For Love of Mother-Not (Pip & Flinx Adventures, #0)

For Love of Mother-Not (Pip & Flinx Adventures 0)

3.87 of 5 stars 3.87  ·  rating details  ·  1,862 ratings  ·  51 reviews
He was just a freckle-faced, redheaded kid with green eyes and a strangely campelling stare when Mather Mastiff first saw him an the auctioneer's block. One hundred credits and he was hers.

For years the old woman was his only family. She loved him, fed him, taught him everything she knew -- even let him keep the deadly flying snake he called Pip.

Then Mother Mastiff mysteri...more
Paperback, 256 pages
Published March 12th 1987 by Del Rey (first published 1983)
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Community Reviews

(showing 1-30 of 2,617)
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Kevin
An enjoyable read with warm interesting characters you will care about. I am "re-reading" this series now in series order as most of them are available in audio book format. For me this is science fiction from the days when there was still sense of wonder and optimism about the future. That wonderful pulse pounding feeling is sadly lacking in much of today's nihilistic fiction, and this series fills that void very well.

Having said that, I would not recommend this book as an introduction to the s...more
Al
Orphan Flinx is adopted (bought) by a quarrelsome old woman who owns a small shop. Her shop is located in the only large city on a planet where it rains most of the time (sounds like the Pacific Northwest). She becomes the mother he never had.

One night, he "hears" a lonely thought using an unreliable "talent" for feeling emotions and traces it to a strange winged snake in a garbage heap which immediately "adopts" Flinx as his new owner (buddy?). He names it "Pip". Well, it turns out that Pip is...more
Barbara
I thoroughly enjoyed this story of Flinx and Pip. I've never read a book by Alan Dean Foster that I can recall, but I liked his style. I understand that this book is a prequel to a whole series of books about Flinx and Pip. Flinx is adopted as a young boy by an old woman who runs a shop. She pretty much lets him run wild and learn on his own, but gives him a warm and loving home. As he gets older, he realizes that he has a "Talent," he can read people's emotions, but not in any consistent way, h...more
Amy
This was the first book I read in the Pip and Flinx series - I'm a sucker for reading things in chronological order.

It was pretty good, and kept my interest, for the most part.

My only complaint was the bad people/the villains. They talked way too much and spent too much time spelling out their plans to the point of making me want to skip their passages entirely. I know this is a fantasy world, but how much of it was really necessary? Did we really need to have the characters talk for paragraphs...more
Michael Hall
This is the first Pip and Flinx story. Flinx is an orphan, who is an empath, on a strange world with a mysterious past, and an even more mysterious organization after him. Pip is an Alaspinian mini-dragon with highly toxic and corrosive venom who becomes Flinx's pet and companion. I like that Flinx's psychic abilities isn't the main focus of the character growth yet is still central to who he is and the suspense about his origins. This is the story of a youngster who survives and succeeds using...more
Iain Turnbull
The first Flinx book, this is really Flinx's origin story. It charts his adoption by the aged Mother Mastiff, who is then kidnapped some years later by the radical geneticists whose experiments led to Flinx's birth. They hope to use her to gain control over Flinx, who has empathic telepathic abilities, but doesn't know why or how to control them. The book then follows Flinx's attempt to rescue his adoptive mother, and his battle against the geneticists.

It's not a sophisticated piece of sci-fi, b...more
Tracy Dobbs
I've seen the Flinx books in bookstores for years, but never really got around to buying them. Mostly because I hate to enter mid-series. This was a free Kindle offer as the first(timeline-wise, not as written) in the series. It was pretty good. Without any of the others, I'm not sure how it compares, but hopefully the main character is set up properly for his more "grown-up" character in the rest of the series.

I guess since this involve other world and space travel I should classify it as scien...more
John
This book was entertaining and held my interest well. Alan Dean Foster does have a problem with shifting points of view from one paragraph to the next but I never seemed to have a problem with that.

Several of the characters had an annoying habit of being both interesting and temporary. I applaud this trait.

I was disappointed at the overall plot of the evil Meliorare Society. It seemed overly complicated and prone to mistakes. It was far to easy for a 16 year old to tear apart months of work by...more
Jeffrey
In an attempt to fill in some of the blanks in the Flinx backstory, Foster published this prequel to the events that took place in The Tar-Aiym Krang. It tells how Flinx was adopted, about his relationship with Mother Mastiff, about his beginning uses of his talent, and provides some context about his enemies -- information that was sort of alluded to in Orphan Star and The End of the Matter is more explicitly handled here.

Its also a really good action adventure novel, as Mastiff is kidnapped an...more
Julia
Just enough of a hint of the stuff Alan Dean Foster would get actually good at later in his career -- rich, integrated world-building, reasonably interesting character dynamics, and so on -- to make it readable despite how clumsily it's all put together. (I can definitely see how it would be awesome to a twelve-year-old boy. And I do mean that as a compliment.)
Denise
I've been wanting to read this series forever, but I had no idea where to start. When I finally found this book it took me forever to find time to read it. I am truly glad I did! Terrific story and wonderful characters! I really hope that the rest of this series lives up to this prequel book. Judging by the amount of books in the series, I am optimistic.
Doug
I read this years ago and absolutely loved it. I fell in love with the main character Flinx and have faithfully followed the series ever since. I've been disappointed in what I perceived to be eco-political messages in the later books in the series, but I've been able to return again and again and enjoy this wonderful story.
hannah
Pip & Flinx. Who found the other ? At the end off this book you still wonder.
Flinx is not a boy like all boys, sometimes he knows what other people are feeling, and for this reason he is tracked, by some dark group that want to use his abilities to prove they are right, and by government agents to be "fixed".
William Bentrim
For Love of Mother-Not by Alan Dean Foster

This is the first of the Pip and Flinx stories. Pip is an Alaspinian mini-dragon. Flinx is an orphan with interesting talents. Flinx is the unwitting target of both law enforcement and an underground outlaw group. Avoiding entrapment by either group is the gist of the story.

I have enjoyed the Pip and Flinx stories over the years and have carefully kept them for my grandson. I was delighted to find this first volume to set the scene for the later books....more
Darryl Branning
The first book, chronologically, in the Flinx and Pip series--and possibly the best. Continuity nuts might have a bad moment or two reading other books in the series, but I personally never noticed until I read them all several times.
John
I remember reading of Flinx and Pip when I was in grade school and lucking it more than this. This felt like a prequel the was not needed. The plot was standard. And if you read the first actual book. You would notice that the character really does not grow much. Sigh. Was a bit of a letdown.
Stephen
As the book that introduces the characters of Pip and Flinx together it is really the first book that should be read in this series. Like all the other books this is a good read that you will find hard to put down.
Wes
Aug 23, 2012 Wes rated it 3 of 5 stars
Shelves: scifi
Flinx first discovers Pip! "Hey Mom, can I keep him? I know he's a psychic, venomous acid-spitting, flying mini-dragon. But MOM, he followed me home!" What's not to love.
Stacia
I have only read one other Flinx book, and I always meant to read more. This prequel was a good one to pick up. I liked seeing the back story of how he and Pip got together.
Tressa
I thought For Love of Mother-Not was okay. It was a decent sci-fi adventure story. Unfortunately, it didn't really capture my interest or my imagination.
Jane
The book was fun but I'm not necessarily motivated to find the rest of the series. On the other hand the main characters are great. We'll see.
tomlinton
Free book on the Kindle
Standard growing up with Hidden Talent
Naturally adults underestimate you
Enjoyably written
if not especially brilliant
Pokie
Boring, and ho-hum. The story is pretty straight forward, the characters are really 1-dimensional, and there's no reason to keep reading.
Rebecca
I downloaded this for free on my phone - and it was the perfect way to read this. Easy, light, breezy and always in my pocket.
Paul
The series is great, but now getting repetitive. he needs ot go back to the earlier writting style for his adventures.
Peter Coad
A great adventure/sci-fi with a cute little dragonling and a heroic young boy. Well worth reading for all ages.
Linda
The first of the Pip & Flinx stories introduces us to the characters. It's pretty innocuous but is a fun read.
Fangirl
First "Pip & Flinx" adventure. A YA sci-fi novel about a 16 year old boy and his pet snake.
Peregrine 12
I read it as a teenager and even then thought it was just 'okay.' Couldn't recommend it.
Matt
Jun 03, 2010 Matt marked it as to-read
Shelves: to-buy
I have read many of the other books in the series, i want to know what started it all.
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For Love of Mother-Not (Pip & Flinx Adventures, #0)

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Bestselling science fiction writer Alan Dean Foster was born in New York City in 1946, but raised mainly in California. He received a B.A. in Political Science from UCLA in 1968, and a M.F.A. in 1969. Foster lives in Arizona with his wife, but he enjoys traveling because it gives him opportunities to meet new people and explore new places and cultures. This interest is carried over to his writing,...more
More about Alan Dean Foster...
Alien Splinter of the Mind's Eye (Star Wars) Spellsinger (Spellsinger, #1) The Tar-Aiym Krang (Pip & Flinx Adventures, #1) The Hour of the Gate (Spellsinger, #2)

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