REUNION

After five years, the Flinx and Pip far-future series reappears (Mid-Flinx, 1995). Flinx, the product of illegal genetic experiments, has the intermittent ability to sense and sometimes control the emotions of those around him. Companion Pip’s a similarly gifted venomous flying snake. This time the pair visits Earth, where Flinx attempts to pry information about his mysterious past from the planetary database. But the file to which he most wants access vanishes aboard a ship heading for Pyrassis, a planet so remote that it actually lies inside the empire of the reptilian-alien AAnn. When Flinx arrives at Pyrassis and attempts to probe his quarry, the ship infects his shuttle with a computer virus, causing him to crash on the planet—a mineralogist’s paradise, though all but waterless. While he’s away, sentient alien plants aboard his own ship begin doing something enigmatic. After various adventures, Flinx, nearly dead of thirst, is rescued/captured by AAnn scientists studying a huge, ancient alien transmitter buried inside the planet. The transmitter signals to a remote moon that turns out to be an equally huge alien spaceship. Flinx manages to escape and heads for the moon, pursued by AAnn troops.

The action’s okay, but the plotting’s outright shoddy: there’s no real reason for any of the foregoing to happen; and the numerous puzzles remain annoyingly unexplained. Conclusion: the author’s aiming to spin things out indefinitely.