127. (November 2023) Tripoint, by C. J. Cherryh — The Tabletop Roleplayers' Book Club

Tripoint Q2 - Characters

clash_bowley — Fri, 08 Dec 2023 18:24:33 +0000

The central viewpoint characters are Thomas Bowe-Hawkins and Christian Bowe, half-brothers, one brought up on Sprite, the other on Corinthian. On Sprite, the major other characters are Misha and Marie Hawkins, Thomas' uncle and captain, and his mother, respectively. Corinthian has more major characters: Austin, Thomas' and Christian's father and captain of Corinthian, There is also Sabrina Perrault, Christian's slightly older aunt and cargo chief, Tink, the baker, and Capella, the strange navigator.

How did Cherryh's character development work for you. Did they seem real and convincing? Did Cherryh spend too much time on character development, or would you have liked to see more? Did the relationships as they developed seem organic or artificial? Would you have liked to see more of a spotlight on any of any of the more peripheral characters?

Tripoint Q4 - The Plot

clash_bowley — Fri, 08 Dec 2023 18:25:46 +0000

Plots are notorious weak points for Cherryh. She would much rather explore states of being, thought patterns, families, politics, economics, motivations, and consequences than make complex and powerful plots. The particular ending here reminds me of Frodo arriving in the West at the end of LotR for some reason...

Does this work for you? Is the climax absorbing? Does it make sense given what came into it? Does it make you wonder what happens next?

Tripoint Q6 - The Whole Enchilada

clash_bowley — Fri, 08 Dec 2023 18:27:59 +0000

Overall impressions, opinions, likes, hates, etcetera!

Tripoint Q5 - Roleplaying

clash_bowley — Fri, 08 Dec 2023 18:26:30 +0000

The traditional final question: Can you use Tripoint in your gaming in any way, shape or form? Would it help in background development? Character planning? Starship economics? Setting development?

Tripoint Q3 - Rape

clash_bowley — Fri, 08 Dec 2023 18:22:44 +0000

Rape is central to this book. Marie is suffering PTSD from the rape which resulted in Thomas , who is damaged severely as a result of Marie's monomanial revenge-seeking. Tomas repeatedly suffers from nightmares that someone is having sex with him while he is drugged out in Jump, and it seems to be Capella who is doing it to him, though there is no proof. Since Jump is a strange sanity abusing mental state in which most people render themselves unconscious with drugsto bear, he may be consenting or he may not be as he remembers little about it. But he is very disturbed by it.

Did this make you feel uncomfortable? Did the treatment of Rape seem exploitative? Does addressing things like this belong in fiction? Do the repercussions of this act seem realistic?

Tripoint Q1 - Setting

clash_bowley — Fri, 08 Dec 2023 18:19:56 +0000

The greater setting of Tripoint is the neighboring stars to the Solar System, after a long and bitter war. Earth and the Solar System were defeated by their old colonies, which formed into two distinct polities, Union and Alliance. Alliance is a buffer state between Sol and Union consisting at this time of the gigantic Pell Station, and the near-earth world of Pell. Union consists of several systems including Viking, where the story starts, and the less earthlike, but still habitable world of Cyteen. This setting called the Union/Alliance setting, is home to many of Cherryh's works, including the Hugo winning Cyteen and Downbelow Station set on Pell Station and Pell. The novel is named for a three body brown star system called Tripoint located between Viking and Pell - all action in the book takes place at Viking, Pell, or Tripoint, or in between, aboard the Sprite and the Corinthian.

I am so deeply immersed in this setting that it is colored by all the other Alliance/Union books I have read, though like most of Cherryh's books in this setting, it is intended to be standalone. Did Cherryh adequately explain the setting for the purposes of reading the book? Did you get what was going on enough to follow? Sprite and Corinthian are both ships, but very different in how they are run. Did the two cultures make sense within the greater setting? How difficult would it be adapting from one to the other?

About CJ Cherryh

RichardAbbott — Sun, 10 Sep 2023 15:07:31 +0000

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

Cover blurb of Tripoint

RichardAbbott — Sun, 10 Sep 2023 15:06:45 +0000

Cargo Chief Marie Hawkin's obsessive vendetta against Captain Austin Bowe sparks a blood feud until Marie disappears, and when her son, Tom, tries to find her, he is shanghaied by Bowe's crewmen, and learns the truth of his mother's hate.