Books in This Series 1
More by Alan Dean Foster
From bestselling author Alan Dean Foster, an exciting early Pip and Flinx novel that shows the origins of a certain boy with special powers--and the mini-dragon that becomes his devoted sidekick. . . .
Flinx was just a freckle-faced, redheaded kid with green eyes and a strangely compelling stare when Mather Mastiff first saw him an the auctioneer's block. One hundred credits and he was hers.
For years the old woman was his only family. She loved him, fed him, taught him everything she knew--even let him keep the deadly flying dragon he called Pip. But when Mother Mastiff mysteriously disappears, Flinx tails her kidnappers on a dangerous journey. Across the forests and swamps of the winged world called Moth, their only weapons are Pip's venom . . . and Flinx's unusual talent.
Luke Skywalker expected trouble when he volunteered to follow Princess Leia on her mission to the planet Circarpous to enlist their Rebel underground in the battle against the Empire. But the farm boy from Tatooine hadn't counted on an unscheduled landing in the swamplands of Mimban...hadn't counted on any of the things they would find on that strange planet.
Hidden on this planet was the Kaiburr crystal, a mysterious gem that would give the one who possessed it such powers over the Force that he would be all but invincible. In the wrong hands, the crystal could be deadly. So Luke had to find this treasure and find it fast.
Accompanied by Artoo Deetoo and See Threepio—his two faithful 'droids—Luke and the Princess set out for the Temple of Pomojema...and a confrontation deep beneath the surface of an alien world with the most fearsome villain in the galaxy!
Accompanied by his faithful minidrag Pip and a most troublesome alien called Abalamahalamatandra -- Ab for short -- Flinx set out for Alaspin, the ruggedly primitive homeworld of his flying snake.
There he hoped to find the giant man with the gold earring who somehow held the key to Flinx's mysterious past and to the strange powers he possessed. Chasing down his heritage was trouble enough, but Flinx didn't know what real trouble was until he realized that the Qwarm -- a deadly assassin squad -- were three steps behind him with a contract to kill.
But the minidrag's homeworld did not offer safety and Flinx had a terrible time just staying alive ... a matter complicated to no mean degree by a collapsar already set on an unstoppable death course across the galaxy!
Ethan Fortune was simple salesman — knowledgeable and civilized . . . a sophisticated traveler between many worlds. But he had certainly never thought of himself as a hero.
Skua September, on the other hand, never thought of himself as anything else.
A matched pair, if ever there was one!
When the two of them were suddenly stranded on a deadly frozen world, Ethan Fortune incredibly found himself cast in the role of Leader.
And he didn't find that at all amusing . . .
Moth was a beautiful planet, the only one with wings -- two great golden clouds suspended in space around it.
Here was a wide-open world for any venture a man might scheme. The planet attracted unwary travelers, hardened space-sailors, and merchant buccaneers -- a teeming, constantly shifting horde that provided a comfortable income for certain quick-witted fellows like Flinx and his pet flying snake Pip. With his odd talents, the pickings were easy enough so that Flinx did not have to be dishonest ... most of the time.
In fact, it hardly seemed dishonest at all to steal a starmap from a dead body that didn't really need it anymore. But Flinx wasn't quite smart enough. He should have wondered why the body was dead in the first place...
Based on the screenplay by Dan O'Bannon. The crew of the spaceship Nostromo wake from cryogenic sleep to distress signals from an unknown planet. One is attacked when they investigate a derelict alien craft. Safely on their way back to Sol, none foresee the real horror about to begin.