Title:
Finity's End
Author:
C.J. Cherryh
Publisher:
Warner Books, 1997
ISBN
0-446-52072-1

C.J. Cherryh's Merchanter's Luck started off a series of gripping stories about a future of conflict and heroism, of exploration and adventure. She has an amazing talent for creating situations of sparking tension; I have found myself holding my breath at times! Finity's End is no exception to this trend. Cherryh provides characterization and plot second to none, and her descriptive narrative allows the reader to picture this amazing new world, almost as if they were there.

Fletcher Neihart, a young man who has passed through several foster families who found him too difficult, finally finds himself back with his real family. He resents this intrusion, and promises anyone who will listen that he will leave as soon as the first opportunity presents itself.

Meanwhile events are conspiring against him - again.

Sounds like a pretty basic story. A coming of age story. So why is Cherryh telling this story?

Cherryh tells us about a family with a strict hierarchy. The Old Man at the top, various experienced family members answering only to him, and the rest are the cousins, with varying ranks but basically the hoi polloi. As cousins gain experience, they are given authority and responsibilities. This authoritarian heaven seems an individualist's dream, except that all efforts ultimately are given in service to the Family of Finity's End.

We are told that all independent merchanters operate like this. Children are raised in common, and belong to their mother's family. They do not even know their natural father; in their circles that is expected. Like Heinlein's group marriages this seems a daring picture of social experiment.

However, while Heinlein would spend pages preaching about the merits of his point of view, Cherryh just gets on with her story. There is never a boring moment on any of her pages - instead she describes her world to her readers to make her point. She illustrates to us a world that is at once familiar and utterly alien. Her merchanter families reminded me of the Gypsies of Europe, tightly knit groups that hold to their own rules and stand up against the rest of the world.

But the authoritarian structure of her world is merely a veneer, a defense against a hostile environment. The cousins support each other, and are willing to make allowances for weaknesses. Every cousin is given the opportunity to find their niche in the family. Even Fletcher finds himself looking for that niche. With skillfully staged flashbacks, Cherryh guides the reader through Fletcher's mind and past, so that when Fletcher finally makes his choice, it is a logical consequence of his maturation.

I found the book highly enjoyable. I balked a bit at what I think is Cherryh's misunderstanding of modern physics and Relativity, but those were minor flaws in a superbly executed story. This book comes highly recommended.