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Pulling to discussion; this example is very questionable.
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* SocietyMarchesOn: Flinx's chronic insecurity about his origins seems a bit over-the-top, now that ''in vitro'' fertilization and sperm donation are common and acceptable reproductive options for infertile couples. Granted, being the product of illegal genetic tampering isn't the same thing, but ''merely'' having been conceived in a petri dish doesn't seem at all estranging or shameful today, when people once trumpeted as bizarre/Orwellian "test tube babies" are living normal adult lives.
** Part of this, however, is know that his original are criminal in nature, and the persecution that he is subject to because of them. Also, the discovery that [[spoiler: he did not have specific biological parents]] get him upset more because of all the time and effort that he has devoted to finding his biological parents.
** Part of this, however, is know that his original are criminal in nature, and the persecution that he is subject to because of them. Also, the discovery that [[spoiler: he did not have specific biological parents]] get him upset more because of all the time and effort that he has devoted to finding his biological parents.
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** Part of this, however, is know that his original are criminal in nature, and the persecution that he is subject to because of them. Also, the discovery that [[spoiler: he did not have specific biological parents]] get him upset more because of all the time and effort that he has devoted to finding his biological parents.
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** Happens in a very ironic manner in ''Diuturnity's Dawn'' the last book of the '''Founding of the Commonwealth''' trilogy: Human and Thranx terrorists opposed to unification run into each other while planning on how to attack a cultural fair, and, while at the fair, coordinate their efforts for maximum effect; they work together to prevent their species from working together.
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* BigCreepyCrawlies: The thranx, though it is a subversion as they are humanity's closest ally in the setting. In the beginning each group had to overcome their mutual instinctive feelings of revulsion (and terrorist groups from both sides that utterly opposed the Amalgamation).
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* BigCreepyCrawlies: The thranx, though it is a subversion as they are humanity's closest ally in the setting. In the beginning each group had to overcome their mutual instinctive feelings of revulsion (and revulsion. There were terrorist groups from both sides that utterly opposed the Amalgamation).Amalgamation, [[EnemyMine but decided to work together]] [[{{Irony}} to try and prevent their species from working together toward a common goal.]]
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* ActionBomb: As Flinx gains more control over his powers, he sometimes tries to use his SuperPowerMeltdown offensively, with [[PowerIncontinence varying degrees of success]], and occasionally [[ForgotAboutHisPowers forgetting about it completely]] when it's inconvenient to the plot. [[spoiler: Although, at least one of those times is in the presence of a powerful [[PsychicPowers mind-reading and thought-controlling psychic]], so he may have literally not been able to think about it.
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* ActionBomb: As Flinx gains more control over his powers, he sometimes tries to use his SuperPowerMeltdown offensively, with [[PowerIncontinence varying degrees of success]], and occasionally [[ForgotAboutHisPowers forgetting about it completely]] when it's inconvenient to the plot. [[spoiler: Although, at least one of those times is in the presence of a powerful [[PsychicPowers mind-reading and thought-controlling psychic]], so he may have literally ''literally'' not been able to think about it.]]
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* ActionBomb: As Flinx gains more control over his powers, he sometimes tries to use his SuperPowerMeltdown offensively, with [[PowerIncontinence varying degrees of success]], and occasionally [[ForgotAboutHisPowers forgetting about it completely]] when it's inconvenient to the plot.
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* ActionBomb: As Flinx gains more control over his powers, he sometimes tries to use his SuperPowerMeltdown offensively, with [[PowerIncontinence varying degrees of success]], and occasionally [[ForgotAboutHisPowers forgetting about it completely]] when it's inconvenient to the plot. [[spoiler: Although, at least one of those times is in the presence of a powerful [[PsychicPowers mind-reading and thought-controlling psychic]], so he may have literally not been able to think about it.
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Removing worthless spoiler tag on Decoy Protagonist and commenting out a ZCE.
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* [[spoiler: DecoyProtagonist]]: Trellenberg in ''Quofum''
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* EmotionBomb: Flinx's offensive use of his empathic abilities.
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* EmotionBomb: One of Flinx's offensive use uses of his empathic abilities.abilities is to project terror and/or despair into his enemies. In one case, the terror is enough to kill a weak-hearted man. In another situation, he uses it to open up the depths of his personal angst to a prideful street gang, who are promptly incapacitated.
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* EmpathicWeapon: The Krang. Flinx also qualifies in a sense.
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* EmpathicWeapon: EmpathicWeapon:
** TheKrang. Krang is the ultimate weapon constructed by the Tar-Aiym. In keeping with their martial nature, it is both musical instrument and weapon, and is telepathic/sapient to boot, merging with its operator in a synergistic mecha-mental fusion.
** Flinxalso qualifies in himself can be said to be a sense.weapon, as he is both [[DesignerBabies genetically designed]] and possessed of powerful talents that can be used offensively.
** The
** Flinx
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** The posigravity/KK drive is capable of gouging out sizable chunks of a planet's crust if brought too near, which makes its use near a planetary body one of the most severe crimes in the Commonwealth.
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** The posigravity/KK drive is capable of gouging out sizable chunks of a planet's crust if brought too near, which makes its use near a planetary body one of the most severe crimes in the Commonwealth. A {{flashback}} scene in ''Orphan Star'' reveals that a partially constructed KK drive sabotaged by a mind-controlled engineer obliterated an entire underground starship construction facility and the mountain it was built beneath.
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** The flora and fauna of Midworld frequently serve as the BiggerFish to rescue the heroic characters from potential death, and for every ridiculously efficient predator, there's always one bigger and more terrifying.
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** The flora and fauna of Midworld frequently serve as the BiggerFish Bigger Fish to rescue the heroic characters from potential death, and for every ridiculously efficient predator, there's always one bigger and more terrifying.
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* CommonTongue: Symbospeech, a happy accident as it was developed to allow humans and thranx to share a language pronounceable by both species, and turned out to be at least functionally usable by most of the other species in the galaxy.
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* CommonTongue: Symbospeech, a happy accident as it Symbospeech was developed to allow humans and thranx to share a language pronounceable by both species, and turned out out, serendipitously, to be at least functionally usable by most of the other species in the galaxy.
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* BondCreatures: Minidrags in general, and Pip in particular. Also, furcots in ''Midworld'' and ''Mid-Flinx''.
* ABoyAndHisX: Flinx and Pip, of course. Pip is a Alaspinian miniature dragon, also known as a minidrag or flying snake (although this is stated to be a visual rather than a taxonomic description), that spits a potent, [[PoisonIsCorrosive corrosive neurotoxin]], and acts as an amplifier for Flinx's empathic powers.
* CasualInterstellarTravel: Caused by the tendency of the KK drive to invoke SpaceIsAnOcean. Interesting, while travel times between star systems are often measured in weeks or even months, the stories themselves more or less gloss this over.
* ABoyAndHisX: Flinx and Pip, of course. Pip is a Alaspinian miniature dragon, also known as a minidrag or flying snake (although this is stated to be a visual rather than a taxonomic description), that spits a potent, [[PoisonIsCorrosive corrosive neurotoxin]], and acts as an amplifier for Flinx's empathic powers.
* CasualInterstellarTravel: Caused by the tendency of the KK drive to invoke SpaceIsAnOcean. Interesting, while travel times between star systems are often measured in weeks or even months, the stories themselves more or less gloss this over.
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* BondCreatures: Minidrags in general, and Pip in particular. Also, furcots BondCreatures:
** Alaspinian minidrags form empathic bonds with their partners. Normally this is one-sided, with the human only able to generate affection rather than receive it, but Flinx has a unique relationship with Pip, who acts as an amplifier for his powers.
** Furcots in ''Midworld'' and''Mid-Flinx''.
''Mid-Flinx'' are symbiotes created by the planet's sapient ecosystem to act as lifetime partners for their humans.
* ABoyAndHisX:Flinx and The basic premise of Flinx's story is that he is an empathic, genetically altered mutant who has formed a lifetime bond with Pip, of course. Pip is a Alaspinian miniature dragon, also known as a minidrag or flying snake (although this is stated to be a visual rather than a taxonomic description), that spits a potent, [[PoisonIsCorrosive corrosive neurotoxin]], and who acts as an amplifier for Flinx's empathic his powers.
* CasualInterstellarTravel:Caused by Interstellar travel in the tendency Humanx galaxy is a matter of buying a ticket, [[SpaceIsAnOcean hopping on a passenger ship]], and arriving at your destination a few days or weeks later. While not cheap, it's easily within reach of the KK drive to invoke SpaceIsAnOcean. Interesting, while travel times between star systems are often measured in weeks middle-class or even months, the stories themselves more equivalent. Corporations and wealthy individuals may own or less gloss this over.lease private craft.
** Alaspinian minidrags form empathic bonds with their partners. Normally this is one-sided, with the human only able to generate affection rather than receive it, but Flinx has a unique relationship with Pip, who acts as an amplifier for his powers.
** Furcots in ''Midworld'' and
* ABoyAndHisX:
* CasualInterstellarTravel:
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* ZeroPercentApprovalRating: The Meliorare Society gets this after their scheme to produce genetic supermen is exposed. ''Everyone'' hates them.
* AbsoluteXenophobe: the Pitar, who seemed friendly enough but turned out to be ''batshit crazy''.
* AbusingTheKardashevScaleForFunAndProfit: The Tar-Aiym and Hur'rikku are Class II several times over; the Xunca are Class III-IV.
* AbsoluteXenophobe: the Pitar, who seemed friendly enough but turned out to be ''batshit crazy''.
* AbusingTheKardashevScaleForFunAndProfit: The Tar-Aiym and Hur'rikku are Class II several times over; the Xunca are Class III-IV.
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* ZeroPercentApprovalRating: The Meliorare Society gets this is outlawed by the United Church after their scheme to produce genetic supermen is exposed. ''Everyone'' hates them.
exposed, and all information about them is edicted. Those who know about them and/or remember the [[BodyHorror outcomes of their experiments]] uniformly revile them. Flinx is subject to the same treatment merely by being associated.
* AbsoluteXenophobe: The Pitar are a species of HumanAlien who are encountered by humans shortly after meeting thePitar, who seemed friendly enough but turned thranx. They turn out to be ''batshit crazy''.
have a dark secret -- they hate all other life forms and befriend humanity only to [[MarsNeedsWomen steal the women]] to use as {{Uterine Replicator}}s for their rapidly declining species.
* AbusingTheKardashevScaleForFunAndProfit: The scale of technological capability of the various precursor races ranges from the Tar-Aiym andHur'rikku are Class II several times over; Hur'rikku, who can construct planet-sized starships and/or artificial black holes, to the Xunca are Class III-IV.Xunca, who can manipulate entire galaxies.
* AbsoluteXenophobe: The Pitar are a species of HumanAlien who are encountered by humans shortly after meeting the
* AbusingTheKardashevScaleForFunAndProfit: The scale of technological capability of the various precursor races ranges from the Tar-Aiym and
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* AlwaysABiggerFish: Played straight (and with) in several novels, such as ''Drowning World'', ''For Love of Mother-Not'', and ''Mid-Flinx''.
* AnimalWrongsGroup: The ecoterrorists who are the main antagonists of ''Flinx in Flux''.
* AnimalWrongsGroup: The ecoterrorists who are the main antagonists of ''Flinx in Flux''.
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* AlwaysABiggerFish: Played straight (and with) in several novels, such as ''Drowning World'', AlwaysABiggerFish:
** In ''For Love of Mother-Not'', the giant lakes of the planet Moth contain fish so huge that they are hunted from giant skimmers using explosive harpoons. In one scene, Lauren notes to Flinx that the penestral they have just caught -- a fish large enough to feed an entire town for months -- is itself predated on by an even larger fish known as an oboweir. In a later scene, an oboweir swallows a skimmer whole.
** The flora and''Mid-Flinx''.
fauna of Midworld frequently serve as the BiggerFish to rescue the heroic characters from potential death, and for every ridiculously efficient predator, there's always one bigger and more terrifying.
* AnimalWrongsGroup: Theecoterrorists who are the main antagonists of ''Flinx in Flux''.Flux'' are an ecoterrorist group who feel that any human exploitation of the natural world is a crime and seek to punish offenders by summary execution. They attack the Coldstripe research installation on Longtunnel and later hunt Flinx down.
** In ''For Love of Mother-Not'', the giant lakes of the planet Moth contain fish so huge that they are hunted from giant skimmers using explosive harpoons. In one scene, Lauren notes to Flinx that the penestral they have just caught -- a fish large enough to feed an entire town for months -- is itself predated on by an even larger fish known as an oboweir. In a later scene, an oboweir swallows a skimmer whole.
** The flora and
* AnimalWrongsGroup: The
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** [[SubspaceOrHyperspace Space-plus and space-minus]] are technically this.
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** [[SubspaceOrHyperspace Space-plus and space-minus]] are technically this.alternate dimensions used for travel and communication.
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* AppliedPhlebotinum: Being a SpaceOpera series, it lives on this trope.
* ArbitrarilyLargeBankAccount: Flinx has one after ''Orphan Star'', thanks to the Ulru-Ujurrians.
* ArbitrarilyLargeBankAccount: Flinx has one after ''Orphan Star'', thanks to the Ulru-Ujurrians.
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* AppliedPhlebotinum: Being The vast majority of technology in the Commonwealth 'verse is given no more than a SpaceOpera series, it lives on this trope.
HandWave explanation in terms of real world physics, if any explanation is given at all.
* ArbitrarilyLargeBankAccount:Flinx has one after After the events of ''Orphan Star'', thanks to the Ulru-Ujurrians.grateful Ulru-Ujurrians rig Flinx's bank account with enough funds to allow him to live an independent life as a private starship owner and bribe his way through almost any obstacle he meets. His balance, while not stated explicitly, is sufficient to raise the eyebrows of anyone who sees it.
* ArbitrarilyLargeBankAccount:
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** Malcolm Hammurabi is a merchant captain, not a hero, but when he accidentally stumbles upon a cache of the vicious drug bloodhype in one of his shipments, he decides to hunt down the man responsible. He's also a romantic, and his chivalrous urges cause him to rescue Kitten Kai-Sung from torture and death.
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** Malcolm Hammurabi is a merchant captain, not a hero, but when he accidentally stumbles upon a cache of the vicious drug bloodhype in one of his shipments, he decides to hunt down the man responsible. He's also a romantic, and his chivalrous urges cause him him, against his better judgement, to rescue Kitten Kai-Sung from torture and death.
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* AntiHero: Flinx, who spent much of his early life as a thief and spends most of his adult life trying to ''avoid'' being TheHero of whatever situation he's in. Skua September (a Type II) plays this role in his various appearances, as does Malcolm Hammurabi in ''Bloodhype''.
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* AntiHero: Flinx, who spent AntiHero:
** Flinx spends much of his early life as a thief and spends most of his adult life trying to ''avoid'' being TheHero of whatever situation he'sin. in. He wants the universe to leave him in peace, but his uniqueness attracts problems to him like flies to honey.
** Skua September(a Type II) is a BoisterousBruiser who plays this role in by his various appearances, as does own rules and has a mysterious, quasi-criminal past. He's not intentionally a hero type, but gets roped into helping Flinx when the latter winds up on his doorstep, pursued by a small army of Alaspinian natives.
** Malcolm Hammurabi is a merchant captain, not a hero, but when he accidentally stumbles upon a cache of the vicious drug bloodhype in''Bloodhype''.one of his shipments, he decides to hunt down the man responsible. He's also a romantic, and his chivalrous urges cause him to rescue Kitten Kai-Sung from torture and death.
** Flinx spends much of his early life as a thief and spends most of his adult life trying to ''avoid'' being TheHero of whatever situation he's
** Skua September
** Malcolm Hammurabi is a merchant captain, not a hero, but when he accidentally stumbles upon a cache of the vicious drug bloodhype in
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* NoBiochemicalBarriers: Mostly played straight, in that many sentient species can survive on similar ratios of atmospheric gases and by consuming similar proteins, but given a nod or two in that the effects of certain specific substances - particularly intoxicants - can vary widely among species, and they need various trace minerals to prosper.
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* NoBiochemicalBarriers: Mostly played straight, in that many sentient {{Played With}}. The majority of species can survive on similar ratios of atmospheric gases breathe the same atmospheres and by consuming similar proteins, but given a nod or two in eat the same food, they just don't always find it comfortable, and often require dietary supplements. The other side of it is that just about ''every'' species has something that some other race considers AlienCatnip as part of their essential diet. This drives drug cops into conniptions; the effects of certain specific substances - particularly intoxicants - can vary widely among species, and one time they need various trace minerals found a drug that got pretty much every species high, they ''wiped out all life on its planet of origin in order to prosper.eliminate it'' - and '''still''' failed to keep it out of the hands of drug lords.
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* SocietyMarchesOn: Flinx's chronic insecurity about his origins in a laboratory now seems a bit over-the-top, now that ''in vitro'' fertilization and sperm donation are common and acceptable reproductive options for infertile couples. Granted, being the product of illegal genetic tampering isn't the same thing, but ''merely'' having been conceived in a petri dish isn't regarded as estranging or shameful today.
to:
* SocietyMarchesOn: Flinx's chronic insecurity about his origins in a laboratory now seems a bit over-the-top, now that ''in vitro'' fertilization and sperm donation are common and acceptable reproductive options for infertile couples. Granted, being the product of illegal genetic tampering isn't the same thing, but ''merely'' having been conceived in a petri dish isn't regarded as doesn't seem at all estranging or shameful today.today, when people once trumpeted as bizarre/Orwellian "test tube babies" are living normal adult lives.
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* SocietyMarchesOn: Flinx's chronic insecurity about his origins in a laboratory now seems a bit over-the-top, now that ''in vitro'' fertilization and sperm donation are common and acceptable reproductive options for infertile couples. Granted, being the product of illegal genetic tampering isn't the same thing, but ''merely'' having been conceived in a petri dish isn't regarded as estranging or shameful today.
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hottip cleanup / removal
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* '''Cachalot''': A loosely connected series of novels set on the water world of Cachalot, where all the Cetacea [[hottip:*:whales]] were transplanted from Earth to make amends for their near-extinction.
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* '''Cachalot''': A loosely connected series of novels set on the water world of Cachalot, where all the Cetacea [[hottip:*:whales]] [[note]]whales[[/note]] were transplanted from Earth to make amends for their near-extinction.
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* DeathWorld: A lot of planets are like this, but the UpToEleven example is Midworld.
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* DeathWorld: A lot of planets are like this, but the UpToEleven example is Midworld. A huge, complex ecosystem, the plants will kill you, the animals will kill you, and the native humans ''might'' not kill you, but either way you're pretty much fucked unless you have a native human or four to guide you- and even then, they might die because some forms of death are just impossible to predict.
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** The Great Evil is a region of absolute annihilation that can swallow entire galaxies. If left unchecked, it could in theory render the entire universe down to inert matter.
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** The Great Evil is a region of absolute annihilation sentient nothingness that can swallow entire galaxies. If left unchecked, it could in theory render the entire universe down to inert matter.
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* ApocalypseHow: X-3 if the [[UltimateEvil Great Evil]] gets to our galaxy, potentially X-4 if it is allowed to roam unchecked. X-2 in ''The End of the Matter'', with the rogue collapsar sucking up star systems. ''Bloodhype'' merely gives us a Class 5 on any planet the Vom reaches.
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* ApocalypseHow: X-3 if Being a SpaceOpera series, various horrifically destructive events occur or are threatened.
** The Blight in the[[UltimateEvil Great Evil]] gets backstory was the result of an interplanetary biological weapon released during a massive war. It wiped out all higher life forms (anything with a developed nervous system) on millions of planets.
** The posigravity/KK drive is capable of gouging out sizable chunks of a planet's crust if brought too near, which makes its use near a planetary body one of the most severe crimes in the Commonwealth.
** In ''Bloodhype'', the Vom is an EldritchAbomination that travels from planet toour galaxy, potentially X-4 if planet by using MindControl to hitch a ride with any hapless spacefaring race that answers its call. Once on a world, it is allowed eats all life, down to roam unchecked. X-2 in the smallest microbe.
** In ''The End of the Matter'', the protagonists must deal withthe a rogue collapsar sucking collapsar, a super-massive black hole that sucks up entire star systems. ''Bloodhype'' merely gives us a Class 5 on any planet systems and threatens, in its path across the Vom reaches.galaxy, to destroy three inhabited Commonwealth planets.
** The Great Evil is a region of absolute annihilation that can swallow entire galaxies. If left unchecked, it could in theory render the entire universe down to inert matter.
** The Blight in the
** The posigravity/KK drive is capable of gouging out sizable chunks of a planet's crust if brought too near, which makes its use near a planetary body one of the most severe crimes in the Commonwealth.
** In ''Bloodhype'', the Vom is an EldritchAbomination that travels from planet to
** In ''The End of the Matter'', the protagonists must deal with
** The Great Evil is a region of absolute annihilation that can swallow entire galaxies. If left unchecked, it could in theory render the entire universe down to inert matter.
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* SpaceshipSlingshotStunt: In ''The Tar-Aiym Krang'', the protagonists use a neutron star as an FTL slingshot to escape pursuing [=AAnn=], who refuse to follow due to the danger of the maneuver.
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** From the prequel trilogy, the human Cheelo Montoya and the thranx Desvendapur, both accidental murderers with few scruples, lay the groundwork for what would eventually become the Commonwealth. Completely by accident.
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The ''Humanx Commonwealth'' is the general name given to a series of novels and short stories written by AlanDeanFoster that is set in a common [[TheVerse science fiction universe]]. The setting was introduced in Foster's first published novel, ''The Tar-Aiym Krang'', and has been the star franchise of his decades-long writing career. It has heavy roots in SpaceOpera as well as SpeculativeFiction.
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The ''Humanx Commonwealth'' is the general name given to a series of novels and short stories written by AlanDeanFoster Creator/AlanDeanFoster that is set in a common [[TheVerse science fiction universe]]. The setting was introduced in Foster's first published novel, ''The Tar-Aiym Krang'', and has been the star franchise of his decades-long writing career. It has heavy roots in SpaceOpera as well as SpeculativeFiction.
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* ShownTheirWork: AlanDeanFoster loves using his RealLife excursions to exotic locations on Earth as inspiration for describing alien worlds.
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* ShownTheirWork: AlanDeanFoster Creator/AlanDeanFoster loves using his RealLife excursions to exotic locations on Earth as inspiration for describing alien worlds.
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* AntiHero: Flinx (a [[SlidingScaleOfAntiHeroes Type I]]), who spent much of his early life as a thief and spends most of his adult life trying to ''avoid'' being TheHero of whatever situation he's in. Skua September (a Type II) plays this role in his various appearances, as does Malcolm Hammurabi in ''Bloodhype''.
to:
* AntiHero: Flinx (a [[SlidingScaleOfAntiHeroes Type I]]), Flinx, who spent much of his early life as a thief and spends most of his adult life trying to ''avoid'' being TheHero of whatever situation he's in. Skua September (a Type II) plays this role in his various appearances, as does Malcolm Hammurabi in ''Bloodhype''.
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* BizarreAlienSenses: The setting gives us the insectoid Thranx, who have a "Faz" sense granted by their antennae. Apparently, the antennae are sensitive to air currents.
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* GeniusCripple: The human children raised alongside thranx larvae in the Founding Of The Commonwealth novels tend to see their quick-witted, limbless companions this way, although it's more a case of the larvae being mentally somewhat more mature than smarter.
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* [[spoiler: DecoyProtagonist]]: Trellenberg in ''Quofum''
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* ApocalypseCult: A cult called the Order of Null appears in ''Flinx's Folly'' and later novels. They have learned of the approach of the galaxy-devouring [[UltimateEvil Great Evil]], and see it as their role to remove any obstacles to its coming. This includes Flinx himself, who is the ChosenOne fated to destroy it. It is later revealed that they are abetted by none other than [[spoiler:Flinx's archnemesis, Mahnahmi, a powerful telepath and an [[WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds embittered nihilist]]]].
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The ''Humanx Commonwealth'' is the general name given to a series of novels and short stories written by AlanDeanFoster that is set in a common [[TheVerse science fiction universe]]. The setting was introduced in Foster's first published novel, ''The Tar-Aiym Krang'', and has been the star franchise of his decades-long writing career. It has heavy roots in SpaceOpera as well as SpeculativeFiction.
The Humanx Commonwealth is also the name of the [[TheFederation major alliance of spacefaring species]] in the stories, the two principal members of which are humans and the insectoid Thranx. They are joined by a fantastically diverse cast of [[StarfishAliens other species]] of varying levels of intelligence and technological progress. The spiritual counterpart of the Commonwealth is the United Church, an ecumenical council that embraces all religions under a single roof of universal tolerance. The major enemy of the Commonwealth is the [=AAnn=], a xenophobic reptilian species that has its own [[TheEmpire empire]] and whose members constantly scheme against the humans and their allies (and each other).
There is a long BackStory involving {{Precursors}}, the Xunca, who held the entire galaxy under their dominion a billion years in the past, but fled in the face of a galaxy-devouring [[UltimateEvil Great Evil]]. More recently (500,000 years or so), two powerful species called the Tar-Aiym and Hur'rikku fought a war that resulted in their mutual annihilation and the scouring of all higher life forms from a swath of star systems known as the Blight. Artifacts from these civilizations and others litter the worlds of the galaxy and provide a plentiful source of LostTechnology and {{MacGuffin}}s.
The ''Humanx Commonwealth'' series is best known as the home of Phillip Lynx, aka [[{{Portmanteau}} Flinx]], and [[ABoyAndHisX his pet minidrag]], Pip. Adopted at a young age, he manifested a talent for [[TheEmpath Empathy]] and promptly became embroiled in a number of unlikely schemes. Both the story and his powers expand over time to the point where he becomes the ChosenOne who is fated to save the universe from the same [[UltimateEvil Great Evil]] that the Xunca failed to deal with billions of years ago. And he [[IJustWantToBeNormal hates it]].
The series tends to sit very heavily on the ideal side of the SlidingScaleOfIdealismVsCynicism. In terms of [[MohsScaleOfSciFiHardness hardness]], it mainly falls under Mohs/OneBigLie: FTLTravel is prevalent, as is FTL communication, although both are fairly expensive for the "average Joe". Distance is not ignored, but SpaceIsAnOcean is an inevitable consequence of the method of FTL travel, to the point where independent traders ply the spacelanes like merchantmen of the Age of Sail. [[SingleBiomePlanet Fantastic planets]] litter the galaxy, ripe for exploration but ready to [[DeathWorld entrap the unprepared]]. And there's always a DeusExMachina around the corner to save the day.
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!!The major miniseries and story arcs are as follows:
* '''Flinx and Pip''': Chronologically, this series begins with ''For Love of Mother-Not'', although that book was published much later and {{retcon}}ned Flinx's origin story to bring it into the main plot. From ''The Tar-Aiym Krang'' through ''The End of the Matter'', the story is fairly lighthearted and episodic in nature, with ''Orphan Star'' starting Flinx's [[GeneHunting search for his parentage]]. ''Flinx in Flux'' brought CerebusSyndrome by introducing both the [[UltimateEvil Great Evil]] plot and Flinx's ongoing LoveInterest. The next several books fill in the story of his quest for a LostSuperweapon to counter the [[UltimateEvil Great Evil]], as well as the resolution of the search for his parents. The GrandFinale is ''Flinx Transcendent''.
* '''Icerigger''': A trilogy set on the ice world of Tran-Ky-Ky. Part of the Commonwealth series but otherwise unconnected to the ongoing plotline. Involves a CoolShip ([[IncrediblyLamePun pun intended]]) made to traverse the ice world on, essentially, giant skates carved from the hull of a crashed shuttle.
* '''Cachalot''': A loosely connected series of novels set on the water world of Cachalot, where all the Cetacea [[hottip:*:whales]] were transplanted from Earth to make amends for their near-extinction.
* '''The Founding of the Commonwealth''': A trilogy that details the BackStory elements discussed in ''The Tar-Aiym Krang'', beginning with the first encounter between humans and Thranx, going through the Pitar war, and culminating with the ThePlan that eventually led to Amalgamation.
* Various other one-off novels, many of which tie directly or indirectly to the main storyline.
* There exists a ''{{GURPS}}'' RPG adaptation, sadly out of print.
A timeline of the Commonwealth universe can be found [[http://alandeanfoster.com/version2.0/chronomaster.htm here]].
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!!This series provides examples of:
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* ZeroPercentApprovalRating: The Meliorare Society gets this after their scheme to produce genetic supermen is exposed. ''Everyone'' hates them.
* AbsoluteXenophobe: the Pitar, who seemed friendly enough but turned out to be ''batshit crazy''.
* AbusingTheKardashevScaleForFunAndProfit: The Tar-Aiym and Hur'rikku are Class II several times over; the Xunca are Class III-IV.
* ActionBomb: As Flinx gains more control over his powers, he sometimes tries to use his SuperPowerMeltdown offensively, with [[PowerIncontinence varying degrees of success]], and occasionally [[ForgotAboutHisPowers forgetting about it completely]] when it's inconvenient to the plot.
* AlienNonInterferenceClause: The Commonwealth has one of these a-la ''Franchise/StarTrek'', providing rules of conduct when dealing with species that haven't developed spaceflight on their own. Like all such rules, it exists mainly to be bent or broken by the protagonists. Sometimes coupled with placing a planet or species [[{{Unperson}} Under Edict]] so nobody stumbles upon them accidentally. In one particular case (the Ulru-Ujurrians), this was used not to protect the InnocentAliens from Commonwealth society, but vice versa.
* AlwaysABiggerFish: Played straight (and with) in several novels, such as ''Drowning World'', ''For Love of Mother-Not'', and ''Mid-Flinx''.
* AnimalWrongsGroup: The ecoterrorists who are the main antagonists of ''Flinx in Flux''.
* AnotherDimension:
** [[SubspaceOrHyperspace Space-plus and space-minus]] are technically this.
** "Elsewhere", the source of the antimatter "white hole" created by the Hur'rikku anticollapsar weapon.
** The Xunca packed up their entire galaxy-spanning civilization and moved to another dimension, possibly one that they manufactured, in order to escape the Great Evil.
** The Great Evil itself is thought by the Xunca to have come from an alternate universe, and [[spoiler:is eventually banished to another one by their superweapon]].
* AntiHero: Flinx (a [[SlidingScaleOfAntiHeroes Type I]]), who spent much of his early life as a thief and spends most of his adult life trying to ''avoid'' being TheHero of whatever situation he's in. Skua September (a Type II) plays this role in his various appearances, as does Malcolm Hammurabi in ''Bloodhype''.
* ApocalypseHow: X-3 if the [[UltimateEvil Great Evil]] gets to our galaxy, potentially X-4 if it is allowed to roam unchecked. X-2 in ''The End of the Matter'', with the rogue collapsar sucking up star systems. ''Bloodhype'' merely gives us a Class 5 on any planet the Vom reaches.
* AppliedPhlebotinum: Being a SpaceOpera series, it lives on this trope.
* ArbitrarilyLargeBankAccount: Flinx has one after ''Orphan Star'', thanks to the Ulru-Ujurrians.
* ArtificialGravity: Both used to create and applied as a side effect of the posigravity/KK drive.
* BadassBookworm: Bran Tse-Mallory and Truzenzuzex, military veterans and renowned scientists both, carry around enough firepower for an entire squad of peaceforcers and know how to use it. They also like making TheCavalry entrances.
* BecauseDestinySaysSo: Played with. There's no grand destiny of the Universe that anyone knows of, but it ''just so happens'' that Flinx is the "lucky accident" that the Xunca were hoping would evolve to become the trigger for their ancient weapon against the [[UltimateEvil Great Evil]]. Once this is revealed, major forces dedicate themselves to the sole purpose of making sure Flinx fulfills this destiny, often over his strenuous objections.
* BeePeople: Inverted in the thranx, which used to have an ant-like social structure, but re-evolved the capacity for all females to breed in the course of becoming sentient.
* BeethovenWasAnAlienSpy: On an epic scale -- the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Attractor Great Attractor]] was apparently constructed by the Xunca as a superweapon.
* BigCreepyCrawlies: The thranx, though it is a subversion as they are humanity's closest ally in the setting. In the beginning each group had to overcome their mutual instinctive feelings of revulsion (and terrorist groups from both sides that utterly opposed the Amalgamation).
* BigDamnHeroes: Start counting the number of times one or more characters get rescued in this manner. You'll be at it a while.
* BigGuy: Skua September and Malcolm Hammurabi are both regarded as giants, and are happy to play the role. Bran Tse-Mallory is no shorty, either, but he pales by comparison with the other two.
* BizarreAlienLocomotion:
** The Tran from the ''Icerigger'' subseries move using their "chiv" skate-claws, propelled by the "dan" sails beneath their arms.
** The sentient inhabitants of Jast, the Vssey, are basically giant mushrooms that get around by ''hopping''.
* BondCreatures: Minidrags in general, and Pip in particular. Also, furcots in ''Midworld'' and ''Mid-Flinx''.
* ABoyAndHisX: Flinx and Pip, of course. Pip is a Alaspinian miniature dragon, also known as a minidrag or flying snake (although this is stated to be a visual rather than a taxonomic description), that spits a potent, [[PoisonIsCorrosive corrosive neurotoxin]], and acts as an amplifier for Flinx's empathic powers.
* CasualInterstellarTravel: Caused by the tendency of the KK drive to invoke SpaceIsAnOcean. Interesting, while travel times between star systems are often measured in weeks or even months, the stories themselves more or less gloss this over.
* ChosenOne: Flinx, by virtue of his powers and unique origin, is the key to defeating the [[UltimateEvil Great Evil]]... whether he likes it or not.
* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: Abalamahalamatandra, who acts with a complete disregard for danger and speaks in a neverending flow of gibberish, [[ObfuscatingInsanity creating the impression]] of a whimsically brain-damaged alien puppy.
* CommonTongue: Symbospeech, a happy accident as it was developed to allow humans and thranx to share a language pronounceable by both species, and turned out to be at least functionally usable by most of the other species in the galaxy.
* CoolShip: The ''Icerigger'', of the same series -- literally a giant raft on skates used to cross the frozen seas of Tran-ky-ky.
* CoolStarship: Flinx's KK starship was engineered by the super genius Ulru-Ujurrians and has capabilities that Commonwealth scientists can only dream of.
* CreepyChild: Mahnahmi is introduced this way in ''Orphan Star'', cheerfully telling Flinx how her "daddy" is going to torture him and asking to be present while he does it. It is a facade concealing far worse things.
* DeathWorld: A lot of planets are like this, but the UpToEleven example is Midworld.
* DeflectorShields: Standard equipment on most starships.
* DesignerBabies: This turns out to have been the methodology used by the Meliorare Society to create their "test subjects". Much to Flinx's distress, as he eventually finds out that [[spoiler:his genome was synthesized in a lab from dozens of donors, so his [[GeneHunting hunt for his natural father]] was doomed from the start]].
* DeusExMachina: The Ulru-Ujurrians are TheCavalry for Flinx on several occasions. They do so by showing up completely unannounced, almost literally out of thin air, and fixing whatever problem he's got. Flinx [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] this on one occasion, and it's subverted in ''Flinx and Flux'' by having them show up after he's solved the problem himself. More generally, Flinx has a habit of getting himself into hopeless situations and then getting bailed out by the arrival of a completely unexpected third party.
* DyingLikeAnimals: The Order of Null, in LesCollaborateurs fashion, except that when you consider what they are rooting ''for'', they become a sort of Junior OmnicidalManiac Society.
* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness:
** In ''The Tar-Aiym Krang'', Flinx's quasi-telepathic powers are not well defined in their scope, and he seems to have no compunction about using them openly in front of people. Further, other characters observing him seem to accept his powers as unremarkable, if not precisely commonplace. Once the Meliorare Society backstory becomes canon, this becomes nonsensical, as Flinx's capabilities are shockingly rare and a public demonstration could easily trigger a WitchHunt. Plus, he is empathic rather than telepathic and is never clairvoyant.
** In ''Orphan Star'', Flinx visits Earth and sees thranx body surfing. Later novels (by publication date) establish that thranx have breathing spicules on their abdomens and would therefore drown in two feet of water, plus they are not buoyant.
* EarthIsTheCenterOfTheUniverse: Averted in that Earth is one of the two capitals of the Commonwealth (the other is the Thranx homeworld of Hivehom), but gets no more (and often less) plot time than any of dozens of other worlds.
* EasyAmnesia: Happens to Flinx in ''Shifting Sands'' due to a TapOnTheHead, leading to him being adopted into an [=AAnn=] nest.
* EldritchAbomination: The [[UltimateEvil Great Evil]], of course. The Vom (from ''Bloodhype'') also partakes of some aspects of this trope. Certainly it has the nigh infinite power curve, MindRape, inscrutability, and tendency to destroy all life wherever it's encountered parts down.
* ElectricTorture: Flinx encounters a version of this at Conda Challis' hands -- a bracelet that administers an extraordinarily painful neural discharge.
* EmotionBomb: Flinx's offensive use of his empathic abilities.
* TheEmpath: Flinx's primary power is this. Unlike [[WhatKindOfLamePowerIsHeartAnyway many examples]], it is very useful [[PowerIncontinence when it works]], and later he develops a projective version which is downright devastating when used [[strike:im]]properly.
* EmpathicWeapon: The Krang. Flinx also qualifies in a sense.
* EnemyMine: Happens between the [=AAnn=] and Commonwealth twice, both in the face of overwhelming external threats. The first time is in ''Bloodhype'' when their respective fleets offer to team up against the Vom (which proves futile, but hey, it's the thought that counts). The second occurs in ''Flinx Transcendent'', and is somewhat one-sided, as the [=AAnn=] Emperor agrees to call off all acts of aggression against the Commonwealth for one year in order to allow Flinx to pursue the resolution to the Great Evil crisis unhindered.
* EpiphanyTherapy: In ''Flinx Transcendent'', [[spoiler:Flinx conveniently gets over his {{Wangst}} in time to wrap up the series]]. On the other hand, Flinx's powers give him the ability to inflict a form of this on others... [[spoiler:Mahnahmi may be the most extreme example]].
* EvenEvilHasStandards: The commander of the [=AAnn=] base on Repler may be studying a world-devouring EldritchAbomination under the nose of the Commonwealth and lamenting the lack of humans to eat, but he's still disgusted by Bloodhype peddler Dominic Rose.
* EverythingTryingToKillYou: Midworld, Fluva
* EvilIsNotAToy: Curious [=AAnn=], meet the Vom. The Vom wants to eat everything in existence. Trying to control it won't turn out well for you.
* EvilutionaryBiologist: The Meliorare Society's goal is to "improve" humanity through applied genetic engineering. Even after they are outlawed and hunted down, their last remnants continue to stick to their beliefs, making life quite difficult for Flinx as they try to recover their "subject".
* ExpositionBeam: Flinx has a unique way of telling people about the [[UltimateEvil Great Evil]] -- he takes their minds there to experience it themselves.
* EyeScream: Pip's primary weapon is an extremely potent and caustic neurotoxin, which she instinctively aims at the eyes. If it enters the bloodstream, it kills in less then a minute, and it leaves horrible scars behind even on the survivors.
* FantasticDrug: Bloodhype, obviously, plus a handful of others that don't get as much page time. Another notable example is the emotion-inducing drugs in the short story ''Emoman''.
* FantasticRacism: Humanity's (natural) fear of insects plays a major role in the ''Founding of the Commonwealth'' stories, plus the converse from the Thranx. By the main storyline, just about everyone has gotten over it. In fact, racism in general is pretty muted with the possible exception of the [=AAnn=], who arguably deserve it.
** Many of the stories involve FantasticRacism between "primitive" tribes of aliens, which the more advanced Commonwealth representatives [[MightyWhitey often try to settle]].
** Of the few individuals who have found out about Flinx's origins, many have directed open revulsion towards ''him'', much as if he'd been a participant rather than a passive victim of the Meliorares' genetic crimes. Granted, those who've reacted this way are usually villains.
* FasterThanLightTravel: Via a device known as the KK, or posigravity drive, which "pulls" ships through space by generating an artificial gravity field in front (with a bit of NoConservationOfEnergy thrown in). Later in the series, more exotic forms are found to have been used by the {{Precursors}}.
* TheFederation: The Humanx Commonwealth itself.
* FoodPills: Meal concentrates. Most characters express a preference for the real thing, however, or at least use equipment to make the concentrates more meal-like.
* ForgotAboutHisPowers: The times Flinx remembers to use his SuperpowerMeltdown offensively in the later novels seem to be based less on his competence and more on whether [[TheCavalry someone else is coming to save him]].
* FrickinLaserBeams: The trope itself is averted in that lasers are treated fairly realistically, and are only one of a myriad of weapons used in personal and spatial combat.
* GeneHunting: Flinx was adopted and never knew his real parents. In ''Orphan Star'', Conda Challis claims to have found information about his "maternal line", and this prompts Flinx to chase him over half the Commonwealth. The subsequent search for his father takes more than ten years and at least six novels.
* GeneticEngineeringIsTheNewNuke: The Meliorare Society sought to manipulate the genes of unborn children to create supermen. What they got was... ugly, to say the least, leading to them and their victims being outlawed and hunted down. Flinx and [[spoiler:Mahnahmi]] are the only two altered subjects known to have escaped.
* GoMadFromTheRevelation: Anyone who touches the [[UltimateEvil Great Evil]] needs some pretty strong willpower to avoid having their brain fried.
* GreenRocks: The powerful sacred stones from ''The Howling Stones'' appear to be this at first. When someone not familiar with how to use them tries the results can be very bad. They turn out to be LostTechnology.
* HereThereBeDragons: The Blight.
* HeterosexualLifePartners: Humans and Thranx tend to form these types of partnerships, especially after they've worked closely together. The most prominent example is Bran Tse-Mallory and Truzenzuzex. Of course, in these cases there's no question of biological compatibility, so any HoYay has to be limited to the imagination. Not that Kitten Kai-Sung didn't try...
* HumanAliens: The Pitar, tragically so. Humanity goes nuts over the uncanny similiarities and rapidly moves to befriend them, only to have the Pitar turn out to be {{Absolute Xenophobe}}s.
* HumanityIsSuperior: The idealistic version - plus, we had the help of the Thranx.
* IJustWantToBeNormal: Flinx's resentment of the separation his powers cause from the rest of humanity drives him to quite a bit of {{Wangst}} in the later novels.
* ImprobableUseOfAWeapon: Skua September puts in his first appearance wielding a Mark Twenty, a military grade laser that's designed to be tripod or vehicle mounted.
* InnocentAliens: The Ulru-Ujurrians start out this way, being exploited by the [=AAnn=] and Rudenuaman Enterprises for their little schemes. After Flinx gets in touch with them, however, they reveal that they are exponentially intelligent and rapidly develop a society and technology far beyond the Commonwealth's.
* InstantSedation: Used more than once, but most prominently in ''Bloodhype'', when Kitten Kai-Sung, Mal, and Porsupah infiltrate the [=AAnn=] enclave on Repler using pistols that fire {{Tranquillizer Dart}}s.
* InstantWakingSkills: Flinx possesses this trait. He doesn't know if it comes from his [[GeneticEngineeringIsTheNewNuke abnormal genetic heritage]] or his early life as a [[StreetUrchin petty thief]] on the streets of the planet Moth, but it comes in handy a few times. He also finds as he gets older that he needs only a few hours of sleep each day and can adjust his circadian rhythm more or less at will.
* InterspeciesRomance: Averted, as the series takes biological compatibility quite seriously. However, the concept is given quite a working over by Kitten Kai-Sung, who has apparently studied the art of interspecies sexual stimulation and deliberately uses this knowledge to {{squick}} out her companions.
* InterstellarWeapon: The Tar-Aiym weapons platform and the Xunca superweapon, in ''Flinx Transcendent'', which can fire (if such a term is even applicable) across inter''galactic'' distances.
* ItsNotYouItsMyEnemies: Flinx's justification for leaving Clarity Held in the care of Bran Tse-Mallory and Truzenzuzex in ''Flinx's Folly'', conveniently [[PutOnABus putting her on a bus]] until the grand finale.
* JustLikeRobinHood: First line of ''The Tar-Aiym Krang'' -- "The Flinx was an ethical thief, in that he only stole from the rich."
* KickTheDog: Too many villainous moments to list (Conda Challis, anyone?), but Flinx gets his own DesignatedHero moment in ''Reunion'' when he uses his projective empathy to infiltrate the Terran Shell.
* KnightTemplar: The Church agents from the Moral Operations branch who pursue Flinx and the Meliorares in ''For Love of Mother-Not'' wish to see the Meliorares destroyed and all their experimental subjects put down or "made normal", regardless of the cost in lives and/or the desires of said subjects.
* LaserGuidedAmnesia: The process of mindwipe surgically removes memories from the victim's brain, leaving them "cured" but a [[EmptyShell shell]] of their former selves. Said to be used in only the most {{egregious}} of cases.
* LastOfHisKind: Peot, the Tar-Aiym Guardian. At one point it is suggested that Abalamahalamatandra is the last Hur'rikku, but this theory is quelled. He is the last ''something'', though, even if it's just a LivingMacGuffin.
* LensmanArmsRace: Happened between the Tar-Aiym and Hur'rikku in the BackStory, to the point where the two species destroyed not only each other but wiped out all higher life forms from a large chunk of the galaxy. The efforts of the Xunca to counter the [[UltimateEvil Great Evil]] fall into this category as well, when you consider that the grand finale in ''Flinx Transcendent'' involves [[spoiler:using the equivalent of ''several million galaxies''' worth of energy to rip a hole between universes to remove the [[UltimateEvil Great Evil]] from existence]].
* LivingLieDetector: Both Flinx and Pip can detect lies by reading the emotional state of the person telling them. Pip does it instinctively, which can lead to some rather nasty consequences (read: she spits a corrosive venom).
* LivingRelic: Peot, the Tar-Aiym Guardian, from ''Bloodhype''. Five hundred thousand years old and the LastOfHisKind, after his task of defeating the Vom is concluded, he commits suicide.
%%* LoadsAndLoadsOfRaces
* LockedOutOfTheLoop: As part of the {{retcon}}s necessary to fit ''The Tar-Aiym Krang'' into continuity, it's explained in ''For Love of Mother-Not'' that Mother Mastiff decided to lie to Flinx about his origin in an attempt to protect him. This causes him to be rather unpleasantly surprised to learn the actual details in ''Orphan Star'' and later.
* LonersAreFreaks: Flinx in a nutshell. Which one causes the other is a matter for debate, but he's not helping things by his constant indulgence in [[{{Wangst}} self-pity]].
* LongRunner: From 1972's ''The Tar-Aiym Krang'' to 2009's ''Flinx Transcendent''.
* LostColony: The humans of Midworld.
* LostSuperweapon: The Hur'rikku anticollapsar weapon, not to mention the Krang. And the Tar-Aiym weapons platform that is [[LensmanArmsRace made of Krangs]]. ''And the Xunca's superweapon...''
* [[MacguffinGirl Macguffin Alien]]: Abalamahalamatandra, from ''The End of the Matter''. He's a NighInvulnerable, apparently [[ObfuscatingInsanity whimsically insane]] alien whose purpose in existing is nothing more than to tell people where to find the Hur'rikku [[LostSuperweapon anticollapsar device]]... [[spoiler:and to activate it]].
* MagneticHero: Flinx attracts people to him wherever he goes, which makes his desire to be a loner all the more ironic.
* MarsNeedsWomen: [[spoiler: The only reason the [[AbsoluteXenophobe Pitar]] make contact with the Humanx Commonwealth. They believe that their similar appearance to humans may indicate convergent evolution, and they may be able to interbreed, which would counter the Pitar's falling birthrate. However, the Pitar move to accomplish this by stealing female reproductive organs from a human colony...]]
* MeaningfulName: Abalamahalamatandra. His name, when run through the translation program that Bran Tse-Mallory and Truzenzuzex create for him, comes out as "key". Ab says this himself in one of his sing-song nonsense rhymes, but Flinx has no way to understand the significance at the time.
* MightyWhitey: Flinx tries playing this role to some primitive aliens in ''Running from the Deity'', only to find out that they aren't so innocent after all. In fact, this ''never'' works whenever a character tries it.
* MindControl: The [=AAnn=] scheme to implant [[DrivenToSuicide suicidal]] thought plays into the Janus Jewels mined from Ulru-Ujurr in ''Orphan Star''.
* AMindIsATerribleThingToRead: Mahnahmi, a telepath, grew up in Conda Challis' household and was unavoidably subjected to the full extent of his depravity. This warped her youthful psyche beyond recognition.
* MindRape: Both Flinx and [[spoiler:Mahnahmi]] can use their projective empathy/telepathy offensively, and do, even to the point of killing people (by accident in Flinx's case). Also one of the powers of the Vom in ''Bloodhype''.
* MurderInc: The Quarm are a feared guild of assassins whose creed, apart from ruthless efficiency, is that they never fail to kill a target. Flinx and his allies may be the sole claimants to have successfully defeated them.
* MysteriousParent: Flinx's search for his genetic mother and father doesn't turn out ''quite'' the way he expected.
* NegativeSpaceWedgie: The Vom. The [[UltimateEvil Great Evil]] probably counts as well.
* NeglectfulPrecursors: The Xunca, who fled the galaxy rather than face the [[UltimateEvil Great Evil]], leaving the countless sentient species who would arise in their wake to face the music. A very thin justification is given in ''Quofum'', amounting to, "We built the weapon to kill it, but lost the key."
* NiceJobFixingItVillain: At the climax of ''Flinx in Flux'', the AnimalWrongsGroup that has been hunting Flinx down in order to "make him normal" shows up just in time to accidentally rescue him from the BigBad who wishes to [[TheydCutYouUp experiment upon him]] instead. As a double example, Flinx finds that the sedation method that the BigBad used on him has also woken a new form of his [[TheEmpath empathic powers]], which he subsequently uses to defeat both groups of antagonists.
* NighInvulnerable: Abalamahalamatandra, who is apparently immune to arrows, poisons, vaccuum, and massive electric shock. (The Quarm try to use explosives, but Flinx foils that attempt.) It's less surprising when it's revealed that he's a construct that's at least five hundred thousand years old.
* NoBiochemicalBarriers: Mostly played straight, in that many sentient species can survive on similar ratios of atmospheric gases and by consuming similar proteins, but given a nod or two in that the effects of certain specific substances - particularly intoxicants - can vary widely among species, and they need various trace minerals to prosper.
* NoEndorHolocaust: Averted. The use of a posigravity/KK drive too close to a planet causes devastating damage and is banned by all civilizations. One of the reasons Flinx's CoolStarship is special is that its AppliedPhlebotinum allows it to avoid this issue.
* ObfuscatingInsanity: Abalamahalamatandra, whose gibberish mumblings are revealed to be the whimsical alien's attempts to render hundreds of thousands of languages as phonetic symbospeech, all to communicate the location of a LostSuperweapon.
* OmnicidalManiac: If you merely count eating all life on a planet and moving on to the next, you get the Vom. If you count ''eating the galaxy'', the [[UltimateEvil Great Evil]] would fall into this category. If you count believing the galaxy is too corrupt to continue existing and therefore killing anyone who tries to stop the Great Evil, you get the Order of Null.
* OneLetterName: Among the Aann, the fewer letters there are in one's surname, the higher one's rank in society. Their Emperor thus has a one-letter surname.
* OutgrownSuchSillySuperstitions: Although the United Church is established as the spiritual arm of the Commonwealth, exactly what they believe in is never really stated, and it's implied that, for most people, direct deity worship has been discarded in favor of a kind of universal spiritualism.
* PersonOfMassDestruction: Flinx has a tendency to [[SuperPowerMeltdown violently explode]] in a telekinetic storm when his powers are stressed. It's as bad for his surroundings as you might imagine.
* PlanetOfHats: Most obviously, the [=AAnn=]. Lots of other species get this treatment due to limited page time, but the Thranx are a notable exception.
* PoisonIsCorrosive: Pip's caustic neurotoxin spittle.
* PowerIncontinence: Flinx's abilities are erratic, to say the least. One minute, he'll be receiving the emotions of every being on a planet, the next he's as ordinary as the next person. Naturally, his powers have a tendency to go out when he most needs them.
* {{Precursors}}: The Xunca. Also the Tar-Aiym and Hur'rikku to a lesser extent. In fact, the planets of the Commonwealth universe are absolutely littered with the ruins of ancient civilizations.
* PsychicPowers: Flinx's empathic powers are the focus of his storyline, but there are lots of naturally telepathic and empathic beings throughout the galaxy, such as the Tar-Aiym, the Ulru-Ujurrians, the natives of Longtunnel, the entire planet of Midworld, and more.
* PutOnABus: Clarity Held, Flinx's LoveInterest, gets this twice. At the end of ''Flinx in Flux'', Flinx more or less tells her to get lost and he'll come find her again when he's figured out what to do about the [[UltimateEvil Great Evil]]. At the end of ''Flinx's Folly'', just after their reunion, she [[spoiler:nearly gets blown to pieces]] and Flinx leaves her in Bran and Tru's care.
* RapeAsBackstory: Mahnahmi's childhood features rape by mental proxy, as she [[AMindIsATerribleThingToRead telepathically witnessed]] the full extent of Conda Challis' depravity, including his intention to turn her into a sex toy when she matured.
* RealityWarper: A side-effect of the Vom and Guardian's mental battle is a bunch of weird things happening in physical reality. Some rocks turn to precious gems, a nearby gas giant's orbit is altered, a crustacean has a massive intelligence boost (and is promptly eaten by a fish), and so on.
* ReallyGetsAround: Kitten Kai-Sung, in ''Bloodhype'', or at least that's the impression she likes to give.
* ReallySevenHundredYearsOld: Abalamahalamatandra is really five hundred thousand years old, give or take a few dozen millennia. The Xunca Mutable assigned to Horseye, which the Redowls encounter in ''Voyage to the City of the Dead'' in the form of one of the natives, is close to a ''billion'' years old.
* TheReptilians: The [=AAnn=]
* ReptilesAreAbhorrent: The [=AAnn=] get this treatment because they are a PlanetOfHats of narcissistic xenophobes. Later, in both ''Reunion'' and ''Sliding Scales'', we get to see that not all of them are like that. While anyone who knows what Pip is reacts with alarm due to her highly lethal nature, she is completely docile when with Flinx and not threatened.
* RetCon: Because both ''The Tar-Aiym Krang'' and ''Bloodhype'' were written before the major plot points of the ongoing series had been established, a lot of work had to be done to fit them in. ''For Love of Mother-Not'' establishes Flinx's canonical origin story at odds with some elements of ''Krang'' (the given explanation is that Mother Mastiff was lying to Flinx for his protection), and there are some glaring continuity gaps around ''Bloodhype'' ([[YourTomcatIsPregnant Pip's gender]], Flinx's age, and the design of his starship). Foster acknowledged these and offered some explanations, but admitted that complete consistency was impossible.
* SaintlyChurch: The United Church is portrayed as well-meaning and idealistic, almost saccharinely so. On the other hand, its operatives are well trained, and can go around [[ChurchMilitant very well-armed]], when called for.
* SciFiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale: The one glaring example here is the scale of the interstellar merchant trade. There would have to be literally millions of ships running nonstop routes between every star system to deliver even a fraction of the goods required to sustain an economy the size of the Commonwealth's. On the other hand, ''The Tar-Aiym Krang'' does contain a passage explaining how difficult it is to patrol interstellar space; if you don't travel within sensor range of a monitored system, you can go anywhere you want.
* ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney:
** A rare example of the protagonist using this trope; after ''Orphan Star'', Flinx is so rich (the Ujurrians rigged his account with [[ArbitrarilyLargeBankAccount effectively infinite wealth]]) that he can buy his way out of many situations. Of course, in later novels he's wanted by nearly every Commonwealth authority, so the value of his "inheritance" is a bit dubious.
** Blatantly invoked by Jack-Jax Coerlis, the [[spoiler: first]] villain of ''Mid-Flinx'', [[spoiler: at least until the ''real'' threat (the [=AAnn=]) show up]].
* SealedGoodInACan: Peot, the Tar-Aiym Guardian, in ''Bloodhype''.
* SealedEvilInACan: The Vom, also in ''Bloodhype''. Although in this case, it's a planet-sized can that is opened when an [=AAnn=] exploratory vessel lands there and decides to take the mysterious alien lifeform to an inhabited world for study. This [[EvilIsNotAToy doesn't turn out so well for them]].
* SesquipedalianLoquaciousness: Truzenzuzex is occasionally afflicted with this malady. The rather more laconic Bran Tse-Mallory loves to rib him about it.
* ShoulderSizedDragon: Pip all but breathes fire.
* ShownTheirWork: AlanDeanFoster loves using his RealLife excursions to exotic locations on Earth as inspiration for describing alien worlds.
* SingleBiomePlanet: There are both aversions and straight uses of this, depending largely on how much time the story spends on a given world. Terra, Hivehom, and Moth get the most love, and have highly detailed descriptions of widely varying climates and terrains; but then you have examples like Midworld (forest), Longtunnel (caves), Tran Ky Ky (ice), and Cachalot (ocean).... Prism falls somewhere in between the two extremes.
* SlapSlapKiss: Mal Hammurabi and Kitten Kai-Sung are at each others' throats for most of ''Bloodhype''. By the end, after a session of SpankTheCutie, they become lovers.
* SlippingAMickey: Happens to Flinx in ''Orphan Star'', courtesy of an unscrupulous thranx hired by Conda Challis.
* SoWhatDoWeDoNow: [[spoiler:Flinx's last line in ''Flinx Transcendent'' -- "I'm bored."]]
* SpaceFighter: The Commonwealth has stingships, two-person attack ships each carrying a single SCCAM missile.
* SpaceIsAnOcean: Most particularly in that the method of [[FasterThanLightTravel FTL]] used allows interplanetary travel measured in days or weeks. "KK drive" starships therefore cruise the void much like sailing vessels, complete with merchant traders and trading companies run by wealthy magnates.
* SpankTheCutie: Mal Hammurabi administers some "[[ExpospeakGag eleemosynary chastisement]]" to Kitten Kai-Sung in ''Bloodhype'' in this manner, in retribution for the number of times her stubborness has nearly gotten them all killed. It winds up as SlapSlapKiss.
* {{Sssssnaketalk}}: The [=AAnn=].
%%* StandardTimeUnits
* StarfishAliens: Foster delights in presenting fantastically weird alien species in every new book he writes. The one notable aversion in the BackStory (the Pitar) come with a [[AbsoluteXenophobe nasty little twist]]. Perhaps the greatest example of this is the planet Quofum, where mutation and evolution have been artificially sped up to absurd rates.
* StreetUrchin: Flinx starts out as a orphan who spends a lot of time on the streets as a petty thief under the auspices of his adoptive mother. In ''Trouble Magnet'', he takes some urchins under his wing because they remind him of his past.
* SubspaceAnsible: The Deep Space Beams, which use "space minus", but are very expensive. Ordinary interstellar communications are carried on starships through space plus, or sent via messenger drone.
* SubspaceOrHyperspace: Called "space minus" and "space plus", respectively, and occupying the traditional roles for each.
* SufficientlyAdvancedAlien: The Xunca. Also, the Ulru-Ujurrians ''become'' this over the course of the novels. That is, they grow from illiterate hunter gatherers to near RealityWarper level in ''less than ten years''.
* SuperDrowningSkills: Due to their physiology (a rigid exoskeleton, normal posture that is upright but canted forward from the vertical, and breating spicules located on the underside of their abdomens,) a Thranx would drown while standing in a 2 foot deep puddle. They would rapidly sink in deeper water.
* SuperIntelligence: The Ulru-Ujurrians are said to be capable of exponential learning, which is triggered by Flinx arriving on their world and offering to teach them the "game of civilization". In the months he spends there, they go from illiterate hunter-gatherers to building spacecraft. Over the next ten years, they learn to tunnel through space-time and are hinted to be {{Reality Warper}}s. Flinx and the Commonwealth are very lucky that they are ''true'' InnocentAliens, lacking any malice or ambition.
* TalkingThroughTechnique: Phycode, employed by Kitten Kai-Sung in ''Bloodhype'' to send a hidden message to the Humanx authorities on Repler, consists of subtle body language adjustments and muscular twitches that are invisible to any unpracticed observer.
* TechnoBabble: There's plenty, although it's surprisingly muted for a SpaceOpera series and rarely detracts from the plot.
* TechnologyMarchesOn: The early Flinx novels have him accessing information on microfiche. A mere ten years later, the Commonwealth has apparently modernized its computer systems quite dramatically.
* TheyWouldCutYouUp: Why Flinx doesn't trust Humanx authorities or reveal his abilities to anyone who's not extremely close to him.
* [[TravelingLandmass Traveling Planet]]: Quofum, which is only occasionally found at its traditional spacetime coordinates. [[spoiler:It's the Xunca homeworld, and they rigged it to dimension hop, which is admittedly more convenient than getting in a starship if you want to go somewhere quickly.]]
* UltimateEvil: The galaxy-eating horror that's approaching from across the universe. Although it's presented as the greatest threat to existence ever known, it doesn't do much aside from giving off "evil vibes" and is so far away that it only shows up in the most advanced of astronomical instruments (and Flinx's mental projections). [[spoiler:And then, in ''Flinx Transcendent'', Flinx triggers an ancient Xunca weapon that simply makes it go "foop".]]
* UnrealisticBlackHole: The conclusion of ''The End of the Matter'', wherein a "white hole" composed entirely of antimatter ''sucks material out of the black hole'' so it can mutually annihilate.
* {{Unperson}}: The United Church puts information about people or places it doesn't want anyone to know about Under Edict. Public records are redacted, the few remaining official records are heavily guarded, and even star maps are altered to remove planetary coordinates. Automated warning systems are placed around Edicted planets with instructions to destroy intruders who don't have a Church override.
* UrsineAliens: The Ulru-Ujurrians.
* ViewersAreGeniuses: The climactic chapters of ''Flinx Transcendent'' read like an exercise in applied string theory. Where did the Xunca go again? How exactly does the LostSuperweapon work? Better hope you're up on your applied math or have a scientist friend handy.
* WaveMotionGun: Constructing superweapons was apparently a hobby of the Tar-Aiym, Hur'rikku, and Xunca. The first one we are introduced to, the Krang, can obliterate entire fleets of starships. By the end of the series, weapons are found that can destroy entire solar systems and even galaxies.
* WellIntentionedExtremist: The Meliorares. Their professed goals were to "improve the species" through genetic manipulation. Even as they are being hunted down, they persist in the belief that just one successful "experiment" might yet justify their actions; hence, their pursuit of Flinx.
* WhatIsEvil: The Vom attempts to bargain for its existence by claiming that evil is a meaningless concept. Peot and Flinx' answer: "Shut up and die."
* WhatTheHellHero: The Commonwealth puts Flinx on their wanted list in response to his actions in ''Reunion'', which include using projective empathy to manipulate his way into the Terran Shell and then triggering a trap that nearly levels the entire complex. Also, Flinx gets rather thoroughly chewed out by Tru and Bran in ''Flinx Transcendent'', after revealing that he spent the last four novels [[ContemplateOurNavels navel gazing]] rather than searching for the Tar-Aiym superweapon.
* WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue: A fairly brief one at the end of ''Flinx Transcendent''.
* WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds: Mahnahmi, as the only other surviving Meliorare experiment, has a backstory that could charitably be called a DeusAngstMachina and might qualify for Worst Childhood Ever. Unfortunately, she tries taking it out on Flinx while he's busy trying to save the universe.
* TheWorfBarrage: Despite being over a hundred times more powerful than the original Krang, [[spoiler:the one and only time the Tar-Aiym weapons platform is fired is in the last novel and it proves completely ineffective against the [[UltimateEvil Great Evil]]]].
* TheWorfEffect: Pip suffers from this increasingly as the series goes on. Justified in the sense that anyone seriously threatening Flinx does their homework to learn how to neutralize her, but it still feels a bit cheap. On the other hand, by the end of the series, he doesn't need her protection nearly as much.
* YourTomcatIsPregnant: Pip started as a "he" by default, since there was no xenobiologist handy to inform Flinx otherwise. In ''The End of the Matter'', the duo visit Alaspin, where Pip socializes with a male minidrag. A few months later, Flinx discovers to his surprise that Pip is a "she".
----
The Humanx Commonwealth is also the name of the [[TheFederation major alliance of spacefaring species]] in the stories, the two principal members of which are humans and the insectoid Thranx. They are joined by a fantastically diverse cast of [[StarfishAliens other species]] of varying levels of intelligence and technological progress. The spiritual counterpart of the Commonwealth is the United Church, an ecumenical council that embraces all religions under a single roof of universal tolerance. The major enemy of the Commonwealth is the [=AAnn=], a xenophobic reptilian species that has its own [[TheEmpire empire]] and whose members constantly scheme against the humans and their allies (and each other).
There is a long BackStory involving {{Precursors}}, the Xunca, who held the entire galaxy under their dominion a billion years in the past, but fled in the face of a galaxy-devouring [[UltimateEvil Great Evil]]. More recently (500,000 years or so), two powerful species called the Tar-Aiym and Hur'rikku fought a war that resulted in their mutual annihilation and the scouring of all higher life forms from a swath of star systems known as the Blight. Artifacts from these civilizations and others litter the worlds of the galaxy and provide a plentiful source of LostTechnology and {{MacGuffin}}s.
The ''Humanx Commonwealth'' series is best known as the home of Phillip Lynx, aka [[{{Portmanteau}} Flinx]], and [[ABoyAndHisX his pet minidrag]], Pip. Adopted at a young age, he manifested a talent for [[TheEmpath Empathy]] and promptly became embroiled in a number of unlikely schemes. Both the story and his powers expand over time to the point where he becomes the ChosenOne who is fated to save the universe from the same [[UltimateEvil Great Evil]] that the Xunca failed to deal with billions of years ago. And he [[IJustWantToBeNormal hates it]].
The series tends to sit very heavily on the ideal side of the SlidingScaleOfIdealismVsCynicism. In terms of [[MohsScaleOfSciFiHardness hardness]], it mainly falls under Mohs/OneBigLie: FTLTravel is prevalent, as is FTL communication, although both are fairly expensive for the "average Joe". Distance is not ignored, but SpaceIsAnOcean is an inevitable consequence of the method of FTL travel, to the point where independent traders ply the spacelanes like merchantmen of the Age of Sail. [[SingleBiomePlanet Fantastic planets]] litter the galaxy, ripe for exploration but ready to [[DeathWorld entrap the unprepared]]. And there's always a DeusExMachina around the corner to save the day.
----
!!The major miniseries and story arcs are as follows:
* '''Flinx and Pip''': Chronologically, this series begins with ''For Love of Mother-Not'', although that book was published much later and {{retcon}}ned Flinx's origin story to bring it into the main plot. From ''The Tar-Aiym Krang'' through ''The End of the Matter'', the story is fairly lighthearted and episodic in nature, with ''Orphan Star'' starting Flinx's [[GeneHunting search for his parentage]]. ''Flinx in Flux'' brought CerebusSyndrome by introducing both the [[UltimateEvil Great Evil]] plot and Flinx's ongoing LoveInterest. The next several books fill in the story of his quest for a LostSuperweapon to counter the [[UltimateEvil Great Evil]], as well as the resolution of the search for his parents. The GrandFinale is ''Flinx Transcendent''.
* '''Icerigger''': A trilogy set on the ice world of Tran-Ky-Ky. Part of the Commonwealth series but otherwise unconnected to the ongoing plotline. Involves a CoolShip ([[IncrediblyLamePun pun intended]]) made to traverse the ice world on, essentially, giant skates carved from the hull of a crashed shuttle.
* '''Cachalot''': A loosely connected series of novels set on the water world of Cachalot, where all the Cetacea [[hottip:*:whales]] were transplanted from Earth to make amends for their near-extinction.
* '''The Founding of the Commonwealth''': A trilogy that details the BackStory elements discussed in ''The Tar-Aiym Krang'', beginning with the first encounter between humans and Thranx, going through the Pitar war, and culminating with the ThePlan that eventually led to Amalgamation.
* Various other one-off novels, many of which tie directly or indirectly to the main storyline.
* There exists a ''{{GURPS}}'' RPG adaptation, sadly out of print.
A timeline of the Commonwealth universe can be found [[http://alandeanfoster.com/version2.0/chronomaster.htm here]].
----
!!This series provides examples of:
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* ZeroPercentApprovalRating: The Meliorare Society gets this after their scheme to produce genetic supermen is exposed. ''Everyone'' hates them.
* AbsoluteXenophobe: the Pitar, who seemed friendly enough but turned out to be ''batshit crazy''.
* AbusingTheKardashevScaleForFunAndProfit: The Tar-Aiym and Hur'rikku are Class II several times over; the Xunca are Class III-IV.
* ActionBomb: As Flinx gains more control over his powers, he sometimes tries to use his SuperPowerMeltdown offensively, with [[PowerIncontinence varying degrees of success]], and occasionally [[ForgotAboutHisPowers forgetting about it completely]] when it's inconvenient to the plot.
* AlienNonInterferenceClause: The Commonwealth has one of these a-la ''Franchise/StarTrek'', providing rules of conduct when dealing with species that haven't developed spaceflight on their own. Like all such rules, it exists mainly to be bent or broken by the protagonists. Sometimes coupled with placing a planet or species [[{{Unperson}} Under Edict]] so nobody stumbles upon them accidentally. In one particular case (the Ulru-Ujurrians), this was used not to protect the InnocentAliens from Commonwealth society, but vice versa.
* AlwaysABiggerFish: Played straight (and with) in several novels, such as ''Drowning World'', ''For Love of Mother-Not'', and ''Mid-Flinx''.
* AnimalWrongsGroup: The ecoterrorists who are the main antagonists of ''Flinx in Flux''.
* AnotherDimension:
** [[SubspaceOrHyperspace Space-plus and space-minus]] are technically this.
** "Elsewhere", the source of the antimatter "white hole" created by the Hur'rikku anticollapsar weapon.
** The Xunca packed up their entire galaxy-spanning civilization and moved to another dimension, possibly one that they manufactured, in order to escape the Great Evil.
** The Great Evil itself is thought by the Xunca to have come from an alternate universe, and [[spoiler:is eventually banished to another one by their superweapon]].
* AntiHero: Flinx (a [[SlidingScaleOfAntiHeroes Type I]]), who spent much of his early life as a thief and spends most of his adult life trying to ''avoid'' being TheHero of whatever situation he's in. Skua September (a Type II) plays this role in his various appearances, as does Malcolm Hammurabi in ''Bloodhype''.
* ApocalypseHow: X-3 if the [[UltimateEvil Great Evil]] gets to our galaxy, potentially X-4 if it is allowed to roam unchecked. X-2 in ''The End of the Matter'', with the rogue collapsar sucking up star systems. ''Bloodhype'' merely gives us a Class 5 on any planet the Vom reaches.
* AppliedPhlebotinum: Being a SpaceOpera series, it lives on this trope.
* ArbitrarilyLargeBankAccount: Flinx has one after ''Orphan Star'', thanks to the Ulru-Ujurrians.
* ArtificialGravity: Both used to create and applied as a side effect of the posigravity/KK drive.
* BadassBookworm: Bran Tse-Mallory and Truzenzuzex, military veterans and renowned scientists both, carry around enough firepower for an entire squad of peaceforcers and know how to use it. They also like making TheCavalry entrances.
* BecauseDestinySaysSo: Played with. There's no grand destiny of the Universe that anyone knows of, but it ''just so happens'' that Flinx is the "lucky accident" that the Xunca were hoping would evolve to become the trigger for their ancient weapon against the [[UltimateEvil Great Evil]]. Once this is revealed, major forces dedicate themselves to the sole purpose of making sure Flinx fulfills this destiny, often over his strenuous objections.
* BeePeople: Inverted in the thranx, which used to have an ant-like social structure, but re-evolved the capacity for all females to breed in the course of becoming sentient.
* BeethovenWasAnAlienSpy: On an epic scale -- the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Attractor Great Attractor]] was apparently constructed by the Xunca as a superweapon.
* BigCreepyCrawlies: The thranx, though it is a subversion as they are humanity's closest ally in the setting. In the beginning each group had to overcome their mutual instinctive feelings of revulsion (and terrorist groups from both sides that utterly opposed the Amalgamation).
* BigDamnHeroes: Start counting the number of times one or more characters get rescued in this manner. You'll be at it a while.
* BigGuy: Skua September and Malcolm Hammurabi are both regarded as giants, and are happy to play the role. Bran Tse-Mallory is no shorty, either, but he pales by comparison with the other two.
* BizarreAlienLocomotion:
** The Tran from the ''Icerigger'' subseries move using their "chiv" skate-claws, propelled by the "dan" sails beneath their arms.
** The sentient inhabitants of Jast, the Vssey, are basically giant mushrooms that get around by ''hopping''.
* BondCreatures: Minidrags in general, and Pip in particular. Also, furcots in ''Midworld'' and ''Mid-Flinx''.
* ABoyAndHisX: Flinx and Pip, of course. Pip is a Alaspinian miniature dragon, also known as a minidrag or flying snake (although this is stated to be a visual rather than a taxonomic description), that spits a potent, [[PoisonIsCorrosive corrosive neurotoxin]], and acts as an amplifier for Flinx's empathic powers.
* CasualInterstellarTravel: Caused by the tendency of the KK drive to invoke SpaceIsAnOcean. Interesting, while travel times between star systems are often measured in weeks or even months, the stories themselves more or less gloss this over.
* ChosenOne: Flinx, by virtue of his powers and unique origin, is the key to defeating the [[UltimateEvil Great Evil]]... whether he likes it or not.
* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: Abalamahalamatandra, who acts with a complete disregard for danger and speaks in a neverending flow of gibberish, [[ObfuscatingInsanity creating the impression]] of a whimsically brain-damaged alien puppy.
* CommonTongue: Symbospeech, a happy accident as it was developed to allow humans and thranx to share a language pronounceable by both species, and turned out to be at least functionally usable by most of the other species in the galaxy.
* CoolShip: The ''Icerigger'', of the same series -- literally a giant raft on skates used to cross the frozen seas of Tran-ky-ky.
* CoolStarship: Flinx's KK starship was engineered by the super genius Ulru-Ujurrians and has capabilities that Commonwealth scientists can only dream of.
* CreepyChild: Mahnahmi is introduced this way in ''Orphan Star'', cheerfully telling Flinx how her "daddy" is going to torture him and asking to be present while he does it. It is a facade concealing far worse things.
* DeathWorld: A lot of planets are like this, but the UpToEleven example is Midworld.
* DeflectorShields: Standard equipment on most starships.
* DesignerBabies: This turns out to have been the methodology used by the Meliorare Society to create their "test subjects". Much to Flinx's distress, as he eventually finds out that [[spoiler:his genome was synthesized in a lab from dozens of donors, so his [[GeneHunting hunt for his natural father]] was doomed from the start]].
* DeusExMachina: The Ulru-Ujurrians are TheCavalry for Flinx on several occasions. They do so by showing up completely unannounced, almost literally out of thin air, and fixing whatever problem he's got. Flinx [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] this on one occasion, and it's subverted in ''Flinx and Flux'' by having them show up after he's solved the problem himself. More generally, Flinx has a habit of getting himself into hopeless situations and then getting bailed out by the arrival of a completely unexpected third party.
* DyingLikeAnimals: The Order of Null, in LesCollaborateurs fashion, except that when you consider what they are rooting ''for'', they become a sort of Junior OmnicidalManiac Society.
* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness:
** In ''The Tar-Aiym Krang'', Flinx's quasi-telepathic powers are not well defined in their scope, and he seems to have no compunction about using them openly in front of people. Further, other characters observing him seem to accept his powers as unremarkable, if not precisely commonplace. Once the Meliorare Society backstory becomes canon, this becomes nonsensical, as Flinx's capabilities are shockingly rare and a public demonstration could easily trigger a WitchHunt. Plus, he is empathic rather than telepathic and is never clairvoyant.
** In ''Orphan Star'', Flinx visits Earth and sees thranx body surfing. Later novels (by publication date) establish that thranx have breathing spicules on their abdomens and would therefore drown in two feet of water, plus they are not buoyant.
* EarthIsTheCenterOfTheUniverse: Averted in that Earth is one of the two capitals of the Commonwealth (the other is the Thranx homeworld of Hivehom), but gets no more (and often less) plot time than any of dozens of other worlds.
* EasyAmnesia: Happens to Flinx in ''Shifting Sands'' due to a TapOnTheHead, leading to him being adopted into an [=AAnn=] nest.
* EldritchAbomination: The [[UltimateEvil Great Evil]], of course. The Vom (from ''Bloodhype'') also partakes of some aspects of this trope. Certainly it has the nigh infinite power curve, MindRape, inscrutability, and tendency to destroy all life wherever it's encountered parts down.
* ElectricTorture: Flinx encounters a version of this at Conda Challis' hands -- a bracelet that administers an extraordinarily painful neural discharge.
* EmotionBomb: Flinx's offensive use of his empathic abilities.
* TheEmpath: Flinx's primary power is this. Unlike [[WhatKindOfLamePowerIsHeartAnyway many examples]], it is very useful [[PowerIncontinence when it works]], and later he develops a projective version which is downright devastating when used [[strike:im]]properly.
* EmpathicWeapon: The Krang. Flinx also qualifies in a sense.
* EnemyMine: Happens between the [=AAnn=] and Commonwealth twice, both in the face of overwhelming external threats. The first time is in ''Bloodhype'' when their respective fleets offer to team up against the Vom (which proves futile, but hey, it's the thought that counts). The second occurs in ''Flinx Transcendent'', and is somewhat one-sided, as the [=AAnn=] Emperor agrees to call off all acts of aggression against the Commonwealth for one year in order to allow Flinx to pursue the resolution to the Great Evil crisis unhindered.
* EpiphanyTherapy: In ''Flinx Transcendent'', [[spoiler:Flinx conveniently gets over his {{Wangst}} in time to wrap up the series]]. On the other hand, Flinx's powers give him the ability to inflict a form of this on others... [[spoiler:Mahnahmi may be the most extreme example]].
* EvenEvilHasStandards: The commander of the [=AAnn=] base on Repler may be studying a world-devouring EldritchAbomination under the nose of the Commonwealth and lamenting the lack of humans to eat, but he's still disgusted by Bloodhype peddler Dominic Rose.
* EverythingTryingToKillYou: Midworld, Fluva
* EvilIsNotAToy: Curious [=AAnn=], meet the Vom. The Vom wants to eat everything in existence. Trying to control it won't turn out well for you.
* EvilutionaryBiologist: The Meliorare Society's goal is to "improve" humanity through applied genetic engineering. Even after they are outlawed and hunted down, their last remnants continue to stick to their beliefs, making life quite difficult for Flinx as they try to recover their "subject".
* ExpositionBeam: Flinx has a unique way of telling people about the [[UltimateEvil Great Evil]] -- he takes their minds there to experience it themselves.
* EyeScream: Pip's primary weapon is an extremely potent and caustic neurotoxin, which she instinctively aims at the eyes. If it enters the bloodstream, it kills in less then a minute, and it leaves horrible scars behind even on the survivors.
* FantasticDrug: Bloodhype, obviously, plus a handful of others that don't get as much page time. Another notable example is the emotion-inducing drugs in the short story ''Emoman''.
* FantasticRacism: Humanity's (natural) fear of insects plays a major role in the ''Founding of the Commonwealth'' stories, plus the converse from the Thranx. By the main storyline, just about everyone has gotten over it. In fact, racism in general is pretty muted with the possible exception of the [=AAnn=], who arguably deserve it.
** Many of the stories involve FantasticRacism between "primitive" tribes of aliens, which the more advanced Commonwealth representatives [[MightyWhitey often try to settle]].
** Of the few individuals who have found out about Flinx's origins, many have directed open revulsion towards ''him'', much as if he'd been a participant rather than a passive victim of the Meliorares' genetic crimes. Granted, those who've reacted this way are usually villains.
* FasterThanLightTravel: Via a device known as the KK, or posigravity drive, which "pulls" ships through space by generating an artificial gravity field in front (with a bit of NoConservationOfEnergy thrown in). Later in the series, more exotic forms are found to have been used by the {{Precursors}}.
* TheFederation: The Humanx Commonwealth itself.
* FoodPills: Meal concentrates. Most characters express a preference for the real thing, however, or at least use equipment to make the concentrates more meal-like.
* ForgotAboutHisPowers: The times Flinx remembers to use his SuperpowerMeltdown offensively in the later novels seem to be based less on his competence and more on whether [[TheCavalry someone else is coming to save him]].
* FrickinLaserBeams: The trope itself is averted in that lasers are treated fairly realistically, and are only one of a myriad of weapons used in personal and spatial combat.
* GeneHunting: Flinx was adopted and never knew his real parents. In ''Orphan Star'', Conda Challis claims to have found information about his "maternal line", and this prompts Flinx to chase him over half the Commonwealth. The subsequent search for his father takes more than ten years and at least six novels.
* GeneticEngineeringIsTheNewNuke: The Meliorare Society sought to manipulate the genes of unborn children to create supermen. What they got was... ugly, to say the least, leading to them and their victims being outlawed and hunted down. Flinx and [[spoiler:Mahnahmi]] are the only two altered subjects known to have escaped.
* GoMadFromTheRevelation: Anyone who touches the [[UltimateEvil Great Evil]] needs some pretty strong willpower to avoid having their brain fried.
* GreenRocks: The powerful sacred stones from ''The Howling Stones'' appear to be this at first. When someone not familiar with how to use them tries the results can be very bad. They turn out to be LostTechnology.
* HereThereBeDragons: The Blight.
* HeterosexualLifePartners: Humans and Thranx tend to form these types of partnerships, especially after they've worked closely together. The most prominent example is Bran Tse-Mallory and Truzenzuzex. Of course, in these cases there's no question of biological compatibility, so any HoYay has to be limited to the imagination. Not that Kitten Kai-Sung didn't try...
* HumanAliens: The Pitar, tragically so. Humanity goes nuts over the uncanny similiarities and rapidly moves to befriend them, only to have the Pitar turn out to be {{Absolute Xenophobe}}s.
* HumanityIsSuperior: The idealistic version - plus, we had the help of the Thranx.
* IJustWantToBeNormal: Flinx's resentment of the separation his powers cause from the rest of humanity drives him to quite a bit of {{Wangst}} in the later novels.
* ImprobableUseOfAWeapon: Skua September puts in his first appearance wielding a Mark Twenty, a military grade laser that's designed to be tripod or vehicle mounted.
* InnocentAliens: The Ulru-Ujurrians start out this way, being exploited by the [=AAnn=] and Rudenuaman Enterprises for their little schemes. After Flinx gets in touch with them, however, they reveal that they are exponentially intelligent and rapidly develop a society and technology far beyond the Commonwealth's.
* InstantSedation: Used more than once, but most prominently in ''Bloodhype'', when Kitten Kai-Sung, Mal, and Porsupah infiltrate the [=AAnn=] enclave on Repler using pistols that fire {{Tranquillizer Dart}}s.
* InstantWakingSkills: Flinx possesses this trait. He doesn't know if it comes from his [[GeneticEngineeringIsTheNewNuke abnormal genetic heritage]] or his early life as a [[StreetUrchin petty thief]] on the streets of the planet Moth, but it comes in handy a few times. He also finds as he gets older that he needs only a few hours of sleep each day and can adjust his circadian rhythm more or less at will.
* InterspeciesRomance: Averted, as the series takes biological compatibility quite seriously. However, the concept is given quite a working over by Kitten Kai-Sung, who has apparently studied the art of interspecies sexual stimulation and deliberately uses this knowledge to {{squick}} out her companions.
* InterstellarWeapon: The Tar-Aiym weapons platform and the Xunca superweapon, in ''Flinx Transcendent'', which can fire (if such a term is even applicable) across inter''galactic'' distances.
* ItsNotYouItsMyEnemies: Flinx's justification for leaving Clarity Held in the care of Bran Tse-Mallory and Truzenzuzex in ''Flinx's Folly'', conveniently [[PutOnABus putting her on a bus]] until the grand finale.
* JustLikeRobinHood: First line of ''The Tar-Aiym Krang'' -- "The Flinx was an ethical thief, in that he only stole from the rich."
* KickTheDog: Too many villainous moments to list (Conda Challis, anyone?), but Flinx gets his own DesignatedHero moment in ''Reunion'' when he uses his projective empathy to infiltrate the Terran Shell.
* KnightTemplar: The Church agents from the Moral Operations branch who pursue Flinx and the Meliorares in ''For Love of Mother-Not'' wish to see the Meliorares destroyed and all their experimental subjects put down or "made normal", regardless of the cost in lives and/or the desires of said subjects.
* LaserGuidedAmnesia: The process of mindwipe surgically removes memories from the victim's brain, leaving them "cured" but a [[EmptyShell shell]] of their former selves. Said to be used in only the most {{egregious}} of cases.
* LastOfHisKind: Peot, the Tar-Aiym Guardian. At one point it is suggested that Abalamahalamatandra is the last Hur'rikku, but this theory is quelled. He is the last ''something'', though, even if it's just a LivingMacGuffin.
* LensmanArmsRace: Happened between the Tar-Aiym and Hur'rikku in the BackStory, to the point where the two species destroyed not only each other but wiped out all higher life forms from a large chunk of the galaxy. The efforts of the Xunca to counter the [[UltimateEvil Great Evil]] fall into this category as well, when you consider that the grand finale in ''Flinx Transcendent'' involves [[spoiler:using the equivalent of ''several million galaxies''' worth of energy to rip a hole between universes to remove the [[UltimateEvil Great Evil]] from existence]].
* LivingLieDetector: Both Flinx and Pip can detect lies by reading the emotional state of the person telling them. Pip does it instinctively, which can lead to some rather nasty consequences (read: she spits a corrosive venom).
* LivingRelic: Peot, the Tar-Aiym Guardian, from ''Bloodhype''. Five hundred thousand years old and the LastOfHisKind, after his task of defeating the Vom is concluded, he commits suicide.
%%* LoadsAndLoadsOfRaces
* LockedOutOfTheLoop: As part of the {{retcon}}s necessary to fit ''The Tar-Aiym Krang'' into continuity, it's explained in ''For Love of Mother-Not'' that Mother Mastiff decided to lie to Flinx about his origin in an attempt to protect him. This causes him to be rather unpleasantly surprised to learn the actual details in ''Orphan Star'' and later.
* LonersAreFreaks: Flinx in a nutshell. Which one causes the other is a matter for debate, but he's not helping things by his constant indulgence in [[{{Wangst}} self-pity]].
* LongRunner: From 1972's ''The Tar-Aiym Krang'' to 2009's ''Flinx Transcendent''.
* LostColony: The humans of Midworld.
* LostSuperweapon: The Hur'rikku anticollapsar weapon, not to mention the Krang. And the Tar-Aiym weapons platform that is [[LensmanArmsRace made of Krangs]]. ''And the Xunca's superweapon...''
* [[MacguffinGirl Macguffin Alien]]: Abalamahalamatandra, from ''The End of the Matter''. He's a NighInvulnerable, apparently [[ObfuscatingInsanity whimsically insane]] alien whose purpose in existing is nothing more than to tell people where to find the Hur'rikku [[LostSuperweapon anticollapsar device]]... [[spoiler:and to activate it]].
* MagneticHero: Flinx attracts people to him wherever he goes, which makes his desire to be a loner all the more ironic.
* MarsNeedsWomen: [[spoiler: The only reason the [[AbsoluteXenophobe Pitar]] make contact with the Humanx Commonwealth. They believe that their similar appearance to humans may indicate convergent evolution, and they may be able to interbreed, which would counter the Pitar's falling birthrate. However, the Pitar move to accomplish this by stealing female reproductive organs from a human colony...]]
* MeaningfulName: Abalamahalamatandra. His name, when run through the translation program that Bran Tse-Mallory and Truzenzuzex create for him, comes out as "key". Ab says this himself in one of his sing-song nonsense rhymes, but Flinx has no way to understand the significance at the time.
* MightyWhitey: Flinx tries playing this role to some primitive aliens in ''Running from the Deity'', only to find out that they aren't so innocent after all. In fact, this ''never'' works whenever a character tries it.
* MindControl: The [=AAnn=] scheme to implant [[DrivenToSuicide suicidal]] thought plays into the Janus Jewels mined from Ulru-Ujurr in ''Orphan Star''.
* AMindIsATerribleThingToRead: Mahnahmi, a telepath, grew up in Conda Challis' household and was unavoidably subjected to the full extent of his depravity. This warped her youthful psyche beyond recognition.
* MindRape: Both Flinx and [[spoiler:Mahnahmi]] can use their projective empathy/telepathy offensively, and do, even to the point of killing people (by accident in Flinx's case). Also one of the powers of the Vom in ''Bloodhype''.
* MurderInc: The Quarm are a feared guild of assassins whose creed, apart from ruthless efficiency, is that they never fail to kill a target. Flinx and his allies may be the sole claimants to have successfully defeated them.
* MysteriousParent: Flinx's search for his genetic mother and father doesn't turn out ''quite'' the way he expected.
* NegativeSpaceWedgie: The Vom. The [[UltimateEvil Great Evil]] probably counts as well.
* NeglectfulPrecursors: The Xunca, who fled the galaxy rather than face the [[UltimateEvil Great Evil]], leaving the countless sentient species who would arise in their wake to face the music. A very thin justification is given in ''Quofum'', amounting to, "We built the weapon to kill it, but lost the key."
* NiceJobFixingItVillain: At the climax of ''Flinx in Flux'', the AnimalWrongsGroup that has been hunting Flinx down in order to "make him normal" shows up just in time to accidentally rescue him from the BigBad who wishes to [[TheydCutYouUp experiment upon him]] instead. As a double example, Flinx finds that the sedation method that the BigBad used on him has also woken a new form of his [[TheEmpath empathic powers]], which he subsequently uses to defeat both groups of antagonists.
* NighInvulnerable: Abalamahalamatandra, who is apparently immune to arrows, poisons, vaccuum, and massive electric shock. (The Quarm try to use explosives, but Flinx foils that attempt.) It's less surprising when it's revealed that he's a construct that's at least five hundred thousand years old.
* NoBiochemicalBarriers: Mostly played straight, in that many sentient species can survive on similar ratios of atmospheric gases and by consuming similar proteins, but given a nod or two in that the effects of certain specific substances - particularly intoxicants - can vary widely among species, and they need various trace minerals to prosper.
* NoEndorHolocaust: Averted. The use of a posigravity/KK drive too close to a planet causes devastating damage and is banned by all civilizations. One of the reasons Flinx's CoolStarship is special is that its AppliedPhlebotinum allows it to avoid this issue.
* ObfuscatingInsanity: Abalamahalamatandra, whose gibberish mumblings are revealed to be the whimsical alien's attempts to render hundreds of thousands of languages as phonetic symbospeech, all to communicate the location of a LostSuperweapon.
* OmnicidalManiac: If you merely count eating all life on a planet and moving on to the next, you get the Vom. If you count ''eating the galaxy'', the [[UltimateEvil Great Evil]] would fall into this category. If you count believing the galaxy is too corrupt to continue existing and therefore killing anyone who tries to stop the Great Evil, you get the Order of Null.
* OneLetterName: Among the Aann, the fewer letters there are in one's surname, the higher one's rank in society. Their Emperor thus has a one-letter surname.
* OutgrownSuchSillySuperstitions: Although the United Church is established as the spiritual arm of the Commonwealth, exactly what they believe in is never really stated, and it's implied that, for most people, direct deity worship has been discarded in favor of a kind of universal spiritualism.
* PersonOfMassDestruction: Flinx has a tendency to [[SuperPowerMeltdown violently explode]] in a telekinetic storm when his powers are stressed. It's as bad for his surroundings as you might imagine.
* PlanetOfHats: Most obviously, the [=AAnn=]. Lots of other species get this treatment due to limited page time, but the Thranx are a notable exception.
* PoisonIsCorrosive: Pip's caustic neurotoxin spittle.
* PowerIncontinence: Flinx's abilities are erratic, to say the least. One minute, he'll be receiving the emotions of every being on a planet, the next he's as ordinary as the next person. Naturally, his powers have a tendency to go out when he most needs them.
* {{Precursors}}: The Xunca. Also the Tar-Aiym and Hur'rikku to a lesser extent. In fact, the planets of the Commonwealth universe are absolutely littered with the ruins of ancient civilizations.
* PsychicPowers: Flinx's empathic powers are the focus of his storyline, but there are lots of naturally telepathic and empathic beings throughout the galaxy, such as the Tar-Aiym, the Ulru-Ujurrians, the natives of Longtunnel, the entire planet of Midworld, and more.
* PutOnABus: Clarity Held, Flinx's LoveInterest, gets this twice. At the end of ''Flinx in Flux'', Flinx more or less tells her to get lost and he'll come find her again when he's figured out what to do about the [[UltimateEvil Great Evil]]. At the end of ''Flinx's Folly'', just after their reunion, she [[spoiler:nearly gets blown to pieces]] and Flinx leaves her in Bran and Tru's care.
* RapeAsBackstory: Mahnahmi's childhood features rape by mental proxy, as she [[AMindIsATerribleThingToRead telepathically witnessed]] the full extent of Conda Challis' depravity, including his intention to turn her into a sex toy when she matured.
* RealityWarper: A side-effect of the Vom and Guardian's mental battle is a bunch of weird things happening in physical reality. Some rocks turn to precious gems, a nearby gas giant's orbit is altered, a crustacean has a massive intelligence boost (and is promptly eaten by a fish), and so on.
* ReallyGetsAround: Kitten Kai-Sung, in ''Bloodhype'', or at least that's the impression she likes to give.
* ReallySevenHundredYearsOld: Abalamahalamatandra is really five hundred thousand years old, give or take a few dozen millennia. The Xunca Mutable assigned to Horseye, which the Redowls encounter in ''Voyage to the City of the Dead'' in the form of one of the natives, is close to a ''billion'' years old.
* TheReptilians: The [=AAnn=]
* ReptilesAreAbhorrent: The [=AAnn=] get this treatment because they are a PlanetOfHats of narcissistic xenophobes. Later, in both ''Reunion'' and ''Sliding Scales'', we get to see that not all of them are like that. While anyone who knows what Pip is reacts with alarm due to her highly lethal nature, she is completely docile when with Flinx and not threatened.
* RetCon: Because both ''The Tar-Aiym Krang'' and ''Bloodhype'' were written before the major plot points of the ongoing series had been established, a lot of work had to be done to fit them in. ''For Love of Mother-Not'' establishes Flinx's canonical origin story at odds with some elements of ''Krang'' (the given explanation is that Mother Mastiff was lying to Flinx for his protection), and there are some glaring continuity gaps around ''Bloodhype'' ([[YourTomcatIsPregnant Pip's gender]], Flinx's age, and the design of his starship). Foster acknowledged these and offered some explanations, but admitted that complete consistency was impossible.
* SaintlyChurch: The United Church is portrayed as well-meaning and idealistic, almost saccharinely so. On the other hand, its operatives are well trained, and can go around [[ChurchMilitant very well-armed]], when called for.
* SciFiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale: The one glaring example here is the scale of the interstellar merchant trade. There would have to be literally millions of ships running nonstop routes between every star system to deliver even a fraction of the goods required to sustain an economy the size of the Commonwealth's. On the other hand, ''The Tar-Aiym Krang'' does contain a passage explaining how difficult it is to patrol interstellar space; if you don't travel within sensor range of a monitored system, you can go anywhere you want.
* ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney:
** A rare example of the protagonist using this trope; after ''Orphan Star'', Flinx is so rich (the Ujurrians rigged his account with [[ArbitrarilyLargeBankAccount effectively infinite wealth]]) that he can buy his way out of many situations. Of course, in later novels he's wanted by nearly every Commonwealth authority, so the value of his "inheritance" is a bit dubious.
** Blatantly invoked by Jack-Jax Coerlis, the [[spoiler: first]] villain of ''Mid-Flinx'', [[spoiler: at least until the ''real'' threat (the [=AAnn=]) show up]].
* SealedGoodInACan: Peot, the Tar-Aiym Guardian, in ''Bloodhype''.
* SealedEvilInACan: The Vom, also in ''Bloodhype''. Although in this case, it's a planet-sized can that is opened when an [=AAnn=] exploratory vessel lands there and decides to take the mysterious alien lifeform to an inhabited world for study. This [[EvilIsNotAToy doesn't turn out so well for them]].
* SesquipedalianLoquaciousness: Truzenzuzex is occasionally afflicted with this malady. The rather more laconic Bran Tse-Mallory loves to rib him about it.
* ShoulderSizedDragon: Pip all but breathes fire.
* ShownTheirWork: AlanDeanFoster loves using his RealLife excursions to exotic locations on Earth as inspiration for describing alien worlds.
* SingleBiomePlanet: There are both aversions and straight uses of this, depending largely on how much time the story spends on a given world. Terra, Hivehom, and Moth get the most love, and have highly detailed descriptions of widely varying climates and terrains; but then you have examples like Midworld (forest), Longtunnel (caves), Tran Ky Ky (ice), and Cachalot (ocean).... Prism falls somewhere in between the two extremes.
* SlapSlapKiss: Mal Hammurabi and Kitten Kai-Sung are at each others' throats for most of ''Bloodhype''. By the end, after a session of SpankTheCutie, they become lovers.
* SlippingAMickey: Happens to Flinx in ''Orphan Star'', courtesy of an unscrupulous thranx hired by Conda Challis.
* SoWhatDoWeDoNow: [[spoiler:Flinx's last line in ''Flinx Transcendent'' -- "I'm bored."]]
* SpaceFighter: The Commonwealth has stingships, two-person attack ships each carrying a single SCCAM missile.
* SpaceIsAnOcean: Most particularly in that the method of [[FasterThanLightTravel FTL]] used allows interplanetary travel measured in days or weeks. "KK drive" starships therefore cruise the void much like sailing vessels, complete with merchant traders and trading companies run by wealthy magnates.
* SpankTheCutie: Mal Hammurabi administers some "[[ExpospeakGag eleemosynary chastisement]]" to Kitten Kai-Sung in ''Bloodhype'' in this manner, in retribution for the number of times her stubborness has nearly gotten them all killed. It winds up as SlapSlapKiss.
* {{Sssssnaketalk}}: The [=AAnn=].
%%* StandardTimeUnits
* StarfishAliens: Foster delights in presenting fantastically weird alien species in every new book he writes. The one notable aversion in the BackStory (the Pitar) come with a [[AbsoluteXenophobe nasty little twist]]. Perhaps the greatest example of this is the planet Quofum, where mutation and evolution have been artificially sped up to absurd rates.
* StreetUrchin: Flinx starts out as a orphan who spends a lot of time on the streets as a petty thief under the auspices of his adoptive mother. In ''Trouble Magnet'', he takes some urchins under his wing because they remind him of his past.
* SubspaceAnsible: The Deep Space Beams, which use "space minus", but are very expensive. Ordinary interstellar communications are carried on starships through space plus, or sent via messenger drone.
* SubspaceOrHyperspace: Called "space minus" and "space plus", respectively, and occupying the traditional roles for each.
* SufficientlyAdvancedAlien: The Xunca. Also, the Ulru-Ujurrians ''become'' this over the course of the novels. That is, they grow from illiterate hunter gatherers to near RealityWarper level in ''less than ten years''.
* SuperDrowningSkills: Due to their physiology (a rigid exoskeleton, normal posture that is upright but canted forward from the vertical, and breating spicules located on the underside of their abdomens,) a Thranx would drown while standing in a 2 foot deep puddle. They would rapidly sink in deeper water.
* SuperIntelligence: The Ulru-Ujurrians are said to be capable of exponential learning, which is triggered by Flinx arriving on their world and offering to teach them the "game of civilization". In the months he spends there, they go from illiterate hunter-gatherers to building spacecraft. Over the next ten years, they learn to tunnel through space-time and are hinted to be {{Reality Warper}}s. Flinx and the Commonwealth are very lucky that they are ''true'' InnocentAliens, lacking any malice or ambition.
* TalkingThroughTechnique: Phycode, employed by Kitten Kai-Sung in ''Bloodhype'' to send a hidden message to the Humanx authorities on Repler, consists of subtle body language adjustments and muscular twitches that are invisible to any unpracticed observer.
* TechnoBabble: There's plenty, although it's surprisingly muted for a SpaceOpera series and rarely detracts from the plot.
* TechnologyMarchesOn: The early Flinx novels have him accessing information on microfiche. A mere ten years later, the Commonwealth has apparently modernized its computer systems quite dramatically.
* TheyWouldCutYouUp: Why Flinx doesn't trust Humanx authorities or reveal his abilities to anyone who's not extremely close to him.
* [[TravelingLandmass Traveling Planet]]: Quofum, which is only occasionally found at its traditional spacetime coordinates. [[spoiler:It's the Xunca homeworld, and they rigged it to dimension hop, which is admittedly more convenient than getting in a starship if you want to go somewhere quickly.]]
* UltimateEvil: The galaxy-eating horror that's approaching from across the universe. Although it's presented as the greatest threat to existence ever known, it doesn't do much aside from giving off "evil vibes" and is so far away that it only shows up in the most advanced of astronomical instruments (and Flinx's mental projections). [[spoiler:And then, in ''Flinx Transcendent'', Flinx triggers an ancient Xunca weapon that simply makes it go "foop".]]
* UnrealisticBlackHole: The conclusion of ''The End of the Matter'', wherein a "white hole" composed entirely of antimatter ''sucks material out of the black hole'' so it can mutually annihilate.
* {{Unperson}}: The United Church puts information about people or places it doesn't want anyone to know about Under Edict. Public records are redacted, the few remaining official records are heavily guarded, and even star maps are altered to remove planetary coordinates. Automated warning systems are placed around Edicted planets with instructions to destroy intruders who don't have a Church override.
* UrsineAliens: The Ulru-Ujurrians.
* ViewersAreGeniuses: The climactic chapters of ''Flinx Transcendent'' read like an exercise in applied string theory. Where did the Xunca go again? How exactly does the LostSuperweapon work? Better hope you're up on your applied math or have a scientist friend handy.
* WaveMotionGun: Constructing superweapons was apparently a hobby of the Tar-Aiym, Hur'rikku, and Xunca. The first one we are introduced to, the Krang, can obliterate entire fleets of starships. By the end of the series, weapons are found that can destroy entire solar systems and even galaxies.
* WellIntentionedExtremist: The Meliorares. Their professed goals were to "improve the species" through genetic manipulation. Even as they are being hunted down, they persist in the belief that just one successful "experiment" might yet justify their actions; hence, their pursuit of Flinx.
* WhatIsEvil: The Vom attempts to bargain for its existence by claiming that evil is a meaningless concept. Peot and Flinx' answer: "Shut up and die."
* WhatTheHellHero: The Commonwealth puts Flinx on their wanted list in response to his actions in ''Reunion'', which include using projective empathy to manipulate his way into the Terran Shell and then triggering a trap that nearly levels the entire complex. Also, Flinx gets rather thoroughly chewed out by Tru and Bran in ''Flinx Transcendent'', after revealing that he spent the last four novels [[ContemplateOurNavels navel gazing]] rather than searching for the Tar-Aiym superweapon.
* WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue: A fairly brief one at the end of ''Flinx Transcendent''.
* WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds: Mahnahmi, as the only other surviving Meliorare experiment, has a backstory that could charitably be called a DeusAngstMachina and might qualify for Worst Childhood Ever. Unfortunately, she tries taking it out on Flinx while he's busy trying to save the universe.
* TheWorfBarrage: Despite being over a hundred times more powerful than the original Krang, [[spoiler:the one and only time the Tar-Aiym weapons platform is fired is in the last novel and it proves completely ineffective against the [[UltimateEvil Great Evil]]]].
* TheWorfEffect: Pip suffers from this increasingly as the series goes on. Justified in the sense that anyone seriously threatening Flinx does their homework to learn how to neutralize her, but it still feels a bit cheap. On the other hand, by the end of the series, he doesn't need her protection nearly as much.
* YourTomcatIsPregnant: Pip started as a "he" by default, since there was no xenobiologist handy to inform Flinx otherwise. In ''The End of the Matter'', the duo visit Alaspin, where Pip socializes with a male minidrag. A few months later, Flinx discovers to his surprise that Pip is a "she".
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