Book Review: Running From the Deity by Alan Dean Foster

Alan Dean Foster's eleventh adventure featuring "Pip and Flinx," an empathically empowered human and his personal mini-dragon, has the twosome out searching the far reaches of space for a self-aware planet-sized weapons system (sort of like a conscious Death Star) to help defeat an oncoming destructive force which threatens all of existence. Flinx's sentient spaceship (something of a sci fi staple at this point) is in danger of imploding and needs immediate repair. They land on a planet called Arrawd, which is in the so-called "Blight" and which is so primitive that no one is supposed to make contact for fear of disrupting the natives.

It doesn't take long (like, a few minutes after landing) for Flinx to hook up with the native sentients, including a fisherman named Ebbanai and his wife, Storra. The natives, called the Dwarra, share Flinx's empathic abilities and Flinx discovers that this is the rare world indeed: one in which he can associate with other sentient beings without suffering the hideous migranes he often must endure as a result of the constant pressure of other minds. In keeping with Arthur C. Clarke's admonishment that any sufficiently advanced technology must appear akin to magic, the natives marvel at Flinx's ability to heal people, and quickly adopt him as a local god.

Flinx ends up besiged by natives seeking their own healing and exploited by those who would turn his talents to their own ends, and Foster tosses in a suicide bombing and some religious fanatics for good measure. He also embraces his role as the tour guide of an alien landscape by offering considerable expository detail about the characters and their world, even if it ends up largely a "detour" on the way to the supposed primary conflict with the "Great Darkness" which threatens the entire universe (gee, sound serious enough?).

Foster has used the series as the backdrop for an extensive session in science fiction world-building; the system of galaxies called the Commonwealth is quite detailed and organized. He also obviously enjoys the development of alien civilizations which allow him to explore aspects of our own culture (such as the tendency to deify, and simultaneously exploit, powerful figures). While I would personally not characerize Running from the Deity as among his best works, it is a well-designed restructuring of the idea of the "First Contact."

Author's Note: This article was originally posted at Wallo World.

Article Author: W.E. Wallo

W.E. Wallo is a book and movie junkie whose writings have appeared in a variety of print and online publications.

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