JANUARY 2018 - AudioFile
It's always a good time when old friends reunite. That's certainly the case when Foster's empathic human, Flinx, and his miniature dragon (“minidrag”), Pip, come together with narrator Stefan Rudnicki for the fifteenth time. In this installment, an old friend representing the church lures Flinx out of retirement. His mission is to prevent the outbreak of civil war on the emerging planet of Largess. Complicating the situation is a dissenting chieftain who has the daughter of another leader kidnapped. The challenge for Rudnicki is that everyone on Largess engages in “sing-speech.” That's right, all the dialogue must be sung. Rudnicki is a game vocalist, although the male bass parts are much more in his range than the princess's operatic soprano. Still, he and Foster's protagonists come out of top once again in this humorous yarn. D.E.M. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine
Publishers Weekly
08/21/2017
Foster’s popular adventuring team return, eight years after the publication of Flinx Transcendent, for their lively 15th sci-fi adventure, set in a world where language is song. Genetically engineered empath Flinx and loyal flying serpent Pip are called out of quiet retirement by the religious branch of the galaxy-spanning Commonwealth to investigate rumors that someone is illegally passing technology to Largess, a low-tech world that’s not ready for it. What sounds like a simple job quickly turns into a mission to prevent a war when the first-born daughter of a powerful Larian lord is kidnapped by the man behind the illegal weapons trade. An added complication is the Larian language, called “singspeak”: sentences are phrased artfully and sung. It’s like being surrounded by “rehearsals for a dozen different operas,” and once someone starts to sing, Flinx’s ability to detect emotions or truthfulness is blocked. As usual, Foster balances brisk action with humor and supplies his alien worlds with lots of local color. Adventure-loving readers new to the series, as well as old fans, will enjoy Foster’s return to Commonwealth space. Agent: Vaughne Lee Hansen, Virginia Kidd Agency. (Nov.)
From the Publisher
Advance praise for Strange Music
“Adventure-loving readers new to the series, as well as old fans, will enjoy [Alan Dean] Foster’s return to Commonwealth space.”—Publishers Weekly
JANUARY 2018 - AudioFile
It's always a good time when old friends reunite. That's certainly the case when Foster's empathic human, Flinx, and his miniature dragon (“minidrag”), Pip, come together with narrator Stefan Rudnicki for the fifteenth time. In this installment, an old friend representing the church lures Flinx out of retirement. His mission is to prevent the outbreak of civil war on the emerging planet of Largess. Complicating the situation is a dissenting chieftain who has the daughter of another leader kidnapped. The challenge for Rudnicki is that everyone on Largess engages in “sing-speech.” That's right, all the dialogue must be sung. Rudnicki is a game vocalist, although the male bass parts are much more in his range than the princess's operatic soprano. Still, he and Foster's protagonists come out of top once again in this humorous yarn. D.E.M. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine
