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A review by brettt
The End of the Matter by Alan Dean Foster
4.0
Alan Dean Foster's sprawling Humanx Commonwealth universe was still in its toddler stages when he sent his hero Flinx on a journey to find his unknown father in 1977's The End of the Matter. Both the title and the 11-year gap until the next novel chronologically in the series suggested that this part of that universe had finished, and even the unresolved resolution of the quest more or less gave that impression. In many ways that helps Matter as a story and novel.
His search for his birth mother complete, Flinx returns to his homeworld and adoptive parent, Mother Mastiff. He wants to visit with her, relax and learn whatever clues she may still remember that could lead him to his birth father. After the events of Orphan Star, Flinx has the wealth and wherewithal to make that search, but the information is frustratingly thin. His acquisition of the nonsense-spouting alien Abalamahalamatandra ("Ab") and of the enmity of the galactic assassin clan known as the Qwarm complicate things even while he pursues his slimmest lead yet. Which lead will take him into an arena that bodes catastrophe for three worlds, as well.
Matter is was the fourth Flinx book written although third in chronological order for the series at that time. It was also the 14th or 15th book Foster had written, including his extensive catalog of movie adaptations (The Dark Star, Star Wars, etc.) and his novelizing the Star Trek animated series episodes as well. It shows a much greater polish than the initial two books in the series but keeps Foster's dry and witty tone. Since the focus is on both Flinx's quest for his father and his hunt for a way to save three worlds menaced by a deadly stellar phenomena, there is less of the ecological exploration that Foster likes to do in creating the alien biomes of his novels. But the sense of conclusion, incomplete as it was, seemed to encourage Foster to help his first major series character to go out on top, and Matter remains one of his best books.
The Flinx series would get a 1983 prequel but start moving forward again in 1988. The nine subsequent adventures of Flinx and his mini-dragon flying snake Pip are quite a bit more scattered and unfocused. Although they would help Flinx learn as much of the truth about his origins as he could, provide a grand tour through the Humanx Commonwealth and are entertaining reads in themselves, they wind up feeling a lot like an extended and sometimes overstretched coda to The End of the Matter.
Original available here.
His search for his birth mother complete, Flinx returns to his homeworld and adoptive parent, Mother Mastiff. He wants to visit with her, relax and learn whatever clues she may still remember that could lead him to his birth father. After the events of Orphan Star, Flinx has the wealth and wherewithal to make that search, but the information is frustratingly thin. His acquisition of the nonsense-spouting alien Abalamahalamatandra ("Ab") and of the enmity of the galactic assassin clan known as the Qwarm complicate things even while he pursues his slimmest lead yet. Which lead will take him into an arena that bodes catastrophe for three worlds, as well.
Matter is was the fourth Flinx book written although third in chronological order for the series at that time. It was also the 14th or 15th book Foster had written, including his extensive catalog of movie adaptations (The Dark Star, Star Wars, etc.) and his novelizing the Star Trek animated series episodes as well. It shows a much greater polish than the initial two books in the series but keeps Foster's dry and witty tone. Since the focus is on both Flinx's quest for his father and his hunt for a way to save three worlds menaced by a deadly stellar phenomena, there is less of the ecological exploration that Foster likes to do in creating the alien biomes of his novels. But the sense of conclusion, incomplete as it was, seemed to encourage Foster to help his first major series character to go out on top, and Matter remains one of his best books.
The Flinx series would get a 1983 prequel but start moving forward again in 1988. The nine subsequent adventures of Flinx and his mini-dragon flying snake Pip are quite a bit more scattered and unfocused. Although they would help Flinx learn as much of the truth about his origins as he could, provide a grand tour through the Humanx Commonwealth and are entertaining reads in themselves, they wind up feeling a lot like an extended and sometimes overstretched coda to The End of the Matter.
Original available here.