Finity's End - a Union-Alliance Novel

462 Pages·2012·1.79 MB·English

by  Cherryh C J

Finity's End
Caroline J. Cherryh
A Union Alliance novel
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
Finity's End falls after Merchanter's Luck but before Tripoint 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. --This text refers to an
out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Science Fiction Age
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. --This text refers to an out of print or
unavailable edition of this title.
Spotlight Reviews
This is GOOD!!, May 28, 2001
Reviewer:
I have been a fan of Ms Cherryh for many years but from the moment I read
Finity's end I knew it was something else, even for her.
The story is about a young boy who's had a rough childhood with his mom
suiciding and having to spend his life in one foster-home after another. All the
while, his "real" family of the space-ship "Finity's End" are trying to get him
back and making an even bigger mess of his life in the process.
All the characters in the book are so real you feel that you know them after a
very short time. They become friends and so this book is among the select few
that I reread over and over again. The experiences as well as the characters can
be found in most people's lives and childhoods and that is what makes me love
this book.
C J Cherryh is a reliably thought provoking writer., December 21, 1998
Reviewer:
FINITY'S END by C.J. Cherryh a book review by R.C. McDonald In Finity's
End C J Cherryh returns to the universe made popular in her Merchanter and
Cyteen series, some of which books earned her science fiction's coveted Hugo
award.
This book continues the tale of a centuries-long dispute between the two
political entities which rule known human space and the loosely-knit alliance of
merchant ships who supply and connect them.
Within this gritty and appealing portrayal of a very believable and very human
future you will find the story of one ship in particular, the Finity's End, and of
one boy in particular, torn through no fault of his own between the world of the
alien hisa and the that of a merchanter family starship.
You can expect to learn some new ideas about how you view your own world
after looking at life through the eyes of this book.
There is no need to have read the books previously written in this universe -
each book, including this one, is self explanatory, and yet manages to avoid
over-repetitive explanations for those who have read the others - the mark of a
very skilled writer indeed!
Finally, on a note near and dear to any science fiction reader's heart, strict
attention is paid to the laws of nature and the workings of science. All in all, a
superlative book, one to be cherished and read repeatedly. --This text refers to
the Hardcover edition.
Pretty Good. Kept my interest., July 25, 2000
Reviewer:
I picked this book up at the local bookstore, on the "Bargain" rack a few years
ago. Read the synopsis on back and thought I'd give it a try. I didn't know it was
part of a series, in fact I had no clue until today while reading these reviews. I
liked Finity's End. The main character was very interesting. He seemed alive. I
found myself feeling for him, and hoping he'd make the right decisions for the
right reasons, and not just be dragged down by his heritage, or dragged out.
Some of the others on board ship also were likeable, and came alive for me. It
was pretty juvenile at times, but kids will be kids, even if they are only
characters in a book. I thought the way they spent their "downtime" was great! I
wish we could do that in real life. Read the book, it's not the best book in the
world, but for a space sci-fi book it's great!
Excellent story!, May 10, 2000
Reviewer:
I read this book when it first came out; just finished rereading it. It remains
one of my favority science fiction books of all time. Good story, strong
characters. You care about what happens to the crew. Very well written story.
Cherryh is always a good author; this book is one of her best.
CONTENTS
Finity's End
Caroline J. Cherryh

Chapter I
Chapter II
Chapter III
Chapter IV
Chapter V
Chapter VI
Chapter VII
Chapter VIII
Chapter IX
Chapter X
Chapter XI
Chapter XII
Chapter XIII
Chapter XIV
Chapter XV
Chapter XVI
Chapter XVII
Chapter XVIII
Chapter XIX
Chapter XX
Chapter XXI
Chapter XXII
Chapter XXIII
Chapter XXIV
Chapter XXV
Chapter XXVI
Chapter I

A system traffic monitor screen showed a blip where none had existed in this
solar system. The wavefront of presence which had begun far, far out above the
star spoke a series of numbers to a computer in Pell Central and a name flashed
to displays throughout the room.
The master display, hanging two meters wide above the rows of traffic control
workstations, simultaneously flashed up the same name in glowing green.
Finity's End had come back to Pell.
"Alert the stationmaster," the master tech said, and the message flashed
through Pell Station's central paging system.
By that time the signal, coming in from the jump range buoy at the speed of
light, was four hours old. The Pell Central computers generated a predicted
course based on data changing by the split second, a path outlined in ordinary
green. The first projection supposed an abrupt drop in velocity well out from
Pell's Star.
Suddenly the huge display changed, bloomed with colors from red to blue,
based on the last three courses and velocities that ship had used coming into Pell
on that vector… and projected into the sun.
It made a bright, broad display across the ordinarily routine, direct-path
listings. It alarmed the newest technicians and sent hands reaching toward reset
toggles. Merchanters didn't dive that close, that fast, toward the sun.
That ship had. Once. Years ago. That fact was still in the computer record and
no one had purged it from files.
But the War was in the past. The navigational buoy, in its lonely position
above the star, noted all arrivals in the entry range, and the information it sent to
Pell Station showed no other blips attending the ship. Finity's End came alone,
this time, and the master tech calmly informed the junior technicians that the
pattern they saw was no malfunction, but no reason for alarm, either.
The buoy's information, incoming in those few seconds, was now a little
further advanced. It had already excluded some predictions, and the automated
computer displays continued to change as the buoy tracked that presence toward
the sun—four hours ago.
By now, in realtime and real space, the oldest of all working merchanters had
either blown off excess V and set its general course for Pell, or something was
direly wrong. Only the robot observer was in a position to have seen the ship's
entry, and second by second the brightly colored fan of possibility on the boards
dimmed as more and more of that remote-observer data came in. The fan of
projection shrank, and eventually excluded the sun.
The screen was far less colorful and the technicians were far less anxious ten
minutes further on, when the stationmaster walked in to survey the situation.
By now a message would be on its way from the ship to the station, granted
that the tamer projections on the displays were true.
The captain of the oldest merchanter ship still operating would be, predictably,
saluting the Pell stationmaster who, with his help, had founded the Alliance. The
powers that dominated a third of human presence in the universe were about to
meet.
But stationmaster Elene Quen, also predictably, strode to a com-tech's
workstation and took up a microphone before any such lightspeed message could
reach her.
"Finity's End, this is Quen at Pell. Welcome in. What brings us the honor?"
As far as the eye could see, Old River ran.
As far as the eye could see, thickets stood gray-green and blooming with white
flowers beneath a perpetually clouded heaven.
Just beyond those thickets, huge log frames lay in squares on the earth,
waiting for the floods to come—and downers were at work intermittent with
play.
Hisa was the name they called themselves. Brown-furred and naked but for
the strings of ornament and fur about necks and waists, they splashed cheerfully
through the dozen log-bounded paddies that were already flooded. In broad,
generous casts, they strewed the heavy, sinking grain.
Humans had watched this activity year upon year upon year of human
residency at Pell's Star.
And Fletcher Neihart could only watch, in the downers' world but not quite of
it, limited by the breather-mask that limited every human on the world. He'd
never been limited by such a mask in his youthful dreams of being here, a part of
the human staff on Downbelow: Pell's World, the same world that had swung
below Pell Station's observation window for all his life, tantalizing, clouded, and
forbidden to visitors.
But this was real, not photographs and training tape that only simulated the
world. Here the clouds were overhead, not underfoot.
Here, the hisa workers, free of masks and moving lightly, toiled the little
remaining time their easy world required them to work. Once the frames were