Sharrukin's Palace

The Trigon Disunity by Michael P. Kube-McDowell

Overall Rating: ***** (5 stars)

The Trigon Disunity is a science-fiction trilogy, composed of Michael P. Kube-McDowell’s first three novels, originally published in the mid-1980s. The trilogy has recently been republished by Phoenix Pick, in new editions that also collect some of the short fiction Mr. Kube-McDowell wrote in the same setting. The result is a very readable collection of stories, depicting humanity’s first expansion to the stars. However, there’s more than meets the eye. These stories are not just about exploration, they’re about the consequences of human folly, and about our ability to transcend that folly.

The Trigon Disunity is centered around three novels.

Emprise, the first novel, begins on Earth after an almost-total collapse of high-technology civilization in the late twentieth century.

Allen Chandliss was once a radio astronomer, before civilization fell and scientists became hunted outcasts across much of the world. Now he lives alone in the Idaho outback, raising his own food and going into the nearest town once in a while to trade. Yet he hasn’t given up on science, still listening to the radio noise from the sky with cobbled-together equipment. Ironically, it’s Chandliss who first detects unambiguous evidence of a signal from extra-terrestrial intelligence.

What follows turns out badly for Chandliss, but it gives a few of the shattered world’s leaders the motivation they need to improve human fortunes. The story of this “emprise” sets the tone for the entire trilogy. It’s a story of human resilience and achievement, but at every step it’s also a story of flawed human individuals, forced to make critical decisions with no assurance of a good outcome.

The second novel, Enigma, is set several centuries later, while human beings explore the stars of the solar neighborhood. In the process, they uncover several mysteries, calling into question everything they think they know about human origins and the place of intelligent life in the universe.

The third novel, Empery, is set a few centuries later yet, at a time when humans respond to their discoveries with fear and paranoia. The human worlds are faced with a decision: whether to continue exploring the galaxy in peace, or whether to set up an “empery” (empire) that meets its challenges with force.

It may be somewhat misleading to call this series of novels a trilogy. With one prominent exception, no major characters appear in more than one story. Each novel (and each attached short story) carries a different theme. These are largely disconnected narratives, a three-part or “trigon disunity” that nevertheless lays out a coherent and well-developed future history.

One attractive feature of this series is its careful attention to real-world astronomy and astrophysics. This is reasonably hard SF, part of the “one big lie” school that assumes faster-than-light travel is possible but is careful to set restrictive rules for its use. Mr. Kube-McDowell makes good use of what was known at the time about the nearby stars, and he keeps the sheer scale of interstellar space in mind as well.

Mr. Kube-McDowell also exhibits deep insight into the flaws of human character, and of human bureaucracies and political systems. None of his characters, not even his protagonists, are heroes or saints. They behave irrationally, they succumb to delusions, they indulge their ambitions at the expense of others, they abuse their authority. They make horrible mistakes (and pay for them). Yet the overall arc of the trilogy is upward, a proposal that even imperfect human beings can accomplish great things.

I first read The Trigon Disunity over thirty years ago, on its initial publication. Time and experience have led me to appreciate this new edition all the more. It’s a collection well worth reading, raising questions that are well worth considering long after each book is finished. Highly recommended.