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Read Orphan Star (2004)

Orphan Star (2004)

Online Book

Genre
Series
Rating
3.9 of 5 Votes: 4
Your rating
ISBN
0345324498 (ISBN13: 9780345324498)
Language
English
Publisher
del rey

Orphan Star (2004) - Plot & Excerpts

After a disastrous kidnapping attempt leaves him with an enticing tidbit of information, Flinx decides to leave Moth in search of his elusive heritage. The one man who does know, however, is convinced Flinx is after him for revenge, so getting close proves to be more of a chore than Flinx hoped it would be. But for the promise of answers, Flinx is willing to do almost anything...Although it's got a stronger plot than The Tar-Aiym Krang, and a more cohesive one, a number of elements still fall flat. Flinx has exhibited virtually no interest in his heritage before now, and suddenly he's obsessed enough with it to chase a man across several worlds and possibly become a criminal in the process? The emotional aspect felt very awkward. On the plus side, Flinx is now on to several new worlds, which means new places to explore. The narrowed focus on Flinx and eventually one other character means the book can get more in depth with both of them. And the plot has a lot of crazy twists to keep things intense.The series is definitely improving, although I'd still hesitate to recommend this to anyone. The story more or less wraps itself up: Flinx has a small amount of information about himself that he didn't have before (which still doesn't really fit that well with the description of his early life in For the Love of Mother-Not), and the assumed goal of hunting down the rest of his lineage. It's decent reading to continue the series but still no real high points for me. I rate this book Neutral.

This is my favorite of all of Foster's Flinx books. In my opinion, it adds the most of the overal story of Flinx, while being a great chase story. Foster is great at depicting future worlds, and this novels provides glimpses of many keys worlds in the Commonwealth. If you are coming to Foster's Commonwealth/Flinx novels for the first time, I recommend reading The Tar-Aiym Krang, Orphan Star, and The End of the Matter first. While For Love of Mother-Not is chronically earlier, Foster's view of the character had changed drastically in the years since he had finished The End of the Matter, and the difference shows.

What do You think about Orphan Star (2004)?

The second (or third depending on how you count them) in the Flinx and Pip series. I had read this one back in the late 70s but had little recollection of it. Compared to "The Tar-Aiym Krang" this is a much less exciting work for me, but is still a solid bit of space opera with a little detective tale thrown in. The mental image of an adolescent with a highly venomous, near symbiotic, snake-like creature coiled on his shoulder like some alien pirate's parrot, is so iconic I almost feel as though I had seen it for decades in the movies. Yet nothing like it exists anywhere else that I know of. Foster has created a unique yet strangely familiar vision with these stories. I seem to recall more about the next work in the series, "The End of the Matter," than I remembered about "Orphan Star," so the next one promises to earn more stars. I am hoping to read the entire Commonwealth stories including those not featuring Flinx and Pip. Foster is a very engaging non-pretentious writer.
—Kevin

Aside from giggling at 2000km cliffs, valleys thousands of kilometers deep, and a plateau 14 000km high that remain uncorrected in my 1977 copy of this novel, this was a neat read. I enjoyed this story and the sci-fi world that has been created. They made for lighthearted reading (for the most part). I quite like the different species present: the insectoid thranx, the reptilian AAnn, and the ursinoid aliens we encounter at the end of the book. It didn't end entirely satisfactory for me, but as there are sequels, I am not too concerned.
—Laura

The first 3 or 4 books of this series were out when I was younger, and Flinx fired my imagination with his psionic talents, his flying, venom spitting snake, pip, and him being an orphan raised on the streets.Pip & Flinx start looking for some clues to Flinx's past and parentage. His search leads to Ulru-Ujurr, a forbidden, illegal to visit, planet. This book is a bit slow in the middle, but it does advance Flinx's story quite a bit, and the Ulru-Ujurrians are a very neat race.However, I wanted for Flinx to develop and use his psionic talents. The series is now something like 13 books and his mental talents are still unreliable and pretty much useless; this was a very, very, very big disappointment to me for the series as a whole.
—Bryan457

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