the young human Flinx and his companion, Pip, an Alaspasian flying snake, arrive on the planet Jast for a "vacation," but find it under the influence of the AAn Empire, enemy of the Humanx Commonwealth. Inspector Taruuna, assigned to Flinx as guide (and watchdog), attacks him and leaves the "spy" for dead. Rescued and given shelter by the Tier, an AAn artists' colony, Flinx recovers but has lost his memory. The situation is further complicated by the beginning of local resistance to AAn control. Foster does a wonderful job of creating an alien world: the varied life-forms on Jast use air-filled bladders for locomotion. The sentient Vssey, tubular and tentacled, make decisions by consensus reached after lengthy discussion, infuriating the reptilian AAn; they believe in hierarchy and survival of the fittest. Flinx and the Tier find common ground despite major cultural differences; he and Craluuc, a female artist, form a particularly strong bond. When Taruuna learns that Flinx is alive, the Tier must decide whether to defy the order to turn him in. Familiarity with previous