Alan Dean Foster Running from the Deity

Running from the Deity

Alan Dean Foster

Del Rey, Oct 2005, $24.95, 272 pp.

ISBN: 0345461592

Philip "Flinx" Lynx is the result of illegal eugenic experiments, that simply proved science needs boundaries, as he contains enhanced skills to propel and collect emotions from others. Currently Flinx searches for a missing super-weapon left behind by an extinct race, that may prove the only tool to stop a species that threatens mankind from behind the Great Emptiness. However, though the weapon is planet sized Flinx has failed to find it, and is forced to land on an uncharted orb, when his intelligent spaceship, Teacher, needs emergency repairs.

Flinx meets a backwater race of aliens who like him, can emit and receive emotions. He breaks the prime directive of the Commonwealth not to interfere with primitive species, especially using technology as Flinx heals the sick and injured. That backfires when the natives begin worshipping Flinx the God, which infuriates religious and political leaders. His reputation as the deity crosses national boundaries; other countries prepare to invade to bring God home. While Teacher makes self-repairs, Flinx realizes why the prime directive exists, while RUNNING FROM THE DEITY, which happens to be him.

RUNNING FROM THE DEITY, the latest FLINX'S FOLLY is a terrific tale that satirizes classic Star Trek, by displaying what happens when a much more advanced civilization brings impossible to grasp technology to more primitive societies. Flinx is in rare form trying to do good, until he realizes what he has wrought, while local leaders do what they always do; manipulate others including the "Deity". Though some readers will be upset that the original mission turns inert, this is an interesting tale as fans will think of The Gods Must Be Crazy in outer space.

Harriet Klausner