Enigma

The Trigon Disunity #2

by Michael P. Kube-McDowell

In the sequel to Emprise, Merritt Thackery had longed dreamed of becoming a part of the Unified Space Survey, but when he is finally given his chance, he finds himself on a mission beyond the boundaries of known space to seek out an unknown enemy and win Earth's ultimate freedom. Reprint.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction

512 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1986

About the author

Michael Paul Kube-McDowell's earliest science fiction stories began appearing in magazines such as Amazing, Asimov's, and Analog in 1979. His 1985 debut novel Emprise, the first volume of the Trigon Disunity future history, was nominated for the Philip K. Dick Award. The Quiet Pools, published as a Bantam hardcover in 1990, was a Hugo Award nominee.

In addition to his solo novels, Kube-McDowell has collaborated with Sir Arthur C. Clarke (The Trigger) and Isaac Asimov (for the YA series Robot City. He also wrote the popular Black Fleet Crisis trilogy for the Star Wars Expanded Universe; all three volumes were New York Times bestsellers.

A former middle school science teacher, Kube-McDowell has written about science and technology for a variety of periodicals, on topics ranging from gnotobiology to ultralights to spaceflight. He covered the launch of STS-4 for The South Bend Tribune.

Kube-McDowell has attended more than 80 SF fan conventions, and met his wife Gwen (then an artist) in a con huckster room. They both were later members of the Pegasus Award-winning electric filk ensemble The Black Book Band, which performed at cons in the Midwest in the 1990s and released the live album First Contact (Dodeka Records).

Reviews

[Phil · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enigma, the second book in the Trigon Disunity, takes a much different track than the former, leaving behind the multiple POVs and Earth/United Space Service politics and follows almost exclusively our main protagonist Merrit Thackery and his 'adventures'. Thackery was born on Earth to a mother who works in the Central bureaucracy. Essentially, Earth operates on something like a planned economy and the Space Service connects Earth with the newly found, but ancient human diaspora. As revealed in the first volume, the 'alien' ship coming to Earth that crystalized the moribund world into a unity turned out to be a human ship from a colony looking for the 'Founders'. It seems several thousand years ago humanity colonized several planets leaving a huge mystery for the present. How did this colonization occur? Was there some ancient space-faring civilization on Earth long ago that sent out the ships? If so, there does not seem to be a trace today. Or, was there a 'second species' that took humans to different worlds? This mystery is at the heart of this novel.

Thackery, after a journey though the solar system, decides he no longer wants to work for Central; in fact, he is determined to join the Space Service, ideally looking for new human colonies. Humanity has come a long way in space since the first volume, with FTL ships now patiently searching for other colonies in an expanding sphere from Earth. Several have been found, but all 'low tech'. The survey ships go out for several year stints subjectively, but objectively, it means they are gone for 100s of years at a time. The 'Vets' of the survey ships become effectively displaced from humanity, whose civilization is now flourishing...

While still suffering from some pacing issues, Enigma builds the mystery of the human colonies and the 'Founders' nicely, and Kube-McDowell shows off his hard scifi chops with the evolving tech and civilization as a whole. Yes, this serves as a place holder in the series, the dreaded 'middle book', but being so different from the first installment, it almost reads as a stand alone (except for the surprise denouement, which sets up the next volume). Good stuff! 4 spacy stars.

[Kevin Phyland · Rating 3 out of 5]

When Merritt Thackrey joined the Unified Space Survey little did he know that his captain was obsessed with the First Contact problem. This conundrum was exemplified by the starship Jiadur, which contacted human space and was crewed by people of obviously human stock, who appeared to have left Earth in a diaspora some 30,000 years before Christ! The puzzle was how they achieved such a feat and managed to leave no trace of it? During his first assignment Merritt visits a number of rediscovered colonies from this first diaspora and finally gets some tantalising evidence to support a wild theory - that some other intelligence must have shepherded humanity into space for some reason. On the planet Sennifi, after being promoted, Merritt is told an amazing tale by the inhabitants, of a species that prevented them from re-entering space - the D’shanna. Finally, the wreck of a human starship, the Dove, reveals that there is yet a third intelligence in the region, and they are inimical to all space-faring civilizations. This second book of the Trigon Disunity by Michael P. Kube-McDowell starts slowly but builds to a satisfactory conclusion, leaving room for a third book.

[Timothy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A much slower book than Emprise, the first in the series, The Trigon Disunity, because it focuses on one character, Merritt Thackery, from the moment of his inspiration through all the years of his work in humanity’s major interstellar effort to track down our species’ lost planetary colonies and the mystery of their origin.

McDowell is not a great novelist, and this second book in the trilogy makes do by being good science fiction, not Literature. And “makes do” it does: for by the end of the novel we do indeed have answers to the “founders’” problem that became clear at the end of the first, as well encounter the ultimate in dei ex machina and also finish the “triangle,” learn of a truly formidable foe.

I had read these novels when they first came out, and now happily re-read them. Kube-McDowell is a forgotten master of space opera. This isn’t “the New Space Opera,” but familiar Golden Age variety done better than most, written in an unimpeachable No Style Style and satisfying the sf itch. Well-plotted, full of great sf premises, “novum” (new thing) surprises and paradigm shifts.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Trigon Disunity continues here with book 2, and Kube-McDowell delivers a nice 'middle book' that carries the story along and answers a lot of questions. The novel also has a lot of say about obsession and a bit of deus ex machina, which to be honest we knew was coming. Enigma is a good entry in the trilogy and pushes me directly to volume 3 to finish.

[Markos · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great sequel to the first, with quite a "big" ending that makes me want to read the next book!

[Bruce E. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting "they're out there", with a diaspora theme. Explorers from Earth discover a human civilization in another star system, triggering a search which uncovers more of these scattered colonies. The "how" and "why" of these colonies is the basic story, along with speculation about the fall of the Earth based civilization that was the apparent source of the colonization effort millennia ago.

[bluetyson]

isbn,original

[Erik M · Rating 4 out of 5]

An exciting and thought-provoking continuation of the story began in Emprise.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like older sci-fi that doesn’t fall into neat categories. The book felt less predictable by not following some expected tropes, and while the ending went off the rails a bit, I enjoyed it overall.