City of Pearl by Karen Traviss
The Joy of a Great Debut.
This is the First SF novel by newcomer Karen Traviss and is an exceptionally polished work for a first novel. Even better is that it is "hard SF". As did one of the other reviewers I found that once started, this novel pulled you along until the finish, making it difficult for me to put down until I had reached the end.This book has a very interesting central character in the person of Shan Frankland, who on the verge of retirement is persuaded to accept a mission to Cavanagh's Star, where one of the planets circling Cavanagh's Star is home to the only extraterrestrial human colony. A mission with an elapsed time of 150 years. When they arrive at Cavanagh's star they find that the colony is there by permission of the wess'har, one of three alien species in the Cavangh system. Earths first ET contacts.Traviss has created a realistic future earth/world. Her aliens have interesting, believable and quite different cultures. Her characters are also interesting and believable. I do not want to say to much about the storyline as I feel that it is best in this instance to let the reader discover what is going on as they themselves read the story. The story does contain/make some interesting comments on human behaviour. So what you have is a great debut novel well worth reading. Better yet, the next novel of the wess'har wars is scheduled for publication in November 2004. And the fact that I plan to pick up and read this next novel as soon as it hits the shelves is all anyone really needs to know to judge just how impressed I was by this debut.
This is the First SF novel by newcomer Karen Traviss and is an exceptionally polished work for a first novel. Even better is that it is "hard SF". As did one of the other reviewers I found that once started, this novel pulled you along until the finish, making it difficult for me to put down until I had reached the end.This book has a very interesting central character in the person of Shan Frankland, who on the verge of retirement is persuaded to accept a mission to Cavanagh's Star, where one of the planets circling Cavanagh's Star is home to the only extraterrestrial human colony. A mission with an elapsed time of 150 years. When they arrive at Cavanagh's star they find that the colony is there by permission of the wess'har, one of three alien species in the Cavangh system. Earths first ET contacts.Traviss has created a realistic future earth/world. Her aliens have interesting, believable and quite different cultures. Her characters are also interesting and believable. I do not want to say to much about the storyline as I feel that it is best in this instance to let the reader discover what is going on as they themselves read the story. The story does contain/make some interesting comments on human behaviour. So what you have is a great debut novel well worth reading. Better yet, the next novel of the wess'har wars is scheduled for publication in November 2004. And the fact that I plan to pick up and read this next novel as soon as it hits the shelves is all anyone really needs to know to judge just how impressed I was by this debut.
posted by James W Breckenridge at 2:57 PM
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