Enigma

by Michael P. Kube-McDowell

Book Overview

Enigma (Trigon Disunity Book 2)
355pp. Search the stars for planets. Search the planets for life...Keywords: Science Fiction

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0425087670
• ISBN13: 9780425087671
• Release Date: May 1986
• Publisher: Berkley Books
• Length: 355 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.

Customer Reviews

A Challenging Mystery

Overall this book is quite good. Its flavor is a tad more subtle than the previous book in the series, and marks the difficult middle ground between the dramatic Emprise and the conclusive Empery. As a yarn, I place it rather high, and Kube-McDowell manages to hold onto his audience in this one, better than say, Inherit the Stars did with its sequel. The story here is quite clever: Humans went to the stars thousands of years ago, but how did they get there, and why did the initial attempts at interstellar travel fail. Good stuff!

Starts Slow, But Ends Well

Second books of trilogies are notoriously weak--maybe because you don't get the thrill of discovering a fictional world for the first time *or* the satisfaction of (hopefully) seeing the plot threads wrapped up. _Enigma_, the second book in Kube-McDowell's "Trigon Disunity" trilogy, is no exception. It takes forever to get moving, bogging down for nearly half its length following its bland, seemingly unlikable hero--Meritt Thackery through early adulthood and into the business of surveying the galaxy.Character has never been Kube-McDowell's greatest strength, and this book is no exception. Thackery doesn't grab your attention or, for most of the book, engage your emotions. I found myself wanting *someone* to solve the huge, multi-faceted mystery at the center of the story . . . but not caring a bit whether it was him or someone else.Then, about the halfway point in the plot, _Enigma_ begins to pick up speed. The Mystery (and the solving of it) takes center stage, and Kube-McDowell ratchets the pace up to the headlong rush that he sustained throughout _Emprise_. By the end of the book, the Mystery has been satisfyingly solved (revealing a very clear but even bigger Problem to be worked out in _Empery_), and (glory be!) Merrit Thackery has become an interesting character.My overall judgement of _Emprise_ goes for this one, too: It's similar in flavor and tone to the works of Arthur C. Clarke, and well worth a look for those who like Clarke's cool, austere, galaxy-spanning style of storytelling.

Thouroughly enjoyed, prior earth civilization theory/mystery

Brooding flavor, some times pessimistic. I would almost call this high adventure, but for the somber tones and mystery. I just happened to pick this book up on vacation and still have not read Emprise (1st book) or Empery (3rd book).