Customer Reviews

City of Pearl

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is a first novel by a British writer who has had short stories published in Asimov's, Realms of Fantasy, and other markets. It's the first of a trilogy, with the second volume due out in November 2004 and the third sometime in 2005.

In 2299, governments have grown larger in a mostly-futile attempt to keep up with the growth of corporations. Shan Frankland is an Environment Hazard Enforcement officer for the Federal European Union, on what will probably be her last enforcement action before retirement. Just after she and her team have seized control of a space station, and before they can begin any s erious investigation, she receives a visit from the FEU's foreign minister, Eugenie Perault, wanting to recruit her for a special job--one involving a trip to what's believed to be a human-habitable world, the second planet of Cavanaugh's Star. With relativistic travel, a round trip will take one hundred and fifty years, Earth time. She, the small detachment of Marines she'll have, and the scientists sent by various corporations will spend their travel time in cold sleep.

What's the mission? We don't really know, at first, and Frankland doesn't know, either. She gets a Suppressed Briefing--she hears all the information, and makes the go/no go decision on the basis of it, but then she has no conscious access to the information until the circumstances of the mis sion itself bring the information back to the surface. All she really knows is that there may be a surviving human colony on the planet, and that there are hints of possible alien contact.

On arrival, she learns, through a combination of the Suppressed Briefing and contact with the colony, that the colonists are "religious fanatics"--probably Catholics or Episcopalians, from the few details and the terminology they use--who wanted to grow crops in an environmentally friendly way, and without having to buy seed every single year from major corporations because the crop plants have been genetically engineered not to produce live seed. (Seed for major crops is already being sold with contract provisions forbidding the collection of seed from the plants, to protect the corporation's intellectual property, not to mention their market.) The colonists left Earth with an array of genetic material from plants and animals that were still "original stock," or close enough to it, and not the intellectual property of any c orporation. These varieties are now extinct on Earth; all commercial species are now the intellectual property of some biotech corporation or another. The ultimate intention was to preserve those species until the madness of their own time was ended, and then go home and re-terraform Earth. The gene bank the colonists brought with them, if it still exists, would be fanatastically valuable. Shan's mission is to recover that gene bank, if possible, and deliver it to the FEU, keeping it out of the hands of the corporations.

What Shan finds is a surviving and apparently thriving human colony, not one but three intelligent alien species, and a war zone. The bezeri are aquatic, the native species of the planet, with a complex culture, but without the technology t o defend their planet against invaders who keep to the land. The isenj are a rapidly breeding, aggressively expansionist species from a nearby world, who colonized the bezeri world with a happy disregard for the ecological consequences for the natives of world-spanning cities that drain their wastes into the sea. The bezeri were nearly driven to extinction by the isenj colonization. And the wess'har are a star-traveling species that take ecological stewardship really seriously--when they received the bezeri call for help, they came, drove the isenj off the planet, and erased their city.

The isenj haven't accepted the loss of their colony world. The bezeri population hasn't recovered past the point of danger yet. The human colony, arriving a couple of hundred years after the heavy fighting, is living in what is essentially a reservation, permitted and even encouraged because of the limited and benign nature of their intentions, but under wess'har influence they have become completely vegan. The status of the human colony is precarious, though, as it is clearly an intrusion in the local ecology, and there's something on this world that the wess'har really, really don't want going anyplace else.

With all this, and her slow recovery of the information in the Suppressed Briefing, Shan also has to deal with the scientists, who do not like the restrictions on their activities that she has agreed to--no samples of anything alive, passive scans only of all flora and fauna, no samples of anything without a colonist there to approve it, no venturing outside the encampment without a Marine or colonist as escort. That she has also negotiated full access to the extensive database on the local flora and fauna that the colonists have impresses them not one whit; they're scientists from the most powerful corporations on Earth, and they have the right to pursue whatever studies they want in whatever way they think is most likely to boost their careers.

Shan's extensive experience in Environmental Hazard Enforcement, and before th at in anti-terrorism, has not prepared for first contact with three species, negotiating for possession of a valuable genebank, or management of cranky scientists whom she's in no position to either fire or arrest. Circumstances deteriorate rapidly when one of the scientists manages to sneak a "sample" that turns out to be a stranded bezeri child that would have survived but for her interference. When an isenj force and a newer, faster Earth ship that left home fifty years after Shan's group arrive, things spiral out of control, and the wess'har start thinking seriously about solving their problem by eliminating all of the humans in the system, as well as the newly-arrived isenj.

This is a story with a great potential to wander off into unproductive and tiresome rants on present-day politics. It doesn't do that. The problems Shan is struggling with, while involving some familiar issues, are convincingly real problems of her time, not ours. The wess'har have their own culture and their own agenda, which are not Peter Singer's even though he'd probably approve of them. (Whether they'd approve of him is another question.) (They do approve of St. Francis.) The plot comes to a reasonably satisfying conclusion for this book, while leaving the necessary hanging plot-threads for the next two volumes. And while the minor characters are a bit cardboard, Shan and the other major characters are strong enough to spend the time with, reading their story.

The weakest feature City of Pearl the Suppressed Briefing, which is a neat idea, but in practice delivers too little payoff for the amount of build-up it gets. The big revelations here are about Shan's past, not anything she learned from the Suppressed Briefing.

Overall, an enjoyable read. Bring it to the beach!

CITY OF PEARL, the beginning of a trilogy, is a fine debut for Karen Traviss. For me, the first forty pages or so were a bit rocky, but after that I was hooked, pulled slowly but surely through the first half of the book then literally unable to put it down throughout the latter half.

Traviss' prose isn't remarkable, but it is solid and readable. Her strength, though, lies in her characters. This book is, as other reviewers have pointed out, "hard SF," but it's not about its science. It does have a group of marines, but unlike so many other books with similar plots, it doesn't devolve into milporn with stock characters and action scenes. Each character is well-developed and human, often all too human. (In fact, one of my problems with this novel is one I have with a lot of SF novels: the aliens are too human for my liking. But that's a minor quibble.) This is a very character-driven novel, despite the silliness on the cover. Also, Traviss manages the tricky feat of integrating her various themes and ideas -- environmentalism, responsibility and loyalty, heroism and courage, humanity and its various strengths and shortcomings, and plenty more -- into the novel without coming over as preachy or pretentious.

One thing about the book that left me cold was the violence. There was remarkably little of it, but what there was was neither terribly engaging nor terrible effective; it just kind of happened. Makes me wonder how the inevitable violence in Traviss' upcoming Star Wars novel will turn out.

But that aside, this is an extremely compelling and quite satisfying novel that definitely kept my interest to the end and left me thirsty for more. It ended well, with an appropriate amount of closure, and I can't wait until Book 2 comes out to get back into the lives of these characters. I wonder whether we'll stick with Shan as much in the sequel, or whether the focus will shift to a POV character closer to the Isenj. Either way, I hope and suspect we'll be seeing more of Eddie, the journalist character (into whom I suspect the author poured more than a little of herself), the Constantine colony, and, perhaps, if he can be worked in, Bennett.

Really, this is a 4.5 star novel, an extremely impressive debut and quite a worthwhile and satisfying read.

City of Pearl is the story of an earth-like planet that is in dispute between four species: the native acquatic species, humanity, a spidery expanionistic species, and a highly advanced civilization determined to protect the natives. The aquatic species and the advanced civilization are orignally conceived and a pleasure to read about. Humanity, on the other hand, is painted a little too bleakly for my tastes. This two-dimensional characterization is one of only two quibbles I had with this highly entertaining book. The other objection is that the book is sometimes too much of a platform for the author's vegan preachings. Aside from these two minor peeves, the plot is very engaging and comes to a satisfying, logical conclusion. I strongly recommend it.

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.

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

It's always interesting to see what an author's truly able to do in a land of their own design. Karen Traviss has created a cast of likable (and some purposefully unlikable) characters.

Shan Frankland's not just any cop; she's hard edge with a conscience and that not even bleeping suppressed briefing can keep down forever. She's got a rocky relationship with her "horribly young" (27) second in command, Commander Lindsay Neville, and she's walking a diplomatic tightrope between three bonified alien species, one of which could wipe out her entire mission with sickening ease should it take a notion to do so.
Anyone want her job? Well, that's fine...she's good at what she does, too good in fact, and that's going to cost her big time. For a woman of retirement age, she sure don't know how to quit while she's ahead.

Karen Traviss, the author of Star Wars Republic Commando: Hard Contact, first wrote City of Pearl, itself the first of her Wess'har Wars series (although only two have been published to date).

This book starts in our year 2198 somewhere a long way from Earth and introduces us to Aras, a Wess'har who we later discover is not an ordinary example of his species, as he watches the first signs of human arrival in his area.

It then jumps to the year 2299 on a Mars Orbital station and introduces us to Shan Frankland, and Environmental Hazards Enforcement Officer as she is about to conuct an inspection on behalf of the European Union.

Before completing this inspection Shan is given a new job, which then takes us a further 75 years into the future as she arrives on the distant planet where the book began, Bezer'ej, along with a team of Marines, a payload of corporate scientists and a BBChan journalist. Their arrival is not entirely uneventful, but they eventually meet up with the descendants of the humans who had established a Christian colony. They also meet Aras.

The book takes us on to the story of how it is that Aras has been there for centuries, shows us the native sentient population of the planet, the Bezer, as well as a couple of other alien species and develops the story of Shan Frankland's interractions with her team, the colony and the aliens.

Along the way many issues are raised - environmental responsibility and just how far is it reasonable to go to restore the environment, corporate responsibility, corporate sponsorship of government, abortion and application of native law just to name a few. However the author does this is a subtle way, without preaching and generally without judgement.

It is entirely possible to read the book without thinking deeply about these issues if you wish, though - you can just sit back and enjoy the extremely well told story. The narrative is very fast paced but fabulously descriptive, the characters are well drawn with the central characters being ones that I am certainly keen to follow in future books.

The book is excellent and I highly recommend it to everyone - just don't expect the cover to fit the description on the City of Pearl in the book: for some reason it is nothing like what we eventually see.

City of Pearl is the story of two people devoted to protecting the environment - Shan Frankland, a human Environmental Hazard officer, and Aris, a wess'har set apart from his people by a parasite that grants him immortality - at a price. They meet when Frankland arrives at Constantine, a human colony established on wess'har sufferance by a small group of Christian fundamentalists, and friendship develops as they struggle to protect the local environment, including the local aliens, from exploitation by other races.
This was quite a good story, though fairly predictable. There was not much in the way of excitement, but the plot flowed along well. If this is the first book in a series, the issue of unresolved plot points disappears. The passing of time was not well signposted, though, which caused problems as you suddenly realise months have passed. Frankland stands out as the interesting, and even sympathetic, character - the others are not particularly well delineated. The only real problem I had with City of Pearl was the lack of debate. Frankland was ready to accept Aris' wess'har philosophies wholesale, without questioning their applicability in different contexts. Increased questioning and intellectual conflict, with each character forced to re-examine their beliefs, might have created a more interesting story.

The wess'har are a joyless race of condescending ultra-vegans who pursue a philosophy that eschews most forms of resource consumption and the ownership of any private property that is not useful and cannot be carried in a sack. Lacking any sense of humor, they are blunt-talking, preachy (about their moral ways...they have no religion whatsoever), and supercilious, and they spend their days trying to figure out how to lessen their super-minimal impact upon the world, to the extent that most of them live in underground caves carved out of the bedrock, and when on the surface they walk randomly so as not to leave paths. They believe that every species of animal life should be considered people with full rights equal to any sentients. The wess'har lifestyle is one in which they almost regret being born, since to live is to consume and hasten entropy. Naturally, they despise humans.

Fortunately, they meet their counterpart in the form of Shan Frankland, a human cop sent as a leader of an expedition to get in contact with a lost Earth colony that has fallen under the protection of the wess'har. Frankland also hates humans, is a vegan, speaks her mind, doesn't believe in a god or afterlife, and carries all of her possessions in a tote bag. She is also the worst commander ever.

It's hard to read this book without wanting to smack the smugness out of her. Her constant mental refrain is "You don't know me, you don't understand me, you can't judge me." She's continually flabbergasted that no one really gets her, but that's probably a consequence of the fact that she openly hates everyone, treats them with contempt, hardly says two words to them, loads them down with restrictions and curfews, monopolizes all critical information, handles all alien contacts by herself, and declines to tell anyone anything important. She is disgusted by virtually every single member of the expedition and indeed the entire human race and pretty much thinks that her ways are grossly superior to those of all other people and that they are ignorant swine. The only one she warms up to is Aras, a wess'har infected with an alien virus that makes him functionally immortal and also a bit of an outcast from his own kind. They find a common bond in their dislike of humanity and their celebration of their own awesomeness and eco-friendliness.

The relentless thrusting forth of Frankland and Aras as the source of all that is pure and right grows wearisome quickly. This is especially so when the scientists in the expedition are almost uniformly portrayed as venal and grasping morons purely devoid of the slightest shred of ethics or basic compassion. I say "portrayed" rather than "characterized", because they aren't characters...they're cardboard cutouts whose only purpose is to make Frankland look good. The military personnel are almost worse, since we only learn about two of them and the rest are just names and some vague attitudes. Basically, the only point any other person serves is to show how great Frankland and her buddy Aras are, and how everyone misunderstands them and can't wait to start torching the environment and making alliances with other alien races that can only be considered as Pure Evil. (That mankind in the 2300s is still hell-bent on eating every animal everywhere, dumping toxins into the sea, multiplying out of control, and fighting petty civil wars seems a bit unlikely, but one thing that Traviss does hit on is the growing corporate influence over governments and the dubious tactics employed by agribusiness with patented crop strains and sterile plants that won't germinate to produce more seeds.)

Most readers will come away believing that a green agenda is being unsubtly blasted forth here, but I've read an interview with the author in which she states that she doesn't necessarily share the views of Frankland. Still, it's hard not to see this as an environmental polemic that verges on a hysterical screed condemning humanity and praying for an end to their thoughtless despoiling of everything. If I want to hear that, I'll go to an Al Gore lecture. I don't need it in my recreational reading.

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 Aras. Aras has a long history of protecting CS2 and the humans and he is willing to destroy Frankland's ship if necessary to protect the world.

What Karen Traviss has done here is create a military, environmental, character driven science fiction novel that doesn't hit the reader over the head with any of the points. It's quite remarkable, really. Traviss, as one might except after reading her Star Wars work, is quite adept at writing from the perspective of the soldiers. They are hard working and pragmatic and respect strong leadership and Frankland's leadership is stronger even that the military commander on that field. Frankland has to balance the requirements of the natives, the wess'har, and her own people. She also needs to discover what exactly her mission is on CS2. She hasn't found all of the trigger points to bring the briefing to the front of her mind. All of this is well written by Karen Traviss. Her focus on the characters rather than the over-reaching ambitions of the folks with true power is what is so fascinating, that she writes about the people who actuall do stuff and she writes it well.

City of Pearl is one of the best science fiction debuts I've read, though I admit I am not widely read in the genre. The only part of the novel that did not work was the cliche of using apostraphes in naming. In this case it was for some alien names rather than human, but still, I don't like it. There is much here to like, however. Traviss's use of flashbacks for Frankland was very effective as the flashback with the gorilla is one of the most memorable ones I've read and it really put the character into perspective and gave a good idea of why Frankland is the way she is. Excellent writing, excellent story and I cannot wait to read Crossing the Line, the next volume in the Wess'har Wars.

-Joe Sherry