Finity's End

If you're interested in the question of what happens to ordinary folks caught up in the clash of titans, and if you enjoy action-packed yet character-driven science fiction, plus imaginative world building, "Finity's End" is an entertaining read. "Finity's End", part of C.J. Cherryh's Alliance-Union universe, is one of those books of hers that fleshes out the world-building. Titanic space battles have been fought and all of space-going humanity's politics and economics has been realigned; meanwhile, ordinary humans have to get on with their lives.The "ordinary" person of "Finity's End" is seventeen year old Fletcher. Fletcher is a child of the Neihart family, merchanters of the big ship Finity's End and heroes of the Company War. Only Fletcher was never part of the crew. He had been born to a pregnant crew member left behind on Pell Station. Subsequently orphaned and shuttled from foster family to foster family, Fletcher dreams not of finding blood kin again, but of going to the world below Pell Station and becoming a student of the non-human hisa. When Finity's End re-claims Fletcher, they get not a grateful son and cousin, but an angry rebellious misfit determined to follow his own dreams. "Finity's End" is Fletcher's coming of age story.The book is good space adventure, in the spirit of Robert Heinlein. Fletcher is caught up, willy-nilly, in dockside dangers and various skirmishes with entities that oppose the new order, as the captains of Finity's End work to consolidate the peace. Fletcher's conflicts of loyalty, alliance and survival are a mirror of the larger military and political forces at play. This book is more than an account of an angsty teen: this book has plenty of action.Cherrhy takes this opportunity to explore shipboard life from the point of view of one who has lived on a station all of his life. Her other Alliance-Union books have touched on the divide between stationers and spacers, two human cultures that must cooperate to survive, but which have difficulty imagining each other's way of life. "Finity's End" explores these differences. Cherrhy, who is known for creating fascinating aliens--and for writing from a point of view that makes humanity the "strange" ones--has, in this book, succeeded in revealing the "other" in the human.

I love the story of stationers, merchant families, and sapients native to the planet of Downbelow. Cherryh leaves blanks in the writing, to be filled by later disclosures.The object in this next scene creates all kinds of problems. The 'hisa' (proper name, but not capitalized) are gently evicting Fletcher Neihart, human, the central character. He is an orphan, and becoming inured to rejection- in fact, he is burning his bridges again.Some hisa on the planet are meditating under the dead gaze of carved 'Sun watchers'. A very old hisa speaks to him:'A chill went down his back as those eyes sought his, with the mask between them. "You walk with Great Sun. I walk with Sun my time, bad time, lot shoot, lot die."The war. War wasn't a word they were ever supposed to use with hisa."I know," he said."You walk with Sun," she said, and from the grass beside her took up a spirit stick, a carved stick as long as a human's forearm, a carved stick done up with woven strands and feathers and stones. He'd seen them on gravesites, at boundaries, at important places hisa meant to mark."Take," she said, and offered it to him.Humans weren't supposed to touch such things. But she offered it, and he took it carefully in one hand. He saw intricate carvings, and the wear of age and the discoloration at one end that said it might have been set in dark earth once."You take," she said.He didn't know what to say. He couldn't own such a thing. Or maybe--maybe it was a grave marker. They were, sometimes. Maybe it was his dying she meant."Why?" he asked. "Do what with it?...' (p. 310)Spacer human family system has flaws. Spacer couples do not marry- women hook up with other spacers while on liberty, and deliver aboard ship. Many children never know their fathers. This was already featured in previous stories like  Downbelow Station (20th Anniversary) (Daw Book Collectors)  or  Merchanter's Luck .In this plot, we alternately follow the unpleasant Fletcher, or the cagey Administrator of Pell space station, or hear negotiations to end the war, when piracy threatened trade between Human outposts. Be patient- eventually the bigger picture comes into focus. On the personal level, Fletcher resists this latest foster family. His up-bringing as a stationer does not prepare him for crew assignments, or extreme stresses of 'Jump'ing between star systems. Cherryh again takes you into the head of a disturbed person who spends intervals dreaming under tranquilization while the ship travels through nightmarish places. The impact is very disorienting. Answers come faster and faster as Finity's End jumps for Esperance station and critical negotiations.Some problems- you will know which- are not solved, even though Fletcher and the Neiharts do show that they can solve the biggest ones. Since this is the last book of the series, we will never know. (minus one star) Good voyage, anyway!

This book involves an eighteen-year-old son of a Finity's End woman who had been left at Pell station to give birth during the war, and who finally committed suicide when war did not allow her family to retrieve her. The boy, Fletcher, who had been raised by the stationer court system, finally found a place working with the Hisa (alien sapients) on Pell planet, but was removed when his family came back to get him. Problems ensue. This book looks at the cultural difference of stationers, merchanter families and those who love planet life. It also goes into the problem of smugglers and the black market, from which the Mazianni resupply themselves. Work is going forward, under Finity's End, to have merchanters, Union and stationmasters cooperate to stop the smuggling to be able to transition to peacetime and legitimate trade. This is also a coming of age book, following Fletcher from an angry youth to a responsible adult. It also delves into an understanding of Hisa as opposed to humans. I found this book particularly well-done in developing several of the characters.

Usually really love her work, and I don't know how many times I have re-read Downbelow Station, amongst others, but this one doesn't really cut it. It is an OK coming-of-age book, but this is clearly not the author's forte. The plot seemed pretty obvious. Just didn't do it for me. I'd recommend almost any of her other books over this one.

Excellent condition

C’est un must du genre space opéra à mon humble avis .Le rythme est très soutenu . L'intrigue est complexe et très riche humainement parlant .L’intensité qui se détache du texte est prégnante , omniprésente et elle est très prenante et elle est même dérangeante souvent .Il n’est pas disponible en français . Le style est un peu âpre , beaucoup de soliloques , de phrases courtes qui se renvoient la balle alors que le sens glisse d’une page à l’autre .Un texte de ce fait , pas très facile à lire je trouve .Sans " spoiler ":Le Finity’s end ( vaisseaux marchand quasi militaire ) est de retour à Pell ( station ) après la guerre .Il veut ( entre autres ) récupérer le fils d'un de ses membres d'équipage qui s'est suicidé dans cette station .Car il semble que pour ce membre d’équipage , c'était trop difficile voire impossible de se faire à la condition et à la vie de « stationner « .Cette femme a été laissée sur Pell suite à un départ vers des horizons dangereux de son vaisseaux familiale . Ce n'était pas un abandon mais une femme enceinte n'avais pas sa place dans ce contexte de risques militaires .Le Finity’s end revient donc , entre autres , pour récupérer ( contre son gré ) le jeune adulte qui avait commencé de faire son trou sur la planète Pell, auprès des indigènes Hisa , et auprès de son amie intime .Il devra absolument contre son grès obtempérer et se soumettre aux exigences de son vaisseaux d’origine , celui de sa mère . Il devra aussi découvrir à marche forcée cet univers clôt perdu dans le vide spatial .Le vaisseau pour sa part tentera aussi de reprendre un rythme marchand plus honnête et plus clair que celui de la contrebande , mais la politique est toujours là , embusquée .Bref : La guerre est finie mais les temps sont dursVoilà la matière que C.J. Cherryh utilise pour nous balader dans l'espace profond : les séquelles des drames de guerre , les intrigues politiques , le huis clos des vaisseaux , la culture très et l’identité très affirmée des vaisseaux patrie , la dureté des membres d'équipage et la difficulté de s'intégrer à ces mêmes équipages , station et stationner ou bien encore : les rapports avec les extraterrestres de Pell dont la fréquentation a décisivement marqué utilement un des personnages principaux de ce texte ...Ce qui est agréable c'est le côté universel et intemporel de ce que vivent les personnages de cet univers de l’espace profond ..Un roman qui m'a bluffé : relativement court ... intense ... assez puissant .... percutant ...Sinon on est embarqué dans l’univers Alliance et Union , mais dans le camp des marchands et des vaisseaux familiaux .......................................................................................................................4e de couverture (1) et appréciation (2) de l'éditeur :(1) finity's end falls after Merchanter's luck ( l'opera de l'espace ) but before Tripoint (Les chants du néant ) in the lineup of C.J. Cherryh's Merchanter novels (part of the author's award-winning Alliance/Union universe). It resumes the story of Fletcher Neihart, an orphan and unwanted foster child who, against his will, joins the crew of the legendary merchanter ship finity's end. As Neihart struggles to find his place both on the ship and in the world, the ship undertakes a mission critical to the continuing peace between the Earth, Alliance, and Union factions.(2) finity's end is complex, insightful writing. Cherryh understands human nature under stress, and has a gift for conveying the immediacy of interactions, concerns, betrayals, and forgiveness.