The Trial of Tompa Lee

by Edward Hoornaert

Only her enemies can save her from alien injustice A WOMAN Tompa Lee is a homeless 'street meat' who has clawed her way up to the bottom-most rung of the Space Navy . . . but her dream job plummets... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 149520829X
• ISBN13: 9781495208294
• Release Date: August 2012
• Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
• Length: 372 Pages
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.2" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Great read!

I always admire a writer who can populate an alien culture with real, likeable characters. Ed Hoornaert has done this with The Trial of Tompa Lee and furthermore made such a delightful rendering of language through the Navy's translator that I often just stopped to re-read the dialogue. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and recommend it for anyone who wants a well-thought-out coming of self story written with a quiet sense of humor.

A terrific first novel

Ed Hoornaert is a marvelous writer: a terrific, engrossing storyteller and a consummate stylist. This is a debut novel not to be missed. -- Robert J. Sawyer, Hugo Award-winning author of _Hominids_

Exciting finish to an interesting book

Tompa Lee is one of the more fully developed heroines I've come across in science fiction. She is feisty, determined, pig-headed, independent, a man hater and a survivor. And yet ultimately, she is an innocent. When she is forced to fight back against her accusers, the violence makes her question her own sense of being a decent person. This raises some interesting philosophical issues of guilt and innocence, and also gives Tompa a depth that is unusual. This book has some truly outstanding scenes. For example, Tompa's woozy reminiscences while she is informed that she will be handed over to the aliens is a marvellously surreal moment. The love scene was gripping, exciting, and yet completely in good taste. And the ending.... If someone had told me the ending when I was halfway through the book I probably would have said that it couldn't possibly happen without straining my credulity to the breaking point -- yet when it develops that Tompa is triumphant, in a tragic sort of way, the moment seemed almost inevitable. And that, to me, is the sign of an excellent book. It's always a joy to discover a new writer, and I look forward to more books from Mr Hoornaert... although I wish I knew how to pronounce his name.

Excellent!

I am not an avid science fiction reader, but I very much enjoyed this book. Tompa's "trial", where the wrongfully accused Tompa and her two supporters must battle an army of hundred's of accusers on a far-flung planet, is an action-packed thriller with plenty of twists to keep the reader happy. Hoornaert steers clear of the cliches that bog down many other books in the fantasy/science fiction genre, creating a world that is believable and a story that is compelling and fresh.

ific twenty-second century legal thriller

Tompa Lee has worked hard and diligently especially while in space for the past five months to overcome being a Manhattan "street meat". However, the Commerce Space Navy officers and crew of the Vance still treat her as if she still lives in the ooze below the food chain. On the first shore leave ever at planet Zee-Shode, Tompa just wants to fit in. However, someone tosses a Navy grenade into the pub she is in killing several patrons. The Shon accuse Tompa of committing the terrorist act. Her peers and superiors assume she did the deadly deed because she is street meat. Navy MP Dante Roussel escorts Tompa to stand trial for murder. Only elderly Shon Awmit and those who did the atrocities believe Tompa is innocent. Her trial is combat with her supporters on her side and her accusers on the other. It is Tompa and Shon vs. at least three hundred complainants until Dante joins her side though he is unwelcome by the New York loner. THE TRIAL OF TOMPA LEE is a terrific twenty-second century legal thriller that takes place in its entirety on an alien planet governed by extraterrestrial laws. The Navy sees Tompa as expendable, which bothers Dante, but not the beleaguered heroine as she is used to her government abandoning people like her as they did in Manhattan twelve years earlier. The trial is reminiscent of the best of classic Star Trek. Science Fiction fans will want to read this fantastic futuristic trial by combat tale that never slows down yet insures that the magnificent three are fully developed and that the Shon are a thriving unique species, all that inside a great legal thriller. Harriet Klausner