meganh123's review against another edition
adventurous
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
slferg's review against another edition
4.0
Flinx is an orphan who remembers very little about his past except that it was a good life with plenty to eat and time to play.
markyon's review against another edition
3.0
Here’s one that I thought I’d read thirty-odd years ago.
But having picked it up again, I can’t remember anything about it*. So, with that feeling of deja-vu nullified to zero, I looked at the book with unexpectedly fresh eyes and thirty-odd years of further experience. Was it worth a read?
Definitely.
For Love of Mother-Not is the first book in the Pip and Flinx series, although actually the fourth published. As the first novel chronologically it introduces us to Philip Lynx (Flinx) as a young boy, who at the beginning of the novel is bought at a slave auction by elderly Mother Mastiff on the planet Moth. He is a quiet boy who has clearly experienced a lot, not all of it good. His journey to Moth is a confused mixture of memories, his mother and father unknown to him.
Living with Mother Mastiff, they discover by accident that Flinx has a Talent – empathy, the ability to feel other people’s emotions. This saves Mother Mastiff from a theft, where the thief has swallowed the trinkets. They decide to keep the talent a secret.
Flinx finds himself adopted by Pip, a flying Alaspinian miniature dragon (rather like a flying snake, but one which, when threatened, can spit corrosive toxins.) They develop a symbiotic relationship, as Pip is found to be empathic - telepathic on the emotional level - which seems to be advantageous when combined with Flinx's own Talent.
When Mother Mastiff suddenly disappears, Flinx is left to fend for himself and also to find his foster-mother. He finds that Mastiff may have been snatched by the Meliorare Society, a renegade scientific group whose eugenic programme may be a connection between Flinx and his mysterious past.
With Pip, Flinx sets off to find Mother Mastiff, and, if kidnapped, save her from her captors.
The second half is more about the nature of the Meliorare Society who fit that trope of ‘misunderstood evil scientists’ admirably. They’re not baddies that you want to boo and hiss at, but it is pretty clear where the sympathies of the reader should lie. The main event of the story is straight out of the cowboy stories, albeit on a larger scale. The inclusion of an older woman, a tracker named Lauren Walder, helps get around that issue of a professed urbanite finding his way in the outdoors woods and gives Flinx his first chaste flirtation.
What strikes me most about the book overall is how easy it is to read. For Love of Mother-Not is refreshingly straight-forward, a story that deceptively drags you in from the start and keeps you reading. There is no literary trickery, no leaping forward and backward in time or jarring cuts to different points of view. It is a novel where plot and characterisation do their job and do it well – to tell a tale, to create characters you get to know and care for (although I still draw a line personally at the acid-spitting flying snake) , and to do so with a minimum of fuss and bother. There’s no deliberate attempt to be flash, to consciously impress and make the reader feel that they are being bombarded with rhetoric.
And that’s what makes it impressive.
Love of Mother-Not is restrained in its ‘show and tell’ and refined in its ability to focus on what matters to the point where, by the end of it, I was won over. Whilst there were plot points I felt I had read elsewhere (the slave auction at Moth was similar to scenes in Robert Heinlein’s Citizen of the Galaxy, for example) it was never felt to be derivative, nor did it feel (unlike Citizen of the Galaxy) that the plot was there more to carry a message than tell a tale. Instead the story is sensible and the characters identifiable.
To my surprise I picked this one off the pile and rarely put it down until I had finished it. For the Love of Mother-Not, despite the awful title, is a rather forgotten read that is worthy of anyone wanting an entertaining read. I will rush to read more from this series.
*The book was not published as a paperback in the UK in the 1980’s, despite me thinking it was!
But having picked it up again, I can’t remember anything about it*. So, with that feeling of deja-vu nullified to zero, I looked at the book with unexpectedly fresh eyes and thirty-odd years of further experience. Was it worth a read?
Definitely.
For Love of Mother-Not is the first book in the Pip and Flinx series, although actually the fourth published. As the first novel chronologically it introduces us to Philip Lynx (Flinx) as a young boy, who at the beginning of the novel is bought at a slave auction by elderly Mother Mastiff on the planet Moth. He is a quiet boy who has clearly experienced a lot, not all of it good. His journey to Moth is a confused mixture of memories, his mother and father unknown to him.
Living with Mother Mastiff, they discover by accident that Flinx has a Talent – empathy, the ability to feel other people’s emotions. This saves Mother Mastiff from a theft, where the thief has swallowed the trinkets. They decide to keep the talent a secret.
Flinx finds himself adopted by Pip, a flying Alaspinian miniature dragon (rather like a flying snake, but one which, when threatened, can spit corrosive toxins.) They develop a symbiotic relationship, as Pip is found to be empathic - telepathic on the emotional level - which seems to be advantageous when combined with Flinx's own Talent.
When Mother Mastiff suddenly disappears, Flinx is left to fend for himself and also to find his foster-mother. He finds that Mastiff may have been snatched by the Meliorare Society, a renegade scientific group whose eugenic programme may be a connection between Flinx and his mysterious past.
With Pip, Flinx sets off to find Mother Mastiff, and, if kidnapped, save her from her captors.
The second half is more about the nature of the Meliorare Society who fit that trope of ‘misunderstood evil scientists’ admirably. They’re not baddies that you want to boo and hiss at, but it is pretty clear where the sympathies of the reader should lie. The main event of the story is straight out of the cowboy stories, albeit on a larger scale. The inclusion of an older woman, a tracker named Lauren Walder, helps get around that issue of a professed urbanite finding his way in the outdoors woods and gives Flinx his first chaste flirtation.
What strikes me most about the book overall is how easy it is to read. For Love of Mother-Not is refreshingly straight-forward, a story that deceptively drags you in from the start and keeps you reading. There is no literary trickery, no leaping forward and backward in time or jarring cuts to different points of view. It is a novel where plot and characterisation do their job and do it well – to tell a tale, to create characters you get to know and care for (although I still draw a line personally at the acid-spitting flying snake) , and to do so with a minimum of fuss and bother. There’s no deliberate attempt to be flash, to consciously impress and make the reader feel that they are being bombarded with rhetoric.
And that’s what makes it impressive.
Love of Mother-Not is restrained in its ‘show and tell’ and refined in its ability to focus on what matters to the point where, by the end of it, I was won over. Whilst there were plot points I felt I had read elsewhere (the slave auction at Moth was similar to scenes in Robert Heinlein’s Citizen of the Galaxy, for example) it was never felt to be derivative, nor did it feel (unlike Citizen of the Galaxy) that the plot was there more to carry a message than tell a tale. Instead the story is sensible and the characters identifiable.
To my surprise I picked this one off the pile and rarely put it down until I had finished it. For the Love of Mother-Not, despite the awful title, is a rather forgotten read that is worthy of anyone wanting an entertaining read. I will rush to read more from this series.
*The book was not published as a paperback in the UK in the 1980’s, despite me thinking it was!
esko's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
lighthearted
mysterious
fast-paced
4.0
bookcrazylady45's review
4.0
First book in a familiar and very enjoyable series. Looking forward to the rest. Introduction to flinx and his mini-drag.
cathepsut's review
4.0
My first foray into re-reading Alan Dean Foster. We meet Pip and Flinx for the first time. Chronologically the first book of this particular series, in publishing order book four or five.
I don't recall reading this before and all my others reading of this author lies easily 20 years in the past, so I can't say how it fits in with the other Flinx books.
It was an easy, entertaining read. Perfect as brain candy for the beach. Fast moving plot, likeable characters, good suspense, believable story.
Reading order for Alan Dean Foster is here. I will continue!
I don't recall reading this before and all my others reading of this author lies easily 20 years in the past, so I can't say how it fits in with the other Flinx books.
It was an easy, entertaining read. Perfect as brain candy for the beach. Fast moving plot, likeable characters, good suspense, believable story.
Reading order for Alan Dean Foster is here. I will continue!
adelaidemetzger_robotprophet's review against another edition
4.0
A good introduction to the Pip&Flinx series. God, I loooove Alan Dean Foster's writing! Even his original novels make me feel like I'm reading a movie. Am super anticipated to see how this series progresses.