The concluding sequel to Karen Traviss’s Crossing the Line, The World Before comes to an unsatisfying end. Traviss’s shallow character development finally becomes a fatal flaw, especially when coupled with her transparent plotting of relationships. The final fifty pages or so are painfully clunky, with the final denoument being drawn out until the final paragraphs. The only question is whether the author is going to screw the reader, not how the relationships will resolve. And really big plot elements that are used for dramatic tension through the book are left hanging totally unresolved.
Readers may be happiest confining themselves to the first Wess’har book, City of Pearl.