I’ve just started reading the latest Karen Traviss book, Ally (the fifth book in her Wess’har sequence), and it’s got me thinking about a couple of things.

The first is my utter disbelief that a British writer as good as Traviss hasn’t got a publishing deal in the UK for her Wess’har books. She’s got a huge following among Star Wars fans for her Republic Commando books – I confess my heart sank the day two of those “Wookie” books dropped through my door for review in Vector, but damn it they were good, especially Hard Contact – and her Wess’har books are accessible, intelligent and entertaining. You’d think a smart UK publisher would be promoting them like crazy. Traviss may not sit particularly comfortably amongst the traditional ranks of British SF writers - by her own admission - but she’s good, she’s popular and she deserves to be “bigged up”.

Second, I’ve just realised that this is probably the first time I’ve read five books in a series like this, where one set of characters pursue the same story arc. I don’t normally read sequence novels – I rarely do trilogies and never epic sagas. I’m pretty sure that if I’d known that the first book in this series (City of Pearl) was the start of an ongoing series, I wouldn’t have picked it up.

One of the reasons, I think, that I’ve never become trapped as a “fan” of anything is that I have the attention span of a ADD-afflicted goldfish – I get bored going back over the same old stuff. I’ve never had that fannish thing of wanting a place where nothing ever really changes and adventures can be comfortable.

I like change. I like new things. I want something different.

And yet I’ve enjoyed the Wess’har books – although I confess for the first time with Ally I’ve opened the cover with the hope that this instalment will point the way towards a recognisable conclusion somewhere on the horizon. It’s not just that, like any series, I suppose, an increasing amount of time in each instalment is being spent reminding readers about what went before but more that no matter how interesting and complex the world Traviss has created, I’ve been here before. I want to go somewhere else.

That said, I do think that Traviss is doing some exceptional things with these stories, and that’s why I’ve stuck with them for so long - by my standards.

The books features soldiers and spaceships but they’re hardly traditional military sf. Traviss does a tremendous job of presenting military characters who feel real – no one here is superhuman (even the ones who’ve become indestructible) they all have their weaknesses and psychological baggage – and she has created a realistic conflict which simply isn’t going to be solved by some square-jawed space captain rushing in at Warp speed, and damn the photon torpedoes! There’s a strong sense of the military ethic but none of the gung-ho, omni-compentence that so often accompanies these type of characters in standard mil-sf. There’s also a refreshing lack of the standard stereotypes - the tough-talking veteran with the heart of gold is, thankfully, entirely absent.

The conflict at the core of the Wess’har books is also of a superior style. It feels more like the Balkans or the Middle East – intractable problems and moral dilemmas that can’t be washed away by quick fixes.

Traviss has created a universe with a group of realistically flawed characters taking actions that have realistically complex, difficult and sometimes unpredictable consequences. The aliens and the humans are interacting in fascinating ways, there are no simple good and bad guys (even the tedious and simpering Bezeri have suddenly been revealed to be, well, interesting) and Traviss has both the skill and the insight to give almost all her characters a logically consistent and coherent worldview that can, at certain points in the story, inspire our sympathy. (The only exception is her more-or-less unswerving dismissal of all human politicians as creeps and liars (or worse) – as someone who. like Traviss, has experience as a PR and journalist in politics, I think she’s being too cynical here).

Traviss clearly has her own, strong, views (check out her website for evidence) but she’s smart enough not to allow them to drown out the competing voices of her characters. The result is a set of novels and story that has evolved a fantastically rich political ecosystem that allows readers from many backgrounds to engage with the characters, the story and the debate Traviss is having.

These are good books. I can’t understand why they aren’t better regarded on this side of the Atlantic.