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The World Before (Mass Market Paperback)

by Karen Traviss (Author) "What am I, then?" asked Sergeant Bennett..." (more)
Key Phrases: bee cam, glass raft, breather mask, Eqbas Vorhi, Lindsay Neville, Shan Frankland (more...)

4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (13 customer reviews)

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Product Description

Three strikingly different alien races
greeted the military mission from Earth
when it reached the planet called Bezer'ej.

Now one of the sentient species
has been exterminated—and two others
are poised on the brink of war.

The fragile bezeri are no more, due to the ignorant, desperate actions of human interlopers. The powerful wess'har protectors have failed in their sworn obligation to the destroyed native population—and the outrage must be redressed.

But those who are coming to judge from the World Before -- the home planet, now distant and alien to the wess'har, whose ancestors left there generations ago -- will not restrict their justice to the individual humans responsible for the slaughter. Earth itself must answer for the genocide. And its ultimate fate may depend on a dead woman: former police officer Shan Frankland, who became something far greater than human before destroying herself in the vast airless depths of space.

About the Author

Karen Traviss is a former defense correspondent and TV and newspaper journalist. She has worked in public relations for the police and local government, and has served in the Royal Naval Auxiliary Service and the Territorial Army. The New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of City of Pearl, Crossing the Line, The World Before, Matriarch, Star Wars-Republic Commando: Hard Contact, Triple Zero, and Star Wars-Legacy of the Force: Bloodlines, she lives in Wiltshire, England.

Product Details

Mass Market Paperback: 400 pages
Publisher: Eos (October 25, 2005)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0060541725
ISBN-13: 978-0060541729
Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.2 x 1.3 inches
Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)

Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (13 customer reviews)

Amazon.com Sales Rank: #276,549 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Front Cover | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!

Inside This Book (learn more)

First Sentence:
"What am I, then?" asked Sergeant Bennett. Read the first page

Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
bee cam, glass raft, breather mask, ballistic vest, gene bank, genetic memory

Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Eqbas Vorhi, Lindsay Neville, Shan Frankland, Umeh Station, Ade Bennett, Eddie Michallat, Mohan Rayat, Aras Sar, Esganikan Gai, Exchange of Surplus Things, Northern Assembly, Nevyan Tan Mestin, Commander Neville, Minister Ual, Tasir Var, Suppressed Briefing, United Nations, Federal European Union, Shan Chail, Mart Barencoin, Minister Par Paral Ual, Reading Metro, Deborah Garrod, Dry Above, Eugenie Perault

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Citations (learn more)

This book cites 3 books:

City of Pearl by Karen Traviss on 4 pages
Crossing the Line by Karen Traviss in Front Matter (1), Front Matter (2), and Back Matter
Hard Contact (Star Wars: Republic Commando, Book 1) by Karen Traviss in Back Matter

Books on Related Topics (learn more)

Crossing the Line by Karen Traviss

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City of Pearl by Karen Traviss

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Ally by Karen Traviss

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	69% buy the item featured on this page: The World Before 4.7 out of 5 stars (13) $7.50
	14% buy City of Pearl 4.2 out of 5 stars (33) $7.99
	6% buy Matriarch 4.1 out of 5 stars (9) $7.99
	6% buy Ally (Wess'har Wars) 4.3 out of 5 stars (9) $7.99

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Customer Reviews

13 Reviews

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
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4.7 out of 5 stars (13 customer reviews)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I wish I could give this one more than 5 stars..., October 29, 2005

By	Suzanne C. Byrne (Melbourne, Australia) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.

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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The World Before Series, January 10, 2007

By	Angus Macgyver "Mac" (Staunton, IL USA) - See all my reviews

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.

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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars less than Traviss's best, but better than most authors can do, July 25, 2006

By	Joe Sherry (Minnesota) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)

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

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Going from strength to strength
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... Read more

Published 14 months ago by Y. Hewett

5.0 out of 5 stars Keeping up the good work.
A good continuation of a good series. I am looking forward to the next one.

Published on November 9, 2006 by Douglas R. Lefler

3.0 out of 5 stars Falls Down at the End of the Series
Though I have disagreed vehemently with the "politics" of this series, I have found it well written and entertaining. Read more

Published on April 29, 2006 by John A Lee III

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Authour Keeps Improving
This author just keeps getting better with her depth of characters and the storyline that twists and turns to knot the reader tightly into a page turning, non-sleeping frenzy.

Published on March 22, 2006 by M. Mathison

5.0 out of 5 stars A masterful series, well conceived and expertly drawn
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... Read more

Published on March 18, 2006 by ShriDurga

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book and series
The World Before is the third book in this series, which is set on the planet Bezer'ej. The alien races are very interesting. Read more

Published on March 13, 2006 by moria2

5.0 out of 5 stars Choices Must Be Made
"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. Read more

Published on March 11, 2006 by lb136

4.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating look at alien culture
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. Read more

Published on January 31, 2006 by G. Tansey

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent political thriller set in another solar system
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... Read more

Published on December 22, 2005 by A. Dorrance

4.0 out of 5 stars Actions and their consequences and a continued good read
Shan Frankland sacrificed herself by walking out of an airlock in space to prevent C'naatat being let loose by unscrupulous people. Read more

Published on December 19, 2005 by K. Maxwell

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