The unexpected return of an old friend draws Flinx and Pip to the backward planet of Largess, whose seal-like denizens’ primitive technology and fractious clan politics have kept a wary Commonwealth from a profitable trade relationship. But now a rogue human employing forbidden advanced weaponry threatens to ignite a war among the Larians. And Flinx is just the man to stop it before it starts. But once on Largess, Flinx discovers that his empathic abilities—usually his greatest asset—are rendered useless by the natives’ unique language, which is sung rather than spoken. Worse, the abduction of a powerful chieftain’s daughter has raised tensions to the boiling point. Now Flinx must depend on his own mettle—and of course Pip, the devoted minidrag with the deadly edge—to right wrongs, mend fences, and battle a cold-blooded adversary armed with enough firepower to blow them all away . . . and destroy the chance for peace in Largess forever.
Well, this was definitely a different story for me. I was not familiar with these two characters and the world built around them. That aside, I did enjoy the adventure and might try more books with these characters in the future.
**I voluntarily read and reviewed this book

Growing up I loved the Pip and Flinx adventures - I read and reread the novels, loving every minute.  I was happy to have the opportunity to review Strange Music.  Unfortunately it didn’t live up to my expectations.  It had only a shadow of a plot - finding a human interfering in the development of a world not yet part of the Commonwealth.  Flinx is pure ego with no ingenuity.  And as to the villains, well they are as textbook as can be.  Where is Alan Dean Foster’s trademark humor and creativity?   Where is the plot?  It is almost as if he’s gotten tired of two of his most beloved creations and is simply making the motions.  I have to admit that towards the end the novel improved significantly, but it doesn’t make up for the lackluster bulk of the novel

It pains me, but I can’t give this novel more than a 3.   

3 / 5

I received a copy of Strange Music from the publisher and Netgalley.com in exchange for an honest review.

--Crittermom

Look! It’s a bird, it’s a plane … I received this book as an uncorrected proof free from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review. Written by Alan Dean Foster, and published by Del Rey, an imprint of Random House/Penguin in 2017, the story is science fiction that appears to be aimed at the Young Adult (YA) readership audience. This is the latest in the Pip & Flinx series of novels that the author has been publishing for thirty-five years. It is a light, easy read with a surprising plot twist at the end. Even though this was an uncorrected proof, it contained very few copy editing errors. The only major factual error I noted was a reference to Flinx’s airway being his esophagus at Location #3043 in the Kindle version of the book. Other than that, the story is pretty solid.

Flinx and his pet minidrag, Pip, travel to a foreign world to save the daughter of a local leader who has been kidnapped by another leader in order to put a halt to the efforts to unite the peoples of the planet so that they might join the technologically-advanced Commonwealth. Flinx accepts an assignment to find and rescue the kidnapped Firstborn daughter of the leader of a political entity. The world to which they travel, Largess, is primarily a water world — cloudy, cold and damp most of the time. The natives are fur-bearing beings that need the water in the seas, and in the air, in order to maintain their skin and fur. For Flinx, however, the absence of sunlight is a severe discomfort.

Pip is best described as a highly-venomous snake with wings. She is able to spit her venom with deadly accuracy, and it is always fatal. Both Pip and Flinx are empaths — they can sense, and sometimes influence, the emotions of others. Because she is a pet, and not a technologically-advanced weapon (which are proscribed on this Class IVb world), she is not recognized for the deadly weapon she can become under Flinx’s direction, or in his defense.

Upon his arrival on Largess, Flinx hires a local native to serve as a guide in the search for the missing Firstborn, and a friendship naturally follows. The two of them cross a great distance of shallow seas and swamps on a pair of large pack animals. The journey is not without peril, and the trip is decidedly not boring for either of them.

One thing that bothered me though, was the incredible amount of naiveté shown by our hero as he stumbles through the plot. Oh well, it’s probably due to the fact that this is YA fiction, rather than adult fiction, but I really do not like protagonists who make stupid mistakes over and over again.

The title, by the way, is derived from the fact that the natives of Largess do not speak like the natives of Earth. They speak by singing. I thought that might be a bit far-fetched, but then I recalled that the Chinese language dialects have tones that must be pronounced correctly in order to properly communicate. The Mandarin dialect has four distinct tones, while Cantonese has nine. That is one of the reasons why native Chinese speakers were often described by Westerners as speaking “sing-song.” In any event, the story is a quick, easy read, and readers who like YA sci-fi will be entertained. The writer is clearly skilled at his craft. If you like this genre, read the book. You won’t be sorry.

Strange Music by Alan Dean Foster
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

So Flinx got godlike in the last novel. And after having the powers of three ancient BDO's used and spent, leaving him, for once, to be free with his love and his friends, free of an enormous aegis... he decides to do what he does best.

Go off to find trouble.

I mean, this is a standard Flinx adventure, after all. And fortunately, his biggest asset is neutralized fairly well by this new planet of singing seal-like aliens. They can fool him as they sing! It makes for good times for his mighty empathic warning system.

There are intrigue and kidnapping and huge economic and technological disparity, and as is usual with these novels... battle. No complaints from me. It's everything you might expect out of the Flinx novels. It follows a formula. A well-done formula with truly fascinating aliens and fun situations, but I'll be honest: there's nothing really new here aside from a race of aliens that speak in metered song and we're given all of that as a treat.

Overall, this is a very comfortable SF adventure and I recommend it to anyone just wanting to unwind. It is, after all, about saying hi to an old friend and his deadly minidrag. :)

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC!

I also just finished Alan Dean Foster’s new Flinx book: Strange Music.

The art on this one is utterly atrocious, the publisher clearly doesn’t care in the slightest. Stock art at its worst. Very displeased.

That said, the story itself is fun; I worried a bit about how ADF would get the new sequence going, given the wrap up the series had before, but Flinx’s character is such that it proved to be effortlessly done.

Another travel romp, but a bit less interesting than many of the others. The communication mechanism was ...well, awkward in the extreme (begging the question...can alien music be represented adequately?) and the alien felt a trifle uncomfortably too close to Mudge from Spellsinger - although Weigl finally distinguished himself later.

...and the ending was extremely abrupt, although it does provide a new set of characters to add to the background, I particularly liked the Qwarm.

That said,, it was a good entry in the series but not one of the best. 3.5/5 or so.

Pip and Flinx are back, this time investigating shenanigans on a world that is still mired in local conflicts and thus not yet eligible for Confederacy membership. Despite the government ban on advanced Confederacy technology, another human has smuggled some in and is causing trouble; Flinx investigates—and becomes hunted himself. Foster spends a lot of time describing the exotic flora and fauna he’s imagined; this mostly had nostalgia value for me.

This is the tale of a young man and his poisonous minidragon, both of whom are empaths, and their latest adventure to save a world.
I was so excited to see a new Pip and Flinx book! I discovered them in the late 70's and have been a fan since. I received this ARC from NetGalley, to read and review, thanks also to the author and publisher. So I immediately dived in. After I finished, I admit to being puzzled on how to review it. Maybe my memory of previous books was faulty- it has been years since I read them. Off to the bookshelves I went, randomly pulling Mid-Flinx and Flinx in Flux out. (Great covers, '88 & '95 editions) Spent the last few days rereading them. OK, memory wasn't wrong. They were and still are books I enjoy.
This new Flinx entry doesn't have the same lightness of style as the older books. Its as if the author received a synopsis of his characters without having known them and wrote the book. Not saying its a bad book - if you never read the early stuff it might be OK. For a fan though, OK just isn't good enough. I can recall stuff in every other book that still brings a smile. Strange Music just lacked the fun, amidst the problems.

I've been reading Foster's novels for over 40 years. The stories that I enjoyed as a teen come to life again as Flinx decides to help a friend solve "just one more problem". I highly appreciated Flinx's thoughts about the life of a hero after he saves the universe and learns that nobody knows or cares.

I welcomed the Spellsinger lyrical tie-in, but it grew tedious as the story progressed. That won't discourage me from reading whatever Foster writes next.

For many years I thought there was nothing better than seeing a new Alan Dean Foster novel was out. I started reading him about 35 years ago, when I was in high school, and that was the Flinx series, which is still going, as proven by this latest book.
There was a bright spot for me at the beginning, where Flinx and his lady friend—finally!—are living on Cachalot, which was the scene of one of my favorite early books. But then he’s convinced to go on yet another mission, thinking that after all this time there’s nothing he can’t handle. As always, he’s wrong.
In this story the twist is that he can’t read the emotions of the natives of this new planet he’s sent to, or more precisely he can’t read them when they’re talking. The people speak in a singsongy tone, which I enjoyed at first but quickly gave me trouble, which surprises me. It’s a fun excuse for the author to be even more verbose than usual.
This is typical ADF in its worldbuilding as well. He loves inventing new creatures and geographies, and while nothing will ever be more wild and strange than the lifeforms in Sentenced to Prism, there’s some fun stuff here too.
If there’s a word for this, it’s “typical.” There’s a sameness to previous plots, not just Flinx but even his Star Wars novels, as well as Icerigger and Spellsinger. It feels like he’s more interested in going crazy in his worldbuilding and doesn’t worry about plot anymore. But even if this is a typical ADF story, there’s so much awe in his inventiveness, and his incredible humor, to worry about the frame. Just enjoy the work of a master wordsmith.
3.5 pushed up to 4/5

I received a free Kindle copy of Strange Music by Alan Dean Foster courtesy of Net Galley  and Random House, the publisher. It was with the understanding that I would post a review on Net Galley, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes and Noble and my fiction book review blog. I also posted it to my Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google Plus pages.

I requested this book as I rad a book by the author over 20 years ago - Splinter in the Mind's Eye (a Star Wars novel), which did not really hold my interest, and thought I would give him another try.

While this book has it moments it is not really a stand alone novel, but one in a series where you have to read the prior ones in order to have a much better understanding of events/circumstances that take place in this book. While the author is well known and has a fan base, this book reminds why I haven't picked up one in the past 20 years. His style just does not resonate with me.