Quofum

"Quofum" by Alan Dean Foster, published by Del Rey. Bestselling author Alan Dean Foster’s new adventure takes place in the amazing Humanx Commonwealth, home of the ever-popular Pip & Flinx. Although the dynamic redhead and his daring minidrag do not appear in Quofum,this knockout thrillersets the stage for their explosive date with destiny in the duo’s final climactic adventure, Flinx Transcendent. The mission to planet Quofum is supposed to be a quickie for Captain Boylan and his crew. Boylan is tasked with delivering four scientists–two men, one woman, and one thranx–to the unknown world, setting up camp while the experts investigate flora and fauna, then ferrying them safely home.The first surprise is that Quofum, which regularly slips in and out of existence on Commonwealth monitors, is actually therewhen Boylan and company arrive. The second surprise is more about what Quofum is not: The planet is not logical, ordered, or rational. The team encounters three intelligent, warring species–some carbon-based, others silicate-based, all bizarre–along with thousands of unique, often unclassifiable life-forms. Quofum’s wild biodiversity doesn’t appear to be natural. But if it is by design, then by whose, and for what purpose? There are more revelations, more highly evolved species waiting to be identified, even tantalizing clues to a civilization light-years ahead of the Commonwealth’s. But the crew members are not ready for the real shockers, because none of them expect to find a killer in their midst, or to discover that their spaceship is missing and, with it, all means of communication. Of course, the marooned teammates know nothing about the Great Evil racing toward the galaxy, and they certainly have never heard of Flinx, the only person with half a chance to stop it. Nor do they know that Quofum could play a crucial role in defeating the all-devouring monster from beyond.One thing the scientists do know, however, is how to ferret out the truth. But whether that will be enough to alter the course of the oncoming catastrophe is anyone’s guess. From the Hardcover edition.From Publishers WeeklySetting the stage for the final book in the popular Pip and Flinx series, this intriguing first contact mystery ends on a cliffhanger without resolving a thing. In an otherwise unremarkable star system outside Commonwealth space, the planet Quofum seems to appear and disappear at will. A crew of xenologists sent to study the life forms that enjoy Quofum's earthlike atmosphere and alcohol-laced water oceans are shocked to discover four primitive intelligent species so unlike one another that they couldn't possibly have evolved on the same world, as well as a vast underground complex full of mysterious technology. While this novel may fill in background details for Flinx Transcendent, expected next year, it's hard to see why one needs an entire book of what is, essentially, backstory. (Oct.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From BooklistThe lead-in to the end of the Pip and Flinx saga tracks a scientific expedition to Quofum, which doesn’t always exist. It moves, and its astonishing riot of life-forms—everything from predatory plants to many intelligent species—with it. While the science crew studies the natives, the maintenance tech, who’s actually a debt collector, leaves the planet, marooning everybody else. They keep collecting data, anyway, and discover why the planet sporadically disappears and the promise of a terrible threat to come. Foster clearly enjoys imagining Quofum’s profuse biota, so much that the book is tantamount to a stand-alone, though certainly significant in the greater epic. --Regina Schroeder Book details: 304 pages, published 2008. Order now on BookShops.in with fast, reliable delivery across India.