Foster, Alan Dean. The End of the Matter. Pip and Flinx No. 4 (Chronological). Del Rey, 1977.
The End of the Matter should not be your first Pip and Flinx book. It is a close sequel to the two books that preceded it in the series. In it, Flinx gets to do some archeology and looks for a father, there are some primitive aliens to fight and an alien superweapon to deal with, and lucky Pip meets another minidragon. Plenty of unlikely plot devices in a rather dated style. 3.5 stars. ( )

This one seems to have had fewer twists and turns than the previous one but that's perfectly okay. Instead, we have the continuing quest to find out just where Flinx came from. His mother, having been found in the previous volume, only leads to a missing father. Just how messed up could *that* quest get?

Pretty messed up.

First of all, Flinx has an amazing talent for killing random people for good reasons at extremely unfortunate times. We could blame most of that on Pip, but Flinx is always putting himself in unwelcome positions. Enter assassins. Multi-world, organized, extremely powerful assassins. Add an idea where to find the mysterious personage who tried and failed to purchase the kid he was on the slave block, a weird-ass alien who is the main target for said assassins, and we've got a cool recipe for adventure. Again. I'm surprised it works as well as it does. Or maybe not. Maybe I should just trust ADF from now on. :)

So yeah, an ancient civilization or two, lots of ruins and a jungle, an armada of dangerous and deadly aliens, and a rogue black hole ravaging tons of systems. That also happens. And spoilers aside... Woah. Hell yeah. Woah. COOL, MAN. :)

So sure, we can call this YA but it's pretty awesome for us SF freaks, too. Good astrophysics, great backstory, lots of worldbuilding, and great characters and baseline story that tends to go nuts with even bigger things happening all around him. Can we blame Flinx?

No. Really, we can't. He just happens to have a preternatural talent for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. He has his own goals. They just happen to have AMAZING unintended consequences. Yay! ADVENTURE. :) ( )

Most series start to fall off in their ability to engage and hold interest...so far Flinx and Pip are holding on. ( )

Flinx as hares off following clues to finding his father he saves an unusual alien from assassins, thereby getting them on his trail, and heads off planet in search of a large man who once had a mini-dragon, possibly, even likely, Pip. There are narrow escapes, alien temples, revelations, and big bangs. The usual stuff, with the usual body count and humor. ( )

Pip and Flinx seek a man who may have something to do with Flinx's origins in Alaspin, which happens to be the mini dragon's planet of origin. An assassin's guild has been hired to stop him through termination. The Flinx series continues and as usual, the stakes, when revealed, to be very high. Fun story, lots of action, great plot, excellent writing. Stands alone or dead the series. ( )