The Tar-Aiym Krang

The Tar-Aiym Krang (1972) is a science fiction novel by American writer Alan Dean Foster. It is Foster’s first published novel and started both his Humanx Commonwealth universe and his two most popular recurring characters, Pip and Philip Lynx ("Flinx"). The book is second chronologically in the Pip and Flinx series.

For Love of Mother-Not Followed by Orphan Star The story follows Flinx, an orphan and a thief, as he steals a starmap from a dead body, that leads to a strange alien artifact on an abandoned world. This simple, chance adventure is the beginning of Flinx’s quest to discover the identities of his parents and the source of his strange mental abilities.