REUNION by Alan Dean Foster

A PIP AND FLINX NOVEL

Del Rey, June 2001

Flinx, along with his pet minidrag Pip, is in search of the truth about his ancestry, the strange Meliorare Society experiments that give him a limited and erratic to sense and even influence emotions, and his history. This search takes him first to ancient Earth where he must somehow penetrate the secret database that contains and restricts so much of human knowledge. From what he learns there, Flinx sets off on a journey into AAnn space following a trace of someone who is researching--him.

With occasional life-saving help from Pip, and limited use of his psychic abilities, Flinx is first marooned on a desert planet where even the rocks are predatory, and then forced to confront a woman who is both his ancient enemy, and the one other person in the universe who shares at least a portion of Flinx's psychic insight. The predatory AAnn follow close behind, threatening both Flinx and Mahnahmi.

Author Alan Dean Foster (see more BooksForABuck.com reviews of novels by this author) dishes up an escalating diet of danger as Flinx pinballs from one trouble to the next. Flinx's moral scruples help keep him sympathetic to the reader even when he is forced to resort to manipulation and abuse of his psychic abilities. Foster does rely on a bit of a deux ex machine to save Flinx from his troubles, but only after pushing Flinx to the absolute limit.

REUNION is an exciting roller coaster ride of a novel. Although I would have liked to see more resolution of some of the issues of Flinx's life, and more movement toward his goals, Foster's writing kept me turning the pages.

Three Stars

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