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CROSSING THE LINE

"I am struck by Traviss's empathy for her driven, often unhappy characters...also striking is (her) willingness to kill off sympathetic characters and put others through serious suffering as they find the strength to face unhappy facts and do the necessary...City of Pearl had me thinking of Le Guin and Eleanor Arnason in its picture of the irreducible alieness of aliens and of Nancy Kress in its portraits of abiding human folly and fortitude. To those I would now add C. J. Cherryh's "Foreigner" sequence...for the examination of diplomacy and love across species lines. Anyone who has enjoyed any of these writers should find many of the same pleasures (and useful discomforts) in Crossing the Line and its companion volumes."

Russell Letson, LOCUS November 2004.

"In her debut novel City of Pearl, Karen Traviss took space voyagers, warring extraterrestrials and alien/ human interactions...and gave those tropes new life. The tale continues in Crossing The Line, with at least one more book to follow, and it's just as compelling ...this is no phony teaser, for Traviss clearly has no need to hook the reader with trumped-up suspense. What we get next time will be the real thing."

Faren Miller, LOCUS January 2005

"Somehow I managed to overlook the first volume in this spectacular, thoughtful space trilogy, City of Pearl, when it was released this spring. The silver lining is that I was able to spend a more sustained time in Traviss' world of ethical aliens and humans of varying intentions. ...think Sheri Tepper meets Jo Clayton, as Traviss handles a number of conflicting perspectives with assurance and respect. Highly recommended."

Maryelizabeth Hart, Mysterious Galaxy

"Everything Traviss brought to the table in her debut novel is on vivid display here - her ability to convey how, in a realistic manner, humans and intelligent alien life would interact. Again, here Traviss’s ability to draw fully realized characters that you can empathize with, if anything, is on greater display in Crossing the Line. "

Stuart Carter, SF Site

(Full review)

"..English SF at its very best ... If you want to read something that will leave you thinking, perhaps if you're a fan of Ursula K. Le Guin, Kim Stanley Robinson or, more generally, of intricately gloomy English science fiction, then this series is one you want to read -- I promise. "

Rob Bedford, sffworld.com (See full review.)

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CITY OF PEARL
(EASTON PRESS EDITION: if you can't find the leatherbound signed first edition of City of Pearl on the Easton Press web site, please contact Easton Press direct - it's not listed by name on their site so you'll have to ask for it if you're not already a subscriber.)

"...a thoroughly competent and satisfyingly complex tale of human/alien interaction on a colony planet which at times evokes the earlier moral fables of Le Guin... at other times the revisionist critique of expanding human empires... ..a writer worth watching."
Gary Wolfe, LOCUS

"City of Pearl....makes the old tropes new again. Traviss handles everything with a mixture of panache and restraint....it's a bravura performance, a first novel sure to make next year's Locus Best list."
Faren Miller, LOCUS

"One of the things that makes the book so interesting ...(is) the skilful working of point of view, in which we get to see characters from inside and out, to lovely and often ironic effect.... City of Pearl provides large quantities of what I read SF for: situations and characters that test our assumptions about our natures and our relationships with others and offer opportunities to wear some very different skins."
Russell Letson, LOCUS

"...not only an entertaining and utterly satisfying read, it is a thought-provoking novel that raises profound questions about the role of humanity in the universe."
Paul Goat Allen, Barnes and Noble - see the full review

"...intensely satisfying ...what makes City of Pearl such a good read is its unsentimentality and its clear sightedness."
Dr Farah Mendlesohn, New York Review of Science Fiction

"City of Pearl is a strong first installment and marks the debut of a writer to watch. Traviss takes what could have been a rote collection of characters (marines, cops, religious extremists) and slowly adds depth, complexity and color."
Gavin Grant, BookPage April 2004

"...quite outstanding...fast paced and very political piece of SF that is both in the thick of the genre and fresh and interesting at the same time."

Cheryl Morgan, Emerald City, Best SF of 2004.

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STAR WARS: REPUBLIC COMMANDO: HARD CONTACT

"Karen Traviss ably introduces readers to the men inside the clone commando uniforms, while writing a good military SF yarn that could take place in any universe. My reading choices made for some surreal dissonance this holiday season. My son received the "Star Wars Trilogy" GameBoy game, and was merrily offing random anonymous storm troopers, while I keep thinking of the boys in Hard Contact!"

Maryelizabeth Hart, Mysterious Galaxy

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