The confusing part of this book is where it fits within the other Flinx Pip universe. It is a poser. But Foster wrote it second. This novel stands on its own two legs, and is a very good story. Read it even if you are not a Flinx and Pip fan.The Vom, an evil entity of immense power and ability traveled into a galaxy controlled by the Tar Aiym thousands of years before the events of the novel. The Vom is a carnivore on an immense scale. Its sustenance, however is not meat, but the actual force of sentient life. It attacks a planet, and systematically devours everything alive on the planet until its a desolate rock, then travels to the next planet. The Tar-Aiym, a warlike superior alien race figured out what the VOM was and forced it onto a single planet, which was gutted of life by the VOM. The VOM however then had no matter to digest and was forced by a special Tar-Aiym merged with a machine entity and guardian ships to never leave, where the VOM was stuck.Thousands of years go by, and the AAnn, a reptilian galactic rival of humanity comes across this derelict rock and finds the VOM. Only seeing it in its most limited state, certain scientists take it to a world controlled by humanity's government (the Commonwealth), a world called Repler, that is basically inimical to the desertlike AAnn because its mostly water. The AAnn, a race of supreme confidence, start to do experiments on the VOM, not realizing what they are dealing with.The Machine-Tar Aiym finding the VOM leaving, awakes from hiatus follows the VOM back to Repler, where a small capsule containing the Tar-Aiym part of the merged entity is captured by space miners and brought to the home of one of the more wealthy men on the water world --Kingsley.Meanwhile, a certain starship captain of a trading vessel named Hammurabi discovers a breakin in his warehouse where he just offloaded cargo. When he stops the breakin, in a scene that shows Foster wit about fighting scenes, he finds that there is a very toxic drug called Bloodhype, mixed in with his cargo, but being shipped by a particularly repulsive man named Dominick Rose. Bloodhype, besides an incredible addictive quality is also extremely toxic.In addition, the Commonwealth, which is controlled mostly by humans and an insectoid race called the Thranx have also discovered that there is an outbreak of Bloodhype and have traced its source to Repler as well. Bloodhype The United Church, a religious organization of immense power in the Commonwealth has dispatched two agents Kitten Kai Sung, a young beautiful woman and Porsupah, a seal like Tolian, to Repler where they meet with the local Thranx Agent in Charge, who tasks them with trying to track down its origins.The two agents pretending to be rich playboys are captured by Rose's men just about the time that Hammurabi has visited Rose to get him to stop the drug trade. Rose threatens to have Russell Kingsley torture Kai-Sung unless Hammurabi gives him the bloodhype and Harrumabi agrees, but the Bloodhype is in orbit.Subsequently, Flinx, who is working for Rose as a sanitation engineer helps Hammurabi and the agents escape again displaying that the young youth is much more than he seems. The quarter end up with Kingsley, who has the Tar-Aiym. The Tar-Aiym awakes and warns them all that the VOM is on the planet and must be destroyed. While Flinx, who we know has special powers from the first novel, stays with the Tar AIym to "help", the agents and Hammurabi go to find the VOM to confirm its existence. They do not believe that the Tar Aiym is telling the truth.They are captured and find themselves prisoners of the AAnn, along with Rose, who is also there. After a brief fight between Kai-Sung and Russell Kingsley, the VOM breaks out of its prison and starts fighting the Tar-Aiym Machine. Flinx of course helps.The novel displays all of my favorite Foster themes. The characters are fun, the universe that we find ourselves in is well drawn. Further, some of the characters appear again in subsequent Foster novels. Also puzzle that must be solved is unique and the solution when it comes is cool. Finally, the very ending again illustrates again that Flinx is much more than he seems.A winner.
I've read all of the Flinx books chronologically up to this one, #10 in the series. Although it was the second novel that he wrote, there is little to no Flinx & Pip in this story. Books 7-10 have basically been complete jokes when it comes to this series. I honestly can't believe how empty and pointless they are. It's like someone just gave him money and said "My only qualification is that Flinx makes an appearance at least once." This is the last Foster book I will ever read.So the plot is basically the Blob, known as the "Vom", and parts of the story are written from the Vom's point of view. There's a group of cheesy characters- a fat and sarcastic ship merchant Captain Mal, a sexy/voluptuous/horny secret agent temptress (literally) named Kitten, and a portly hedgehog type alien that doesn't seem to do much except disapprove of Kitten's hijinks. This odd group, who must have seemed sexier and smarter in Foster's mind, take on a malicious aging drug baron Rose who is distributing Bloodhype, a highly addictive drug that always leads to death.The Aann are there too, poking the Vom and unleashing it on the world. So why 2 stars? #1: No Pip & Flinx. In Kindle percentages, I'd say they are in it for about 8% of the novel, and they don't do much when you do see them.#2: The story is mediocre, even if you just take it as a stand alone tale. It meanders around, and you don't really care for the characters, so if they do die...eh, who cares?#3: The writing is kind of bad. Someone would die, and Foster wouldn't use their name for several paragraphs, so I'd have to go back and see who it was exactly. All of the characters are trying to be so clever, ALL THE TIME. Especially Kitten and Captain Mal. They are just so cool, that everything they say sounds like it's from a cheesy action movie. They are supposed to have banter, but it's just annoying chit chat that adds nothing to character development or story.Anything to do with the Aann is basically unreadable. Just strings of techno babble, listings of unnecessary rank & background information, and too many characters with weird names for me to even keep straight. #4: The characters are what really bring this story down. None of them are even remotely likeable. There is also no character development. Quirks are things like... Kitten will sleep with anyone...Porsupah (hedgehog) can handle alcohol...Captain Mal is portly, and feels like he needs to protect Kitten...Rose is evil, just because. I've seen better character development on Saturday morning cartoons.Kitten is by far the worst. Her one dimensional character wears skin tight suits, wants to sleep with everyone, and just mouths off every chance she gets. I'm all for sexy characters that can kick butt (Kahlan from Legend of the Seeker), but come on!!! There really is a limit to how shallow a character can be.
Do You like book Bloodhype (1983)?
Like many other people, I read this book tenth as opposed to second. I did notice the little inconsistencies, but I'd say that they were quite acceptable given the fact that Foster wrote eight books to fill in the gap. It was easier to pretend this was a slightly alternate universe where basically the exact same things happened.I enjoyed seeing Flinx from other people's points of view for the majority of the story as just a side character. Overall, the book had the feel that Foster had a story he wanted to tell, as opposed to book nine where I felt he had some space he wanted to take up.
—Andy
Avoid this book.If you like the Pip and Flinx books, there is no reason to read this installment. The main characters of this title are new and unimportant. You will only see them in this book.Pip and Flinx hardly make an appearance in this book. Everything that happens in this book is barely even mentioned in any other books.In this book Flinx contends with a mob boss. A stupid one. You are better off reading Trouble Magnet. In which Flinx contends with a mob boss, but that book is more interesting.Some neat ideas are in this book, some with great potential. Sadly, Foster does nothing with any of it, and the book flops.
—Nathan Johnson
