Helpful Score: 1
This really garners 3.5 stars, as it was better than the previous book, but still more of a sidebar story than progress in the bigger plot of Flinx's fight against the mysterious eater of galaxies that is slowly making its way to the Commonwealth worlds. Flinx, determined to prove to himself that humanity is not worth saving and so relieve himself of the guilt of wanting to simply live his life with his love instead of working to save the world, deliberately sets out to visit the most depraved planet he can find, and lands on Visaria, a colony world rife with misery and corruption. Immersing himself in the dark soup of emotions that batter his weary mind, he nevertheless and reluctantly indulges his curiosity once more and helps a young thief who reminds him of himself in his callow youth. With characters as engaging as usual, this was an enjoyable book but Foster's penchant of pulling his ace in the hole of Flinx's mysterious mind power to save him from impending death has been eclipsed in this volume by yet another last minute save, this time by the Ulru-Ujurrians, the amusing and endearing ursine aliens who literally play with time and space and keep a constant galactic eye on him. The only thing that rescues Foster from a reader's eye-rolling derision is the fact that, sneaky "card tricks" aside, he still always spins a good story and handles his characters deftly. And he throws in a nice cliffhanger for the next book, the promise of Flinx finally finding out who his father is. It's enough for the moment to keep the fans' interest.
