Wess'Har

Last updated June 25, 2023

The Wess'har Wars 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.^[1]^[2] The series has a focus on environmental impact.^[3] All six novels were published by Eos, an imprint of HarperCollins: 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.

Volumes

City of Pearl (2004)
Crossing the Line (2005)
The World Before (2005)
Matriarch (2006)
Ally (formerly Task Force) (2007)
Judge (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 bioluminescence. 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 pheromonal signals play a greater role in their interactions. Their culture is matriarchal, 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 memory 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 growth, 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 meerkats or ferrets 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 iguanas and seals.

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.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alien invasion</span> Common theme in science fiction stories and film

Alien invasion or space invasion is a common feature in science fiction stories and film, in which extraterrestrial lifeforms invade the Earth to exterminate and supplant human life, enslave it, harvest people for food, steal the planet's resources, or destroy the planet altogether. It can be considered as a science-fiction subgenre of the invasion literature, expanded by H. G. Wells's seminal alien invasion novel The War of the Worlds.

Science fiction is a film genre that uses speculative, fictional science-based depictions of phenomena that are not fully accepted by mainstream science, such as extraterrestrial lifeforms, spacecraft, robots, cyborgs, dinosaurs, mutants, interstellar travel, time travel, or other technologies. Science fiction films have often been used to focus on political or social issues, and to explore philosophical issues like the human condition.

An overwhelming majority of fiction is set on or features the Earth, as the only planet home to humans. This also holds true of science fiction, despite perceptions to the contrary. Works that focus specifically on Earth may do so holistically, treating the planet as one semi-biological entity. Counterfactual depictions of the shape of the Earth, be it flat or hollow, are occasionally featured. A personified, living Earth appears in a handful of works. In works set in the far future, Earth can be a center of space-faring human civilization, or just one of many inhabited planets of a galactic empire, and sometimes destroyed by ecological disaster or nuclear war or otherwise forgotten or lost.

Military science fiction is a subgenre of science fiction that depicts the use of science fiction technology, including spaceships and weapons, for military purposes and usually principal characters who are members of a military organization, usually during a war; occurring sometimes in outer space or on a different planet or planets. It exists in a range of media, including literature, comics, film, television and video games.

Closed ecological systems (CES) are ecosystems that do not rely on matter exchange with any part outside the system.

The exploration of politics in science fiction is arguably older than the identification of the genre. One of the earliest works of modern science fiction, H. G. Wells’ The Time Machine, is an extrapolation of the class structure of the United Kingdom of his time, an extreme form of social Darwinism; during tens of thousands of years, human beings have evolved into two different species based on their social class.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Salt River Bay National Historical Park and Ecological Preserve</span> National Park Service unit in the U.S. Virgin Islands

Salt River Bay National Historic Park and Ecological Preserve is a unit of the National Park Service on the island of St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands. It preserves upland watersheds, mangrove forests, and estuarine and marine environments that support threatened and endangered species. It also contains the Columbus Landing Site, a National Historic Landmark that is the only known site where members of a Columbus expedition set foot on what is now United States territory. The site is marked by Fort Salé, a remaining earthworks fortification from the French period of occupation, about 1617. The park also preserves prehistoric and colonial-era archeological sites including the only existing example of a ball court in the US Virgin Islands.

Karen Traviss is a science fiction author from Wiltshire, England. She is the author of the Wess'Har series, and has written tie-in material based on Star Wars, Gears of War, Halo, G.I. Joe and the newest Nomad Series working with Nick Cole and Jason Anspach. Her work crosses various forms of media including novels, short stories, comics, and video games.

City of Pearl is a science fiction novel by British writer Karen Traviss. Published in March, 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, outcast by his horrible disease; and Lindsay Neville, the Marines Commander dealing with an unplanned pregnancy. City of Pearl is a book that deals with morals, especially concerning environmentalism, and keeps action sequences to a minimum.

<i>Legacy of the Force</i> Series of nine science fiction novels set in the Star Wars fictional universe, as

The Legacy of the Force is a series of nine science fiction novels set in the Star Wars expanded universe, taking place approximately 40 years after the events of the Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. The series picks up around 11 years after the events of the New Jedi Order saga. The series was written by Troy Denning, Aaron Allston and Karen Traviss in an alternating cycle.

<i>Crossing the Line</i> (novel) 2004 science fiction novel by Karen Traviss

Crossing the Line is a 2004 science fiction novel by British writer Karen Traviss. It is the second book of the Wess'Har Series. Its predecessor was called City of Pearl, published in February of the same year. Some of the main characters include Shan Frankland, hardened copper now infected with c'naatat; Aras, the lonely Wess'har, outcast by his horrible disease; Eddie Michallat, journalist who finds himself in a position to affect history; and Lindsay Neville, the Marines Commander trying to deal with the loss of her newborn son David, and bent on revenge on Shan.

The World Before is a science fiction novel by British writer Karen Traviss, published in October 2005. It is the third book in the Wess'Har Series.

<i>The Price of Paradise</i> 2006 novel by Colin Brake

The Price of Paradise is a BBC Books original novel written by Colin Brake and based on the long running science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was published on 21 September 2006 alongside The Nightmare of Black Island and The Art of Destruction. It features the Tenth Doctor and Rose.

<i>Star Wars Republic Commando: True Colors</i> 2007 novel by Karen Traviss

Star Wars Republic Commando: True Colors is the third novel in the Republic Commando series, written by Karen Traviss. It is a sequel to Hard Contact and Triple Zero and continues the story of Omega Squad's actions during the Clone Wars.

Matriarch is a science fiction novel by the British writer Karen Traviss published in September, 2006. It is the fourth book in the Wess'Har Series, following The World Before and preceding Ally.

<i>Ally</i> (novel) Book by Karen Traviss

Ally is a science fiction novel by British writer Karen Traviss, published in March 2007. It is the fifth book in the Wess'Har Series.

<i>Judge</i> (novel) 2008 novel by Karen Traviss

Judge is a science fiction novel written by Karen Traviss. It is the sixth and last book of the Wess'Har Series. It was nominated for the 2009 Philip K. Dick Award.

Mandalorians are a fictional group of people associated with the planet Mandalore in the Star Wars universe and franchise created by Joe Johnston and George Lucas. Their most distinct cultural features are their battle helmets, chest armor, vambraces, and often jetpacks. The Mandalorian character Boba Fett is, after Darth Vader and the stormtroopers, the most well recognized characters of the franchise and one of its most frequent characters.

Speculative evolution is a genre of speculative fiction and an artistic movement focused on hypothetical scenarios in the evolution of life, and a significant form of fictional biology. It is also known as speculative biology and it is referred to as speculative zoology in regards to hypothetical animals. Works incorporating speculative evolution may have entirely conceptual species that evolve on a planet other than Earth, or they may be an alternate history focused on an alternate evolution of terrestrial life. Speculative evolution is often considered hard science fiction because of its strong connection to and basis in science, particularly biology.

Josef Isaevich Gitelson ; was a Soviet and Russian biophysicist. PhD in biology (1955), DrSc in medicine (1961), Professor, Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences (1991); Corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1979), Member of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1990). Director of Institute of Biophysics, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (1984-1996). Academic Advisor at this Institute since 1996. Scientific supervisor of Institute of Fundamental Biology and Biotechnology Siberian Federal University. Member of International Academy of Astronautics. Honorary Citizen of Krasnoyarsk Krai since Sept 20, 2013 and the city of Krasnoyarsk. In 2018, JI Gitelson was awarded the highest award of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Lomonosov Gold Medal for the justification and development of the ecological direction of biophysics, which has achieved a number of outstanding fundamental and practical results, in particular, in marine and laboratory studies of bioluminescence.

References

↑ Janine Stinson (2006). "Series Seconds". Internet Review of Science Fiction. Retrieved 20 November 2014.
↑ Liptak, Andrew (October 27, 2016). "Guns, Bugs And Powered Armour: The Most Realistic Military Science Fiction". Gizmodo. Pedestrian Group. Retrieved 2023-06-24.
↑ Liptak, Andrew (Sep 24, 2016). "How science fiction has imagined colonizing our Solar System and beyond". The Verge. Vox Media. Retrieved 2023-06-24.

Murphy, Patrick D. (2021). "No Easy Answers in Karen Traviss's The Wess'har Wars Series". Ecofeminist Science Fiction. New York: Routledge. ISBN 9781003153047.
Sullivan, Heather I. (August 18, 2010). "Unbalanced Nature, Unbounded Bodies, and Unlimited Technology: Ecocriticism and Karen Traviss' Wess'har Series". Bulletin of Science, Technology & Society. 30 (4): 274–284. doi:10.1177/0270467610373821 . Retrieved 2023-06-24.

External links

Karen Traviss's Homepage

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[1] Janine Stinson (2006). "Series Seconds". Internet Review of Science Fiction. Retrieved 20 November 2014.

[2] Liptak, Andrew (October 27, 2016). "Guns, Bugs And Powered Armour: The Most Realistic Military Science Fiction". Gizmodo. Pedestrian Group. Retrieved 2023-06-24.

[3] Liptak, Andrew (Sep 24, 2016). "How science fiction has imagined colonizing our Solar System and beyond". The Verge. Vox Media. Retrieved 2023-06-24.

[1]

[2]

[3]