<Tr> <Th> Followed by </Th> <Td> Flinx in Flux </Td> </Tr> <P> The End of the Matter (1977) is a science fiction novel by American writer Alan Dean Foster . The book is fourth chronologically in the Pip and Flinx series . </P> <P> The novel takes place immediately after Orphan Star with Flinx taking his new space ship, Teacher built by the Ulru - Ujurrians, to Alaspin, the home planet of his minidrag Pip, in search of the man who bid on him when Flinx was a child in a slave auction . </P> <P> He not only finds this man, Skua September, but also acquires a strange new alien pet Abalamahalamatandra--Ab for short--and is pursued by an assassin squad called the Qwarm . Flinx's friends Bran Tse - Mallory and Truzenzuzex show up looking for Ab in the hope of finding an ancient weapon, thought to possibly be capable of stopping a rogue black hole; before the three inhabited planets on the black hole's course are sucked in . </P>

The end of the matter alan dean foster