Wess'Har Series
Encyclopedia
The Wess'har series is a six book science fiction
novel series written by author Karen Traviss
and is set several hundred years in the future. It involves humanity's contact with a number of alien species with conflicting interests and beliefs, while her central character, Shan Frankland, is caught in the middle of a coming conflict.
All six novels have been published by Eos: City of Pearl
, Crossing the Line, The World Before
, Matriarch
and Ally
(formerly Task Force). The last book of the series, Judge
was released on March 25, 2008.
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
novel series written by author Karen Traviss
Karen Traviss
Karen Traviss is a science fiction author, and full-time novelist from Wiltshire, England. Originally from the Portsmouth area, Traviss worked as both a journalist and defence correspondent before turning her attention to writing fiction. She also served in both the Territorial Army and the Royal...
and is set several hundred years in the future. It involves humanity's contact with a number of alien species with conflicting interests and beliefs, while her central character, Shan Frankland, is caught in the middle of a coming conflict.
All six novels have been published by Eos: City of Pearl
City of Pearl
City of Pearl is a science fiction novel by Karen Traviss. Published in Mach, 2004, it is the first book of the Wess'Har Series. Among the main characters are Shan Frankland, the hardened cop and forceful commander; Josh Garrod, the devout Christian and gentle leader; Aras, the lonely Wess'har,...
, Crossing the Line, The World Before
The World Before
The World Before was written by Karen Traviss and was published in October 2005. It is the third book in the Wess'Har Series.-Plot summary:...
, Matriarch
Matriarch (novel)
Matriarch is a science-fiction novel by Karen Traviss published in September, 2006. It is the fourth book in the Wess'Har Series, following The World Before and preceding Ally.-Plot summary:...
and Ally
Ally (novel)
Ally is a science fiction novel written by Karen Traviss and was published in March 2007. It is the fifth book in the Wess'Har Series.-Plot:...
(formerly Task Force). The last book of the series, Judge
Judge (novel)
Judge is a science fiction novel written by Karen Traviss. It is the sixth and last book of the Wess'Har Series....
was released on March 25, 2008.
Volumes
- City of PearlCity of PearlCity of Pearl is a science fiction novel by Karen Traviss. Published in Mach, 2004, it is the first book of the Wess'Har Series. Among the main characters are Shan Frankland, the hardened cop and forceful commander; Josh Garrod, the devout Christian and gentle leader; Aras, the lonely Wess'har,...
(2004) - Crossing the Line (2005)
- The World BeforeThe World BeforeThe World Before was written by Karen Traviss and was published in October 2005. It is the third book in the Wess'Har Series.-Plot summary:...
(2005) - MatriarchMatriarch (novel)Matriarch is a science-fiction novel by Karen Traviss published in September, 2006. It is the fourth book in the Wess'Har Series, following The World Before and preceding Ally.-Plot summary:...
(2006) - AllyAlly (novel)Ally is a science fiction novel written by Karen Traviss and was published in March 2007. It is the fifth book in the Wess'Har Series.-Plot:...
(formerly Task Force) (2007) - JudgeJudge (novel)Judge is a science fiction novel written by Karen Traviss. It is the sixth and last book of the Wess'Har Series....
(2008)
Featured alien species
- Bezeri: first seen in City of Pearl. The bezeri are native to the planet Bezer'ej in the Cavanagh's Star system. They are aquatic creatures whom humans liken to squid. They communicate primarily by bioluminescenceBioluminescenceBioluminescence is the production and emission of light by a living organism. Its name is a hybrid word, originating from the Greek bios for "living" and the Latin lumen "light". Bioluminescence is a naturally occurring form of chemiluminescence where energy is released by a chemical reaction in...
. Living underwater and thus without access to fire, their technology is at the neolithic level, although with some biotechnology based on selective breeding; the latter has allowed them to build "podships" for faster underwater travel, and for hurling small numbers of explorers out of the water to investigate (briefly) what they term the "Dry Above".
- Wess'har: first seen in City of Pearl. Humanoid in appearance, with heads that humans liken to seahorses and with distinctive four-lobed pupils. Their sense of smell is more acute than that of humans, and pheromonalPheromoneA pheromone is a secreted or excreted chemical factor that triggers a social response in members of the same species. Pheromones are chemicals capable of acting outside the body of the secreting individual to impact the behavior of the receiving individual...
signals play a greater role in their interactions. Their culture is matriarchalMatriarchyA matriarchy is a society in which females, especially mothers, have the central roles of political leadership and moral authority. It is also sometimes called a gynocratic or gynocentric society....
, with matriarchs establishing a hierarchy through emission of the jask pheromone. In their ethical system, motive is considered irrelevant when judging the rightness of actions; only outcomes are considered important. Ecological balance is a primary value of wess'har society; they take great pains to minimize their environmental footprint and do not consider sentient creatures to have more rights than nonsentient ones.
- The wess'har that the Earth expedition first encounters have been living on Wess'ej, Bezer'ej's moon (itself a fully habitable world), for thousands of years, following the philosophy of the thinker Targassat, who believed in the supreme importance of non-intervention in the affairs of other species except in extreme cases. In The World Before they meet wess'har from Eqbas Vorhi ("The World Before"), the species' homeworld five light-years from Cavanagh's Star. The eqbas believe in unsolicited intervention to preserve planetary ecologies and have done so many times. They consider the Wess'ej wess'har to be agrarian primitivists, even though wess'har technology is fantastically advanced compared to humanity's.
- Isenj: first seen in City of Pearl. The isenj are native to the planet Umeh in the Cavanagh's Star system; they also live on Umeh's habitable moon Tasir Var, and once had colonies on Bezer'ej and possibly worlds in other star systems. Humans liken them to spiders, although they have more than eight legs, and their primeval ancestors appear to have occupied an ecological niche similar to that of termites on Earth. They possess a genetic memoryGenetic memory (biology)In biology, memory is present if the state of a biological system depends on its past history in addition to present conditions. If this memory is recorded in the genetic material and stably inherited through cell division , it is genetic....
which lets them remember the experiences of their ancestors, and which has profound effects on their psychology and culture. Talented engineers, the isenj have constructed an interstellar instantaneous communication network, based on quantum mechanical principles, which humans refer to as "ITX". They are either unable or unwilling to control their population growthOverpopulationOverpopulation is a condition where an organism's numbers exceed the carrying capacity of its habitat. The term often refers to the relationship between the human population and its environment, the Earth...
, to the extent that at the time of the novels, Umeh's land area has been completely urbanized with the only other life present on the planet being food organisms grown industrially.
- Ussissi: first seen in City of Pearl. The ussissi co-evolved with the wess'har on Eqbas Vorhi and expanded into space with them. Humans liken them to meerkatMeerkatThe meerkat or suricate, Suricata suricatta, is a small mammal belonging to the mongoose family. Meerkats live in all parts of the Kalahari Desert in Botswana, in much of the Namib Desert in Namibia and southwestern Angola, and in South Africa. A group of meerkats is called a "mob", "gang" or "clan"...
s or ferretFerretThe ferret is a domesticated mammal of the type Mustela putorius furo. Ferrets are sexually dimorphic predators with males being substantially larger than females. They typically have brown, black, white, or mixed fur...
s in appearance. The ussissi play many support roles in both wess'har cultures and are especially valued as interpreters, as they are talented mimics of alien sounds and excel at learning languages. In the Cavanagh's Star system the ussissi pilot spacecraft between the inhabited worlds, and also between Umeh's continents and Tasir Var.
- Skavu: first seen in Ally. The skavu are native to the planet Garav, about four light-months away from Cavanagh's Star. Garav was the subject of a rather bloody eqbas ecological intervention, and the surviving skavu are fanatical about preserving ecological balance to the point of cheerfully slaughtering entire populations to bring it about. Humanoid in form, humans liken their features to a mix of iguanaIguanaIguana is a herbivorous genus of lizard native to tropical areas of Central America and the Caribbean. The genus was first described in 1768 by Austrian naturalist Josephus Nicolaus Laurenti in his book Specimen Medicum, Exhibens Synopsin Reptilium Emendatam cum Experimentis circa Venena...
s and sealsPinnipedPinnipeds or fin-footed mammals are a widely distributed and diverse group of semiaquatic marine mammals comprising the families Odobenidae , Otariidae , and Phocidae .-Overview: Pinnipeds are typically sleek-bodied and barrel-shaped...
.
- C'naatat: first seen in City of Pearl. C'naatat is a microscopic organism native to Bezer'ej, which, when it infects other species, forms a symbiotic relationship that grants many powerful traits to the host organism: aging stops, wounds heal very quickly, and adaptation to many different extreme environments becomes possible. This results in the host being virtually immortal and unkillable except by being blown to pieces with explosives. C'naatat strains can transfer biological traits of the organisms they have passed through to their new hosts (for example, granting the ability to emit wess'har pheromones, bezeri bioluminescence, or a shared memory like that of the isenj). The organism is also able to defend itself from attempts to remove it from a host - it improvises countermeasures that render the removal attempt ineffective.