Finity's End by C.J. CherryhMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
C.J. Cherryh writes great human drama. Yes, I know there are spaceships, there is interplanetary travel, there are alien species, but what draws the reader in is good old human interaction. She gives us a flawed main character, Fletcher, who technically belongs to a Merchanter family, but ended up stranded on a space station because of his mother's needs. Now, he is that mysterious creature, a stationer, and worse, he wants to live on a planet! Horrors!
So, some of this is about orphan children & the legal system, plus the law problems and foster family troubles that go with that state. On the plus side for Fletcher, he found a focus for himself and managed to navigate the educational system. Unfortunately, his focus on the Hisa on the surface of Pell doesn't jive with his spacer background.
Of course, he is reclaimed by his ship though he is highly unwilling. Cherryh takes us along as this young man tries to find where and how he fits into the universe. There's good tension produced by simple physiological differences—spacers age slowly, so Fletcher is ahead of his ship age mates in maturity, but so inexperienced in ship matters that he doesn't fit with the older cohort either. Neither fish nor fowl, with hostility on both sides, he must decide if he can carve a place for himself on Finitys End.
I couldn't read the last couple of chapters quickly enough!
Book number 363 of my Science Fiction & Fantasy Reading Project
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