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City of Pearl
 
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City of Pearl (Mass Market Paperback)

by Karen Traviss (Author)
4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
US List Price: $7.99
UK Equivalent: £5.37
Price: £4.92 & eligible for Free UK delivery on orders over £5 with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
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City of Pearl + Crossing the Line + The World Before
Price For All Three: £14.62

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  • This item: City of Pearl by Karen Traviss

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  • Crossing the Line by Karen Traviss

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Product details

  • Mass Market Paperback: 400 pages
  • Publisher: Eos; Reprint edition (1 Mar 2004)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0060541695
  • ISBN-13: 978-0060541699
  • Product Dimensions: 16.8 x 10.6 x 3 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 83,680 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

Locus, January 2004 (Gary Wolfe)
A thoroughly competent and satisfyingly complex tale...(which)...evokes the earlier moral fables of Le Guin...a writer worth watching.

Locus, February 2004 (Faren Miller)
....makes the old tropes new again. Traviss handles everything with a mixture of panache and restraint... a bravura performance.

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City of Pearl
75% buy the item featured on this page:
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£4.92
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Customer Reviews

8 Reviews
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 (5)
4 star:
 (3)
3 star:    (0)
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Average Customer Review
4.6 out of 5 stars (8 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 A Pearl of a Novel, 21 Nov 2004
By M. Welsford (Isle of Wight, England) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
From the moment I started reading I couldn't put this book down. I know that's a cliche but with this book it was true. The characters really leap out of the pages as 'real' people.
The main character, Shan Frankland, is one of those rare human beings, someone with integrity. Throughout the book she is struggling to keep her charges alive despite their best efforts. The whole environmentalist theme of the book really appealed to me. And Karen's view of the future, one of human society being run by large corporations, while at once sinister is also very believable. And the vision of humans rapaciously spreading to other worlds is all too familiar to human history so far.

If you like your science fiction with a lot of realism, with a hard edge and without too much techno-babble getting in the way of a strong story, then this book is for you. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a good story.

Ripping yarn!

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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Finest Science Fiction, 6 April 2007
By Ventura Angelo (Brescia, Lombardia Italy) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
I think this novel is a rare treat for the most demanding readers of Science Fiction: clear and profound narrative, intriguing, original story, marvelously described aliens (Weinbaum and Vance come to mind) , interesting characters, plausible and competent in scientific speculation. The commander of an expedition to a forgotten Earth Colony on planet Cavanagh II believed extinct finds the colony alive, but also finds the expedition is less than welcome, as the humans on the planet have managed to adapt to the alien and complex eco-political balance under the surveillance of the planet appointed aklien Guardian, Aras. From this, the tale which unfolds largely from the POV of alien species, which the Author depicts with unusual skill and originality. No little green men with silly antennas, here, but truly alien beings here, thinking in alien ways. Isaac Asimov would have been delighted as I've been by Karen Traviss narrative art.
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33 of 36 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars more, more, more, 20 Oct 2005
By bookaholic - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)      
I began reading this series with book no. 2 for some reason and thorougly enjoyed that. I wondered how Shan got infected and decided to buy no. 1 - no regrets. This is an excellent beginning to a new series. The characters are neither one nor two dimensional but seem like real people. The definition of people is challenged in this book - even with regards to the creatures on this earth. Humans are seen for what they are - monkeys with power.

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. They all thought they would go to an unchartered planet - one that humans possibly could take over and make into their own. But alas, three separate alien societies have claims on Cavanagh's Star already.

With her on her mission, Shan has Marines and scientists. They meet up with the human colony, and are told by Aras - the Wess'har protector of Besenjey (the planet) - that they may not collect any samples of anything. Information will be provided. Being human ensures that this order will not be followed by all. From there on one catastrophe after another comes about for the humans away from home.

Shan discovers that Aras is something more than Wess'har. It turns out he has been infected by something called c'naatat - an entity (bacteria/parasite/whatever) that infects a body and adapts it so that it will survive anything but an explosion. She understands the implications of this. If humans get their hands on something like c'naatat they will go crazy.

There is a lot happening all the time in the book. Traviss has done an excellent job and I would recommend it to anyone wholeheartedly.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Highly Recommended
I don't need to give plot details as other reviewers have done enough of this but I've just finished this book & found it engrossing & would recommend it as containing a balanced... Read more
Published 21 months ago by Roger Cawkwell

4.0 out of 5 stars spare a copper
The start of a series of science fiction novels that introduces us to shan frankland, veteran policewoman working in environmental protection somewhen in the future. Read more
Published 22 months ago by Paul Tapner

4.0 out of 5 stars First in an excellent series
First book in a very imaginative and fascinating series. One of very few science fiction books which has aliens who are both plausible and genuinely different from humans and... Read more
Published on 21 Feb 2006

5.0 out of 5 stars A fine new sf writer.
Good political sf: an interplanetary first contact novel which ruthlessly examines human ethics. No knee jerk reactions, no sloppy thinking. Read more
Published on 3 Mar 2004 by Farah

5.0 out of 5 stars Can't wait for book 2 - Crossing the line!
Well done Karen Traviss! This is a very convincing book with all kinds of plots and sub plots taking place in a world far from home. Read more
Published on 29 Feb 2004 by D Button

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