City of Pearl

by Karen Traviss

Book Overview

Three separate alien societies have claimson Cavanagh's Star. But the new arrivals -- the gethes from Earth -- now threaten thetenuous balance of a coveted world.

Environmental Hazard Enforcement officer Shan Frankland agreed to lead a mission to Cavanagh's Star, knowing that 150 years would elapse before she could finally return home. But her landing, with a small group of scientists and Marines, has not gone unnoticed by Aras, the planet's...

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0060541695
• ISBN13: 9780060541699
• Release Date: February 2004
• Publisher: Harper Voyager
• Length: 400 Pages
• Weight: 0.46 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 4.2" x 6.7"

Customer Reviews

City of Wonders

Before I started reading City of Pearl I was most familiar with author Karen Traviss because of her first two entries into the Star Wars Universe. She is the author of Republic Commando: Hard Contact and Republic Commando: Triple Zero. These are easily two of the best Star Wars novels. City of Pearl was a well regarded debut and I had been meaning to pick the book up for months. Now I wonder what took so long. Like the Republic Commando novels, City of Pearl focuses on the "guys on the ground". Shan Frankland is an officer in Enviromental Hazard Enforcement. What this means is that Frankland is an eco-cop. In 2299 the Earth is a pretty messed up place. Corporations own patents on every variation of seed and probably DNA on the planet. Farmers can only grow what they can buy and most seeds are terminator seeds, which means the seed dies after one planting thus making the farmers, the economy, and pretty much everyone who wants to eat, entirely beholden to corporations. Frankland's job is to enforce the laws of the planet (and beyond) in order to protect the environment from being harmed even more. She is a hard edged cop, very intimidating and willing to act without hesitation. She is also one of the few who have not accepted some sort of modification to her DNA and body to better do her job. She's just good at it. But this is background. A senator from the Federal European Union offers Frankland a mission to a faraway planet which had been colonized by humans. The catch is that Frankland won't know exactly what the mission is after she accepts it because she is given a Suppressed Briefing. This is a drug which will inhibit the memories of the previous conversation and the memories will only return in time and when certain things trigger the memories. The Senator has her reasons and Frankland apparantly has her own reasons for accepting when she was about to retire. The mission will, because of space travel, take one hundred and fifty years of Earth time by the time Frankland returns. Everything and everyone she knows will be long gone when she comes back. Still, she accepts. Cavanagh's Star II is the planet. Besides the remnants of the human settlement, the planet is claimed, one way or another, by three alien species: The Aquatic bezeri, the invading isenj, the harshly protective wess'har. The peace is uneasy because the wess'har have a blockade of CS2 to prevent the isenj from returning. Like everyone else, they have their reasons. The bezeri truly call the planet home. But this is starting to get overly complicated in the description. Shan Frankland finds herself as the civilian commander of a group of marines and a team of scientists. The scientists work for corporations and want to take as many samples as they can. The humans on CS2 live in a very ecologically friendly manner and refuse to let samples be taken. Frankland finds herself siding with the natives and with the wess'har, of whom she meets

Finally!

Seems like forever since an interesting, well-written, character-based science fiction novel has been released! I thoroughly enjoyed this book. What draws me into a book is usually the characters, and Traviss did an excellent job on this. Shan and Aras are both unique and full-fledged, with intriguing stories in their past. Their actions are believable and realistic, and the rest of the characters seemed honest as well. I particularly liked the idea of a Suppressed Briefing. It's a device I hadn't encountered in science fiction before, and I thought it was very well done. A bit annoying at times, because I never would have gone for it, but satisfying none the less. I also liked the idea of one's body being host to another sentient being, that could re-write DNA at will. It vaguely resembles what viruses can already do (minus the sentience of course), but it was a take I hadn't seen before. Very well done. The universe Shan lives in is also quite thoroughly developed. The government(s) are complicated and the cultures are rich, with a bit of history thrown in. I'm definately reading the sequel.

A great start to what I hope is a long series

World-building is one of those terms that infest science fiction and refers to how well an author can "sell" the reader on the notion that the fictional and usually alien background that they have placed their story in is real.Karen Traviss succeeds in this in impressive fashion with an economy of language that keeps the story moving while at all times adding flesh to an already meaty book.You have to watch Traviss, she moves on you and is hard to pin down. To simply call City of Pearl science fiction is to take away the fact that Traviss deftly mixes hard science, politics, romance, military jargon, religion and more in a seamless fashion.Her sense of pacing and plot is excellent as the story moves from the always difficult task of initially setting the world up to getting involved with the meat of the plot. Traviss never overloads the reader with info dumps yet she gives depth to the world through which her characters walk with a sure hand.Even though the fate of the main character is mildly predictable, this is easily forgiven as it sets the stage for what promises to be an intriguing series that is sure to contain many suprises.Traviss closes the book well, giving the reader a sense of satisfaction and closure while at the same time placing the threads of the story that will continue her next book CROSSING THE LINE.I can't wait

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.

strong other planet tale

Environmental Hazard Enforcement Officer Shan Frankland is looking forward to early retirement but Foreign Minister Perault gives her one last mission. A signal from the Constantine Colony was received and the authorities want to see for themselves if it is really suitable for the human race to reside there. Shan has a second mission, memory suppressed until she needs to know it.When they arrive on Constantine, the colonists are not happy to greet them because they are there on sufferance. The planet belongs to an aquatic sentient species and is guarded by the Wess'har against the isenj who want to colonize Constantine. The major guardian is Aras, who is unique even among his own people, and finds in Shan a kindred spirit who has the same moral code that he abides by. When tragedy strikes, Aras is forced to break the rules of his own people to save Shan who might not thank him for her new life.The world of Constantine is a fascinating one, a planet that four races have a stake in yet it only really belongs to the race that can't use any of "the land" mass but doesn't want humans polluting their pristine world or conquering it. Aras is there to make sure that does not happen but he is a very lonely person, isolated in many ways from his own kind and the original colonists on Constantine. Karen Travis is a talented storyteller and this reviewer would like to see more adventures starring Aras and Shan.Harriet Klausner