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Matriarch | 
 enlarge | Author: Karen Traviss
Publisher: Eos
Category: Book
List Price: $7.99
Buy New: $3.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  7 reviews
Sales Rank: 414373
Media: Mass Market Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 400
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 6.6 x 3.9 x 1.3
ISBN: 006088231X
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN: 9780060882310
ASIN: 006088231X
Publication Date: October 1, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: GREAT BUY!Brand New From US Distributor! WE ARE A 5 STAR SELLER with OVER 3,500,000 BOOKS SOLD!!! OVER ~ 600,000 FEEDBACKS ~ POSTED!!!
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Product Description
In thirty years, the invincible Eqbas will arrive at Earth to forcibly return the planet to what it once was—as retribution, in part, for the gethes' thoughtless near-extermination of an alien ocean-dwelling species. First, however, another world requires their attention: the crowded, ecologically ravaged planet of the swarming, insect-like isenj. Efforts to drastically reduce the isenj population have sparked a devastating civil war—which may well do the savior/destroyers' work for them. And the human visitors can only watch. Rendered immortal and ever changeable by a parasite in her blood, ex-cop Shan Frankland isn't content merely to play Matriarch to her two similarly infected mates—one earthborn, one alien wess'har. Her fears for the future of Umeh and the ultimate fate of humankind must be set aside while she tackles an unfulfilled duty that haunts her every waking moment—a mission that must be undertaken for the sake of the future—and pursues a righteous vengeance.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 2 more reviews...
 4th in a series worth reading June 19, 2008
This is the 4th of the series (starting with City of Pearl) and is not a stand alone book at all, though it does start with a brief summation to bring you up to date, I don't think that that would be sufficient for a new reader.
The pace is slower than the previous books but still engrossing. Shan strikes a few repetitive notes, but her dilemma is real and tragic - the 'gift' of immortality via the alien viral symbiot, and how to stop humans from exploiting it. The comparisons between humans and the other alien organizations/cultures continues to be interesting. I'm starting book 5 today, so clearly I'm on the bandwagon. I realized I was so obsessed with these books, I didn't even look to see if my local library has them (it does) I just ordered them off amazon straight away. So you can tell I think they're keepers!
 Prepare to be surprised again January 31, 2007
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
In "Matriarch," fourth of the saga of Shan Frankland, things take another surprising turn. The Eqbas take time out from their planned arrival on Earth to--they hope--straighten out the Isenj, who have so overpopulated their world that the very idea of a tree becomes a novelty. This causes some conflict between the two wess'har factions. Meanwhile, Shan learns that Rayat and Neville not only live, but are also infected with c'naatat, the stuff that immortality is made of (for those unfamiliar with the series, Shan is too), and she is not happy. Indeed she becomes increasingly obsessed with the problem: she doesn't want c'naatat to become widespread.
In turn, the spy Mohan Rayat and the former commander Lindsay Neville (who previously displayed all the signs of sociopathology) discover something interesting about the Bezer'ej, the seagoing species to whom they have been forced to provide aid, as a result of Rayat's attempt to destroy them (he's mostly succeeded). In an amazing sequence, as they lose their human characteristics they become in some sense more human. Journalist Eddie Michelat continues to file his reports back to Earth, whose nations have reached the brink of war over the impending arrival of the Eqbas. (Ms. Traviss, who is British, has a very Eurocentric view. Like Ken MacCleod and Elizabeth Bear, Ms. Traviss imagines a world in which the U.S. is no longer a major player.)
Ms. Travis's work continues to astonish, impress, and amaze. Obviously, readers should start with the first book in the series, "City of Pearl," and work their way north to this one. If they do, they will be well-rewarded. Each book tells a story complete in itself, while also leaving the reader waiting for the next volume to appear. As she has amply demonstrated before, as well as here, the author has a sure touch and seems to know exactly where she's taking this series.
What goes around, comes around January 6, 2007
20 out of 20 found this review helpful
Matriarch is the fourth volume in British author Karen Traviss' Wess'har series. If you haven't yet read the previous novels, you might like to start at the beginning with City of Pearl. If you do, I'm sure you'll be back here to order this volume.
Matriarch picks up right where The World Before left off, with the the Eqbas, the technologically superior wess'har from the titular home world, preparing to ecologically rebalance the overpopulated and resource starved world of Umeh, inhabited by the spider-like isenj. Reporter Eddie Michallat's on-the-scene reports of the devastation provide the squabbling nations of Earth a warning of what the Eqbas have in mind for humans.
As with previous volumes, the writing's tight and the morals conflicted, making for another spectacular chapter to what has to be the most engaging ongoing science fiction series in the English language. A better one-word title for this book, though, might have been Harvest. Or perhaps Karma. I suppose Matriarch was chosen for the two lead characters, but it does nothing to capture the essence of the story, which is all about consequence, much of it ironic, about how your choices, your principles, even your dreams and desires come back to you in ways you could not have imaged.
Esganikan, the matriarch of the Eqbas, gets what she most needs to justify wess'har intervention on Umeh, an official isenj government invitation to rebalance the planet's exhausted ecology. Getting involved proves easy, but the price in lives from a fratricidal civil war tests Esganikan's commitment to her principles.
Lindsay Neville and Rayat Mohan swim in a world of water and guilt, living among the bezeri, the aquactic species now nearly extinct as a result of radiation from a nuclear bomb the pair unleashed on the world of Bezer'ej. The two work with the handful of remaining bezeri to help recover and catalog artifacts and records of bezeri culture, living in the oceans, slowly becoming, as a result of the alien c'naatat, gill-breathing, translucent fish who learn that those to whom they pay penitence are themselves morally defiled.
Shan Frankland, meanwhile, frets over her two mates, human Ade and wess'har Aras, and how she might make all three of them feel more like a family. This is perhaps the slowest part of the novel, a good-sized middle section where nothing much happens but talk about unfulfilled expectations. It takes a while to get there, but the finale of this particular sub-plot is a stunning act of moral consistency, something along the lines of Shan executing one of her scientists for collecting specimens (as depicted in City of Pearl). It's likely to be a scene well remembered once this series comes to a close at the end of 2007.
But for now, we can look forward to Ally and the Eqbas arrival on Earth, coming in April 2007.
Living as the bomb falls December 15, 2006
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
The title of my review sums up the sense of dread that inhabits this novel. In the forth segment of her Wess'har Wars series Karen Traviss does, as one reviewer put it, gives us a pause in the break-neck speed with which other books in the series seemed to move, but instead of this pause simply being filler we have chapter after chapter of growing dread, as if the moral implications of previous actions have finally sunk home to certain characters. Much like in real life where a pause allows one to collect one's thoughts, Matriarch's sense of a pause (and this is a pause filled with an invasion, a suicide, mutilation of self, a genocidal eco-warrior race that may or may not be allies, revelations of past genocides, the transmutation of a species, and more, to the point that I really wish most books had these sorts of "pauses") allows the sense of dread to grow as the Equibas reveals hidden allies and an invasion takes place and the human characters get a chilling glimpse of what is in store for Earth.
Shan, Aras, and Ade all have to come to terms with the sins of their past, and in some cases, their present, and future.
It may be true that this novel doesn't move with the speed of some of the past novels, but there are still plenty of revelations, attrocities, wars, and moral quandries to keep readers flipping the pages and wondering who, if anyone, has a high ground to stand upon in the series, and raises the question of who the reader identifies with and why, and whether they should be comfortable with that identification.
True to the title: Shan is back! November 17, 2006
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Matriarch is the 4th in Traviss' standalone series featuring Shan Frankland and the wess'har, Aras. The books in order are City of Pearl, Crossing the Line, the World Before, and Matriarch. Read them in order. These books are set in a rich plot of space, light years away from earth. Humankind's blunders are catching up with them, and the Eqbas are off to settle the score for the universe. In 30 years, the Eqbas will knock on Earth's door and fix the problem by restoring the planet to what once was in retribution for the almost extermination of the Bezeri by cobalt-laced nuke on Cavanagh's Star. The Eqbas make a side trip to fix the ecologically challenged planet inhabited by the Isenj before heading off to Earth. Now, some of the Isenj don't want to be fixed, and a civil war breaks out. Eddie, the BBChan reporter tries to convince Earth that the Eqbas are serious.
Meanwhile, the familial peace between Shan, Aras, and Abe threatens to shatter when she discovers that Rayat and Neville are still alive and kicking, not to mention infected )by the boys) with the aggressive parasite c'naatat. The same parasite that is capable of allowing a host to survive under water, gunshots to the head, suffocation, etc.
I love these books, the characters are vivid, complex and well developed. The aliens are curious and interesting. The story lines are planned and woven to flow well together and separately. This particular book focuses more on the interaction and development of the characters instead of advancing the action of the overall series. The title Matriarch, pretty much explains it all since Shan steps firmly on the path of becoming the martirch of her c'naatat infected family.
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