Judge (The Wess'har Wars)
by Karen Traviss
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Book Summary Information
Author: Karen TravissEdition: Mass Market Paperback
Published: 2008-04-01
ISBN: 0060882409
Number of pages: 400
Publisher: Eos
Book Reviews of Judge (The Wess'har Wars)
Book Review: That's one way to do it.
Summary: 4 Stars
As other reviewers have noted, JUDGE is a less-than-action-packed finale to Traviss' series about the Wess'har. Like several of the other reviewers, I wish the novel had more to offer, but unlike most of them, I was satisfied with what Traviss delivered.
In JUDGE, the series' central character, Shan Frankland, remains a prickly misanthrope who butts her nose into everybody else's business. Frankland also remains a powerful but enigmatic character whose inflexible moral judgments may make sense to her (and Traviss) but often seem arbitrary and capricious to me. (For example, she thinks that a Wess'har who intentionally infects herself with the c'nataat immortality parasite ought to be executed. The Wess'har's self-inflicted infection is undoubtedly a bad idea, but execution?) In JUDGE, Frankland ties up some loose ends and then takes her show on the road back to Earth. On Earth, some people do smart things and many people do dumb things and stuff happens. Some of this stuff has to do with the panic most of Earth rightfully feels when a bunch of powerful aliens show up, telling them that they must reduce the world's population drastically within a generation and offering them no wiggle room. Some of the stuff is just stuff, like Frankland trying to have a drink out with her sensitive and vulnerable human husband when neither of them can actually experience the effects of alcohol due to the parasite they both harbor.
As with the other novels, there is a fair amount of weeping and gnashing of teeth--or maybe it's just yelling and grinding of teeth, but you get the idea. Frankland is a self-important drama queen, but she has enough brains and audacity to pull the reader through the series. Nevertheless, it's important for the reader to set Frankland aside and ask "Is it really OK for these aliens to kill billions of other aliens because they're taking bad care of their planet? Are all animals really created equal, with none 'more equal than others'--except for those who appoint themselves judges?" Traviss raises a number of important moral questions, but in answering these questions she stacks the deck, giving one view to the overpowering Frankland and giving opposing views to even-more-deeply flawed characters who we could not possibly support.
In any event, if you haven't read any of the other novels in this series, check out CITY OF PEARL and see if it's your cup of tea. If you have read the other novels, it would be silly to miss this one.
Summary of Judge (The Wess'har Wars)
The Eqbas have come, bringing justice, change, hope to some . . . and death to many.
Seeking to punish the human gethes who caused the near destruction of an ocean-dwelling race in the distant Cavanagh's Star system, the Eqbas have finally landed on Earth. But another, equally important obligation has drawn them across the galaxy: the salvation of this environmentally ravaged world, a mission that could entail the annihilation of billions of humans.
Former police officer Shan Frankland has come as well—along with her two lifemates, one alien and one human—carrying in her blood the parasite that makes her virtually immortal. Though she once vowed never to let the powerful contagion reach the homeworld she left nearly a century ago, she feels compelled to play an active role in the unfolding drama—and to follow the catastrophic events that have devastated civilizations and defined her life to their shocking, inevitable end.
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