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| Cover art by Darryl K. Sweet |
| THE TAR-AIYM KRANG Alan Dean Foster New York: Del Rey Books, July 1988 | Rating: 5.0 High |
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| ISBN-13 978-0-345-30280-9 | ||||
| ISBN-10 0-345-30280-X | 251pp. | SC | $3.50 | |
This is the story of Flinx's first interstellar adventure. It reprises his origin story from For Love of Mother-Not on the backwater world of Moth and recounts his inadvertent activation of the fabled Krang during the novel's crisis — and its purposeful activation of him.
Like many of his adventures, it begins with a fight into which he and Pip are drawn by chance. Their abilities allow them to prevail, and Flinx recovers a sort of map which, it turns out, is much desired by a powerful business interest. Soon, celebrating a big payoff from his "magic act," he is introduced to a pair of scholars who take him into the city's gated community. It is the first time he has been there in daylight. Their mission is to meet the wealthy merchant Malaika and enlist his aid in finding a legendary arfifact of the long-vanished Tar-Aiym: the mysterious Krang. Flinx earns a place on this expedition when he produces the map; it gives the location of the planet where the Krang was discovered — by the man murdered in the fight Flinx ended, before he and Pip intervened.
Shortly they set off in Malaika's elegantly appointed starship. Flinx is awed by his first experience of space. But the pleasure trip turns serious three days out, when a pair of Aan battle cruisers intercept them. They manage to destroy one because the Aan don't think their ship is armed. By a clever maneuver, Captaim Malaika outruns the other. They reach the world of the Krang and enter the gigantic artifact without trouble. But their troubles have only begun.
The action moves along smartly in this tale, and its plot holds together well. Foster's description of the sturm und drang1 attending the activation of the Krang is a bit on the florid side, but not objectionably so.2 The main shortcoming of the edition I read is the typos, and I'm sure those are not Foster's fault. He sets in motion a satisfyingly complex character in Flinx: a boy who knows not his own origin, who possesses unusual gifts due to that unknown origin, gifts which are enhanced or released by the Krang, but which he still struggles to master. Full marks.
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