Customer Reviews

The World Before

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4 star:		(4)
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WARNING: THIS CONTAINS SPOILERS REGARDING CITY OF PEARL & CROSSING THE LINE

The third of Karen Traviss's Wess'har Wars 6 part series (although only three have been published to date) is The World Before.

This book continues in our year 2376, shortly after the conclusion of the events in Crossing the Line, with Aras and Ade surveying the devastation on Bezer'ej.

We see how these two try to cope with their significant loss and begin their bond as "brothers". The emotional input into these characters goes beyond what we saw in the previous two books and means that as they progress we feel not only their pain but the difficulty that goes with a significant decision that each has to make near the end of the book - an ending that is even more emotionally charged and stunning than that in Crossing the Line.

The book introduces us to the Wess'har from Eqbas Vhori - the original planet of their species from which the Wess'ej clans split 10,000 years earlier because they preferred a simpler life. We see their much more advanced technology, their different lifestyle and their interventionist approach to the environmental issues of other worlds, in this case including Bezer'ej, Umeh and Earth.

Once again the narrative is very fast paced but is even more fabulously descriptive. The character development has grown exponentially, to the point where I actually teared up whilst some were agonising over making significant decisions.

The book is even better than the first - and the second - and I again highly recommend it to everyone.

An excellent read, I have become very fond of the characters in her previous two books in this series. (City of Pearl & Crossing the Line) I almost didn't purchase the first one but am very glad I did.

If you like to investigate other world's and other societies, Karen does an excellent job of creating them. They are all "people" despite what they look like and how they act. She is a great teacher of embracing our differences. Her alien characters are interresting both physically and psyschologically.

The herione, Shan Frankland, a tough, street-wise "copper" has much to be admired in her character but still has a lot of faults. Her alien counterpart Aras is a conflicted "person" you can't help but like even thought he is very "different".

This series is also a scientific and political statement that can't be ignored.

I really do suggest that you read the first two books before you pick this one up. It's well worth the investment for all three.

At the end of Crossing the Line the entire bezeri population of Bezer'ej was destroyed by a nuclear bomb laced with cobalt. They were killed as an after effect of Lindsay Neville attempting to destroy the c'naatat organism that had infected Shan Frankland (human) and Aras (wess'har) and which would be a disaster for the human race back on Earth should any government get their hands on it. C'naatat grants the host near immortality, though at the cost of making the host different than the species it once was. Frankland can never go home to Earth because she would be a lab rat for centuries and Aras can never be a true part of Wess'har society. Also at the end of Crossing the Line, Shan Frankland died. One of the very few known (or believed) ways to kill an organism infected with c'naatat is the vacuum of space. Frankland deliberately stepped out of a ship without a suit so that Neville would not have the satisfaction of killing Frankland herself.

Now in The World Before the wess'har are gathering for a potential war against Earth. Since it was humans who were responsible for the genocide of the bezeri and that there is a line of responsibility back to Earth, the only thing that will save humanity is if they act in accordance with the wess'har notion of personal responsibility. The more people who try to cover for those responsible or make excuses, the worse the wess'har response will be. The Wess'har on Wess'ej have called their more aggressive kin from their home planet to help and these wess'har will take a stark response. Meanwhile Aras is trying to come to terms to the loss of Shan Frankland, his isan (a wess'har term for wife). Frankland was the only known individual to also be infected with c'naatat and he loved her. But, now Aras learns that Ade Bennett, a marine and a good man has been infected in the fight to capture Frankland (from the previous book) and a bond grows between them. Frankland is presumed dead because she was lost in space without a suit, but c'naatat is highly adaptable and anyone who read the first two volumes has to be asking the question: Is she really dead?

After the power of the first two volumes and the shocking end to Crossing the Line, The World Before has a lot to live up to. Karen Traviss has proven herself a talented novelist and one who can tell a brutal story and make it compelling like nothing else. But while The World Before has a lot going on, it feels more like a middle book than the middle book did. The novel serves to set up Matriarch far more than it does to advance a storyline here, and that's not a bad thing, but it does knock the novel a peg or two down below the first two volumes of the Wess'har Wars. What this means is that the writing is just as sharp, the emotions just as strong, but that the story doesn't have quite the same punch of narrative imperative that the first two did. There is resolution for the characters and so on a personal character scale, the novel completes a story arc, but it sets up a grander story arc that is not at all complete. To say that The World Before is a peg or two below City of Pearl or Crossing the Line only means it isn't quite as excellent as the previous novels but that it is also still far above nearly every other science fiction and fantasy novel I have read in years. Karen Traviss has set the bar awfully high for herself.

-Joe Sherry

Traviss's background as a journalist and familiarity with the military adds authority to this depiction of Royal Marines and other humans interacting with four different sapient races. However, this doesn't mean this is typical military SF. There is tension, but little violence, at least by the humans. Also, as a previous reviewer noted, environmental issues are central to this series. Third in the series, this book maintains the first two books' uniformly high quality and continues the high drama of flawed individuals trying to do what's right. While the series reportedly will continue in other books, in this book it reaches a satisfying conclusion; and while reading the first two would make it easier to follow the action, Traviss gives enough backstory so that a newcomer can pick up the thread.

How to live with the consequences of your choices.

This is the dilemma Traviss' characters circle in this latest installment of Wess'har series, begun in 2004 with City of Pearl and followed in 2005 with Crossing the Line.

Journalist Eddie Michallat worries that by helping the Wess'har he has lost his objectivity. The Wess'ej on F'nar fear their way of life will be ruined by the arrival of their brethren from Eqbas Vhor, the titular World Before, from whom they have been separated for over ten millennia. The Isenj prime minister commits an act of political betrayal in hopes of convincing his countrymen to seek the help of the Wess'ej in rebalancing the ecology of their overpopulated world. Shan Frankland weighs the risk of an imminent restructuring of Earth's ecosystem by the Wess'ej from Eqbas Vhor.

This is not the future of Star Trek's Federation, where humans act benevolently in their exploration of the cosmos. In Traviss' universe, humans are as we know them today - greedy, grasping, intolerant, and ready to kill for advantage. No longer the preeminent power in the universe, humans must now learn to accept limits to their expansion imposed from afar by a more powerful species.

Besides a refreshingly candid portrait of homo sapiens, what distinguishes this series of novels is Traviss' development of character. The players grow and learn as a result of their experience and Traviss is not afraid to explore faults in her heroes, or redeeming qualities in her villains. Naval commander Lindsay, for example, once in charge of the Thetis mission and now responsible for setting off a nuclear device that results in the near extinction of the aquatic Bezer'ej, learns to deny her selfish desires for revenge and for her own death by choosing to spend the rest of her life helping the Bezer'ej to rebuild their society.

Aside from a few contemporary references that don't seem to fit in the world of the 24th century (such as white boards at managerial meetings), there is little with which to find fault in Traviss' writing. This series is well conceived and expertly drawn. I don't read many books a second time, especially fiction, but these novels were worth it. I look forward to the story's conclusion and hope that Traviss has the ability to finish with as much skill and aplomb as she began.

"The World Before," Karen Traviss's self-confident new novel, surprises; but it does so in such an unconventional way that maybe you won't see the shocks coming at all. Oh sure, the author provides a few foreshadowings, but you might not recognize them--they aren't what you'd call plot twists in the ordinary sense. Instead, the shock comes from the decisions the characters make. Nearly all of the major inhabitants of the novel have something to ponder, and most ponder long and hard. And what they decide startles.

All the characters--human and nonhuman--from the previous two books in the this series, "City of Pearl" and "Crossing the Line," return, and you'll encounter some new ones, too, as the local wess'har get help from the main branch of their species--i.e., those from "the world before." The cavalry arrives; and they're locked and loaded. They're going to give species who despoil their environment a makeover, whether the despoilers want it or not. To say more, I mean anything more, about the plot of this superior work would indeed spoil the fun.

Notes and asides: Naturally to fully appreciate this book, you should read the first two books in this "City of Pearl" series (the author promises at least six) before tackling "Before."

The third book in the series based on the exploits of Shan Frankland, former copper and EnHaz agent, it shows us the wess'har way of life in detail. I always enjoy looking at aliens, especially ones that in turn reflect us in new ways. It's almost a voyage of self-discovery.

This series reminded me strongly of CJ Cherryh's work, particularly those of alien cultures with human visitors.

Karen Traviss has done a lot of thinking about her wess'har, how they communicate with each other and with their "aliens". It's certainly worth taking the time to see what she's thought of.

Its so important to read the whole series sometimes, but the author has a character that has adapted to her enviroment and rejected the worst about humanity while really hoping for the best. You get involved in the struggles, in all of us to get along with each other and sometimes with ourselves...

"The World Before" is the third book in the Wess'har war series by Karen Traviss. As with the book before it, "Crossing The Line", the action here picks up right where the last book finished with Aras dealing with the loss of his "isan", Shan, and Ade dealing with his new life carrying the same symbiont that Shan spaced herself to keep out of Earth's government's hands. Meanwhile. the wess'har on F'Nar must deal with the arrival of their long-separated ancestors, the Eqbas Vhor, now summoned to deal with the human threat and growing unrest and upheaval among the Isenj.

Upheaval and change abound here for all characters, human and alien--including a perhaps not-very-surprising return from the dead for one character. Also crucial to the plotline in this book is determining how to deal with those responsible for the near-extinction of the marine bezeri in the last book, which leads to pivotal events near the end that set up a major plotline for the rest of this series (or so I imagine; I'm only one more book along at this point.)

Traviss keeps us engaged through her well-developed characters, and many thoughtful debates between the humans and aliens over morality, responsibility, environmental responsibility, religion, relationships and punishment. At times I did find scenes repetitive, however, as some characters keep repeating their same arguments and feelings over and over again. The author also has a tendency to keep rehashing or summarizing past events and facts about her characters and the world she has created. This is perhaps helpful to those who have taken a break between reading each book, but if you're reading them one right after another as I have been, it can feel like unnecessary word-count padding.

But these are minor concerns at this point. Overall I was very pleased with this book and considered it a worthy addition to the series. It left me hungry to pick up with the next book right away, as while a few things are resolved, much is still left hanging in the future for the next book(s) to come...

This is the third in a 6-book series. If you haven't read 'City of Pearl' and 'Crossing the Line', I'd suggest you begin at the beginning, partly for the sheer pleasure of the craftsmanship behind the storytelling, as Karen Traviss reveals world after world and species after species. All the books are full of believable characters with their own histories, fears, ambitions and agendas - often in direct conflict with one another. These folks are real, whether they're like humans, land-based seahorses, very large spiders, meerkats - or squid.

In some ways, 'The World Before' is the most complex book in the series, and it's hard to review it without creating massive spoilers. The end of 'Crossing the Line' is the ultimate cliff-hanger, with Shan spacing herself rather than letting Lindsay and Rayat get their hands on c'naatat, the organism that practically guarantees eternal life. In 'The World Before' (look away now if you don't want to see the answer), Shan's friend Nevyan, the matriarch of the wess'har, finds her and brings her back. At the same time, the Egbas wess'har arrive to set matters straight with the humans for the destruction of the bezeri, and Minister Ual makes a desperate bid to save his planet from ecological disaster.

It's the story taking the responsibility for the consequences of one's actions, and doing the best to atone for damage that's been done. For Ade, and Arras, and Eddie, the issues are convoluted: and there's no easy answer for anyone, any species.

There are several Worlds Before: the militant, universe-policing one the wess'har left generations earlier, that the Eqbas wess'har represent - in spades. There's Earth, 25 light years away: and a sudden possibility of return, for the original colonists and the members of the Thetis mission. And there's the World Before that haunts the memories of the isenj, of Aras - a mass murderer to some, a saviour to others - and of Ade, and Shan.

Karen Traviss weaves the character's experiences with some amazing tech, from space ships to transparent sea-going rafts to the day-to-day living accommodation. One of my favourites is when a pair of macaws are created in a tropical jungle, in a sequence that resonates with heart-breaking homesickness. Once again, we know what's going on in the characters' heads, and hearts, in a tremendously satisfying book.

Buy it. Read it. Then read Matriarch - and the rest of this series of rattling good yarns.