Flinx in Flux by Alan Dean Foster

Book 6 in the Pip and Flinx series.

Flinx is on the jungle world of Alaspin, releasing Pips offsping (Pip became a she in the previous novel) when he finds a lady in distress. He saves her, brings her back to health and discovers Clarity was kidnaped and brutally beaten. He agrees to return her to the planet Longfellow where she is a genengineer, feeling he can then go on his way being a solitary “student” in a great big galaxy.

Longfellow is a recently discovered world where everything lives in caves as the surface winds are 150 mph on a calm day. Here the researchers are discovering a plethora of slime molds, fungi, new species and a whole world that lives in dry and wet (dead and alive) caves. Flinx is pretty ambivalent toward the whole place, preferring to be above ground, and when Clarity invites him to stay with her he, well...as a hormonally charged, petulant, somewhat emotionally immature19 year old with a bit of a complex...freaks out and emotionally shoves her away.

Then events are happening fast and her kidnappers are back with the agenda of shutting down the caves by shooting people and blowing things up. Flinx and Clarity find themselves trapped in the cave network with two lights, a modicum of food, and no idea where they are. It’s now Clarity’s turn to freak out as she’s terrified of the dark, especially a dark with things that will kill you slowly.

The rest of the story consists of Clarity clinging to Flinx while they wander deeper into the caves and encounter many strange and deadly things. They find a Thranx and save him, and as he is leading them back to civilization, the stumble across a sentient species that speaks telepathically. For the first time in his life, Flinx feels “safe” and wishes to remain to study and communicate with them. His companions persuade him that, really, they do want to see the light and their friends again.

I enjoyed this book. The underground world Foster created was just fascinating with huge similarities to the depths of the Marinaris Trench in the Atlantic. I did get tired of Flinx’s waffling - “I like her, but if she finds out what I am she’s going to hate me, so I’ll just push her away...” and I got tired of Clarity’s “childish terror of the dark”. But overall, this was the most flushed out and solid book in the Pip and Flinx series to date. It was further interesting because it had a hint of romance as written by a guy from a guys POV. Different, and I liked that.