City of Pearl
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The life of a 23rd-century cop
REVIEW BY GAVIN J. GRANT British author Karen Traviss' debut novel City of Pearl is the first entry in a fast-moving science fiction trilogy. In the intriguing near-future world that Traviss creates, Shan Frankland is a 23rd-century English beat cop who has moved up the police force to lead an Environmental Hazard group. Just before she retires she is asked to go on a mission to the second planet of Cavanagh's Star (CS2), which is 75 light-years from home. Frankland takes the mission, but she doesn't know why. She is given a "Suppressed Briefing" so that her orders will only come to mind when she is in an appropriate situation. A third alien race, the isenj, is in some ways the most human of the three. Having overpopulated their own planet, they want to make CS2 accessible to their people. This led to war 500 years before, and if the humans are not careful, they might find themselves caught up in a new struggle. 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, so that by the end, even Frankland has a new appreciation for the shades between black and white. Gavin J. Grant is the co-editor of The Year's Best Science Fantasy & Horror, to be published this summer by St. Martin's.
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