Sliding Scales is part of a series of Pip and Flinx Adventures.
Philip Lynx (aka Flinx) is an empathic 24 year-old interstellar traveller and Pip his mini-dragon companion and protector. Together with his talking AI ship named Teacher, they move through Humanx Commonwealth space with an uncanny ability to find trouble and adventure.
Flinx has just left his friends, is pursued by fanatics, and is being sought by authorities, but Teacher has a plan. Escape on vacation on the remote planet of Jast - far from the vast reach of the Orion Arm that is Commonwealth space. Jast is home to the Vssey, highly intelligent creatures with shapes like mushrooms, with four feet flaps and one 'leg' they hop around on, tentacles around the edge of their disc shaped 'heads', and protruding eyes near the crown of their dome. Though slow to get around, they are very adept and have found ways of harassing the power of local floating creatures - like jellyfish - who eat grasses all day to fill their sacs with gases to rise and fall. Many use them like hot air balloons to move around the planet. Jast is also home to various factions of the authoritative AAnn, a lizard-like race who tend to see the dry, desert-like planet of Jast as part of the growing AAnn empire. Certainly they have never had to deal with a Human visitor, and suspicions are heightened as Flinx and Pip arrive for unknown reasons.
Takuuna VBXLLW is the administrative AAnn assigned to show Flinx around the planet, and he takes him on a tour by air-car. While they visit a beautiful canyon filled with curious fauna and flora, Flinx is attacked and falls, losing his memory! After wandering the planet, he is rescued by a beautiful AAnn woman and taken to a secluded village of artisans building their own society, outcasts of the traditional structure of the Empire. While slowly remembering who he is, he learns of ancient AAnn ways and sees the diversity of the people. Meanwhile, he is being sought by the authorities, as there has been a rash of terrorist activities in the cities which must have been incited by the Human. Will be remember who he is before they discover the village? Is there a violent Vssey underground against the AAnn? Will Flinx remain forever with the tribe, inducted as creative sentient Flinx LLVVRXX?
I don't often read fantasy novels, preferring straight SF, but found this a fun adventure. With characters named Chraluuc, Bno-Cassel, and Tvr-Vheequa, it was a little odd to keep up with, but Flinx and Pip are great characters worthy of a series (Sliding Scales is number 9 of 14).
Alan Dean Foster is a prolific writer of many Sci-fi and fantasy novels, and is very well known for his novelizations of films like Alien and the Star Trek series. His novelization of the original Star Wars movie included detailed back stories which influenced the creation of the films to come.
Sliding Scales was well balanced between fantasy, society, politics, imagination, adventure and was a very original and entertaining read. It was really different for me, but in the end, a great escape to another world.
2004 / Hardcover / 246 Pages
Comments