Empery

The Trigon Disunity #3

by Michael P. Kube-McDowell

Merritt Thackery races his stolen starship toward the deadly Mizari star system and toward a confrontation with an alien empire that threatens the survival of all humanity, in the epic conclusion of the classic science fiction trilogy. Reprint.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy

352 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1987

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 3 out of 5]

Kube-McDowell's eclectic trilogy finishes with more of a whimper than a bang, but Emprey provides enough philosophical and sociological ponderings to keep the reader going. The last installment concluded with Merrit Thackery making contact with an alien species that lives in the 'spindle' universe, one that parallels our 'material' one, or rather, our material one exists as a subset of theirs (whew!). While 'transported' to the spindle, Merrit finally was given the answers to the 'Founder Civilization' (e.g., who was behind the human diaspora colonies) and what destroyed it. Turns out, there is yet another alien species, the shadowy Mizari, who inhabit space fairly close to humanity's explorations and they do not like visitors. After Merrit revealed this, humanity's space explorations ceased, but a new 'war' faction emerged, who want to confront the Mizari and essentially wipe them out...

What I found most intriguing about this installment were the cultures elucidated by Kube-McDowell of the diaspora colonies, which range from matriarchies to scholarly kingdoms; unfortunately, the cultures were not fully developed here, just certain aspects that played a role in the broader story. The speculations on human nature were also fun (is humanity doomed to war, are we Janus-faced between 'protection' and 'procurable', etc.). All of this took place as humanity gears up for war amid political struggles to define what the future governance structure will look like. Decent trilogy, although I still have no idea what the Trigon Disunity is, and that is the name of the trilogy itself! 3 meandering stars.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall I enjoyed the third and last installment of Kube-McDowell's Trigon Disunity. The continued focus on politics and technology is very good space opera, indeed. The 'super powerful' space entity trope fits well into the genre as well. The only negative I have with the book is I feel it needed an epilogue.

[Kevin Phyland · Rating 3 out of 5]

The last Mazari attack was long ago but it was so devastating that Defense Director Wells in the United Worlds has worried himself into a monomaniacal paranoia about them. Triad is the new super weapon that uses the energy of the spindle (a vast source of vacuum multidimensional energy) and the deployment of three of these weapons occupies most of the factional government’s time. Some planets want it used while others are adamant that they shouldn’t poke the bear. In a totally political move Janell Surjata has been made Chancellor of the government but is being manipulated by both factions. Into the mix comes the legendary spacer Merrett Thackery, thought dead, who steals his old ship and heads into Mizari space. The bear duly appears and the D’shanna that fled uptime through the spindle may be needed… Michael P. Kube-McDowell closes out his Trigon Disunity trilogy with a breathtaking race to avoid war. Note: You will need to have read Emprise and Enigma to fully appreciate this book.

[Markos · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great finish to the trilogy. Quite heavy on the politics side of the expanding human collective, not to everyone's taste but worked well for me. A little space opera towards the end for those who like that sort of thing!

[Erik M · Rating 4 out of 5]

Though slower to get rolling than the first two installments, this was a philosophically satisfying closing to the trilogy - though by no means the end of the Story. Maybe someday he'll return to this alternate future....

[Lindsay · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't enjoy this book that much. The characters weren't particularly interesting, and while the story tried to build up some suspense the ending was a bit of a let down.