After thirty-five years, starting with his first novel, THE TAR AIYM KRANG, Alan Dean Foster brings to a close his series involving Flinx and his partner and friend, Pip, the flyng Alaspian minidrag. Fourteen novels in which a young boy with astounding mental abilities, more showing up as he matures, grows into a man.
Early on, as revealed in FOR LOVE OF MOTHER-NOT, he was just one of a number of street people trying to survive on the world of Moth. Mother Mastiff, a not to honest merchant, is the one who sort of adopts the boy.
As the books progressed, we learn more and more about Philip Lynx, who he is and how he came to be(he is looking for his father and follows the slightest clue). And we also learn about the threat to our galaxy. An unimaginably large evil headed toward the Milky Way that will consume everything in it’s path: stars, planets, all civilizations, then move toward the next.
With the aid of two scientists, Bran Tse-Mallory, a human, and the Eint Truzenzuzex, a Thranx, an alien that resembles nothing more than a six foot ant, he escapes Moth just ahead of assassins from the Meliore Society that created him and want to clean up their mess. This leads to his encounter with the Krang, a weapons platform of an ancient race known as The Tar Aiym.
Along the way, he picks up a ship with an AI known as Teacher, who is almost like the surrogate parent in his life, tending to his every need. He briefly mind-links with an even larger Tar Aiym weapon, one that wanders through the galaxy. This, he comes to believe, is what they need to find in the battle to avert that “evil.” His mental powers keep making contact with something that tells him he is the “key” to stopping it, the only one who can.
Flinx is opposed by a group called the Null, who know of this coming disaster and worship it as a cleansing. They don’t believe he can do anything about it, but why take chances. They want him dead.
FLINX TRANSCENDENT brings all these disparate elements established through the series together, as well as a couple of other novels that surprised me, to bring everything to a conclusion. I’ve been an ADF fan for most of those thirty-five years and add this novel to my list of favorites.