Tripoint [Mass Market Paperback]

C.J. Cherryh (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 1995

A social outcast, Thomas Bowe is caught between the rivalry of two merchant spaceships, one headed by his father and one by the woman whom his father had raped long ago. By the Hugo Award-winning author of Cyteen. Reprint. PW.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In a psychologically compelling coming-of-age novel, Cherryh (Downbelow Station; Cyteen) continues her tales of a human-dominated space attempting to find equilibrium in the aftermath of war. Tom Bowe-Hawkins, young crew member of the family ship Sprite, was conceived in rape and is growing up with a chip on his shoulder. He is caught up in the revenge planned by his mother, Marie Kirgov Hawkins, against his father, Austin Bowe, captain of the Corinthian, a vessel suspected to be engaged in smuggling and piracy. When the two vessels find themselves docked at the same space station, Tom tries to keep his mother from getting the ship into trouble with station authorities. After Marie eludes him, Tom starts looking in likely places, including the Corinthian's mysterious warehouse, where he is found by his half-brother Christian Bowe, who shanghais him aboard their father's vessel. Ensuing events bring the divided clan into conflict and Sprite and Corinthian into a deadly confrontation. Cherryh's satisfying novel delves deeply into the relations between families and crew members tied closely together in long and intimate voyages among the stars.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Kirkus Reviews

An addition to Cherryh's medium-future spacefaring saga (Hellburner, 1992) in which, the Company Wars over, freelance trading vessels crewed by extended families ferociously compete for interstellar shipping contracts. Aboard the Hawkins family's Sprite, cargo chief Marie Hawkins nurses a personal grudge against Austin Bowe, captain of the rival Corinthian, who beat and raped her 25 years ago. Obsessed and vengeful, Marie intends to destroy Austin by proving that his ship trades illegally with pirates and smugglers. When both ships dock at the Mariner space station, she pounces. Concerned for her welfare, her son, Tom--Austin's boy- -interferes with Marie's plans and for his pains is shanghaied and confined aboard Corinthian by his half-brother, Christian. While the desperate Marie persuades Sprite's captain to pursue the Corinthian, and a ship full of genuine bad guys draws ever nearer, Tom adapts to his new life aboard his father's vessel--a life that is neither as dangerous nor as unpleasant as Marie had led him to expect. Rather heavy-handed in the violence department, and gabbily flabby with interior monologues, but carried along by the lively characters and sturdy plot. Overall, well up to previous standards. -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Aspect (August 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0446602027
• ISBN-13: 978-0446602020
• Product Dimensions: 4.1 x 0.8 x 6.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #783,869 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I've written sf and fantasy for publication since 1975...but I've written a lot longer than that. I have a background in Mediterranean archaeology, Latin, Greek, that sort of thing; my hobbies are travel, photography, planetary geology, physics, pond-building for koi...I run a marine tank, can plumb most anything, and I figure-skate.

I believe in the future: I'm an optimist for good reason---I've studied a lot of history, in which, yes, there is climate change, and our species has been through it. We've never faced it fully armed with what we now know, and if we play our cards right, we'll use it as a technological springboard and carry on in very interesting ways.

I also believe a writer owes a reader a book that has more than general despair to spread about: I write about clever, determined people who don't put up with situations, not for long, anyway: people who find solutions inspire me.

My personal websites and blog: http://www.cherryh.com
http://www.cherryh.com/WaveWithoutAShore
http://www.closed-circle.net

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars probably one of Cherryh's best stand-alone SF novels, October 24, 2000

By 

J. K. Kelley "literary mercenary" (Eastern WA, United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Tripoint (Mass Market Paperback)

As far as freebooting space opera goes, C.J. Cherryh's many Alliance-Union novels (many of which are not part of a specific series and can stand alone) are one of the high refinements of the art today. _Tripoint_ is in the top tier of that elite grouping.

Cherryh's character development abilities are really showcased here: a young man stuck on a ship captained by hostile step-family, a fascinating navigator present under tantalizingly suspicious circumstances, a diverse and interesting crew. Beyond it all is the sense of the void--the feeling of an impersonal universe that will kill you if the airlock seals give way, and not experience regret for you--that helps you imagine the experience of being in space. As ever with Cherryh, predicting the ending is difficult to impossible.

Really high-quality SF, and will appeal to fans of same.

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of my Cherryh favorites, if I had to pick, August 13, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Tripoint (Mass Market Paperback)

This was the last Cherryh novel I read, after I discovered her a few years ago. I resisted it until I had nothing of hers left to read, because I resisted the idea that I would ever feel any liking or sympathy for a rapist/father character. Not only would I detest the character myself, I decided I would probably dislike our hero, Tom, if he ever started to like the guy. However, I forgot about the Cherryh magic, and before long, I, like Tom himself, found I couldn't hang onto my preconceived ideas of what certain people would be like. My only regret on this one is that there hasn't been a sequel--I feel it wants one.

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sci-Fi with real characters and plausible technology., October 6, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Tripoint (Mass Market Paperback)

Tripoint was my first C.J.Cherryh novel, and sci-fi book for many years. I came across it totallly by accident on special display at the library. The cover was the usual OK graphics associated with the genre, but the fly-leaf suggested something more interesting. So I borrowed it; and my first thoughts when slogging through the first few pages, were: 'what is this dog....?' I'd never read anything quite like it, and if it weren't for the fact that nothing was due till the next week, I woudln't have. Anyway, for no particularly good reason other than embarrassment at giving up so easily, I continnued; twenty pages per night. Page one hundred, and I was hooked, well into the groove of intense viewpoint, and the finely detailed character interaction. This like all the other Cherryh books I have read, is a very fine piece of work, and yet, needs to be tackled with a clear head, especially at the start, due to the highly energetic, and dense writing style which she employs. A style which can be so very easily off-putting to someone used to a more straightforward approach. But I have found it one, which is extremely satisfying, encouraging me to read whatever she writes, with a sense of... what's next?, and while I'm glad that I've finished yet another big-one, sorry that it's finished. Tripoint along with its stablemates is, sci-fi beyond the average - which unfortunately is the rule, and why I stopped reading it - great stuff! Next!