Bloodhype by Alan Dean Foster

Book 4 in the Pip and Flinx series.

While this is next in the series, the author has broke from his two main characters - Pip and Flinx - and the world of Moth. Instead we find ourselves on Replar, where the dreaded and feared AAnn have been granted an island embassy. Some of their warships have brought back to a hastily constructed stronghold herein a very strange organism. It’s a very large black amoeba that has the ability to destroy planets...but the AAnn don’t know that. Yet.

Mal is a trader captain and two of his employees have brought back a box that was found floating in space in the middle of what can only be described as a very large holiday ornament. But they can’t figure out how to open it.

Meanwhile, Mal has bigger problems. He found a stash of the dreaded drug Bloodhype in one of his shipments and he is not a happy camper. Mal deduces who the shipment was headed for and goes to confront the trader, Rose. Mals negotiations with Rose go awry and he ends up saving the vivacious Kitten and her Tolian freind - a large racoon-coyote creature - from imminent torture with the help of an apprentice sanitation engineer in Rose’s employ named Philip. Mal brings everyone back to his island stronghold and shows them his mystery black box.

Surprise! The box opens and we are confronted with an alien who claims to be the Guardian, the last of the Tyr-An Krang, and he’s there to save the galaxy, nay the very universe from the amoeba thing the AAnn have sequestered away. Kitten decides she simply must see this creature for herself and convinces Mal and her Tolian friend to accompany her.

This was a fun book on several levels. Foster has expanded on the galaxy he has created for Pip and Flinx, the reader gets to see a bit more of the dreaded AAnn, and it’s not about Pip and Flinx. This isn’t to say the story was without it’s faults: Mal is your typical space hero, strong, brave, and a bit stupid. The sexy Kitten drags everyone into places they just shouldn’t be going (doh). Kitten’s Tolian sidekick contributes the comic relief. And there were a lot of loose ends left dangling. A lot.

Still, this won’t keep me from reading #5. Stay tuned for further adventures from Pip and Flinx!