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Karen Traviss

Goodreads Author

Born

The United Kingdom

Website

http://www.karentraviss.com/

Twitter

karentraviss

Genre

Thriller, Science Fiction

Member Since

June 2014

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#1 New York Times best-selling novelist, scriptwriter and comics author Karen Traviss has received critical acclaim for her award-nominated Wess'har series, and her work on Halo, Gears of War, Batman, G.I. Joe, and other major franchises has earned her a broad range of fans. She's best known for military science fiction, but GOING GREY and BLACK RUN, the first books in her new techno-thriller series RINGER, are set in the real world of today. A former defence correspondent and TV and newspaper journalist, she lives in Wiltshire, England. She's currently working on SACRIFICIAL RED, the third book in the Ringer series, and HERE WE STAND, book three in the NOMAD series. ...more

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Popular Answered Questions

What’s your advice for aspiring writers?

Karen Traviss 1. Don't blog/ FB/ Tweet about writing. (Unless you're marketing an actual book, of course.) Just write your novel and get it finished.
2. For those of…more1. Don't blog/ FB/ Tweet about writing. (Unless you're marketing an actual book, of course.) Just write your novel and get it finished.
2. For those of you still in education: pay attention to your grammar teacher but ignore everything the Eng Lit one says. (Well, except what you need to parrot to pass exams.) Whatever they tell you a writer "means," they're almost certainly wrong.
3. You can't teach someone to write, i.e. to tell a story. You're either a storyteller or you aren't. But you can develop your technique, only part of which is your language skills.
4. Don't confuse writing style with story. The words are just tools. The aim is to write only what the reader needs to enable them to feel they're involved in the world you've created, not to jerk them out of it with groundbreaking use of adverbs or sentence fragments.
5. Writing fiction is about people. Invest time in talking to them and having your own experiences. Live a bit. Observe a lot. The actual writing bit is just the output, and only part of the overall process.
6. Do proper research, and not by relying on wikis or what other writers have written. Get out and talk to people who've done the stuff you want to write about – nothing beats primary sources. And you *will* have to do research, because writing about yourself and your anxieties might be great therapy but it's probably only good for one book, if that. The best stories are all outside yourself.
7. Ideas are ten a penny, and ideas aren't stories. Every idea has been done before, one way or another. The real story is in the execution – the way you tell it. (less)

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Hi, Karen. I know I'm late to the party (by about a decade) but I'm reading through the Republic Commando books and loving them. It seems to me that the clones and squaddies in the book act and sound like a British unit, with loads proper British, dry humour it them. Just wondered, did LucasArts pick up on this and ask you to American-ise them at all? If I'm honest I was expecting the clones to talk like US Marines.

Karen Traviss No, they didn't.

I'm *very* picky about dialogue because it's a pillar of characterisation, so if I write an American character, they sound American b…moreNo, they didn't.

I'm *very* picky about dialogue because it's a pillar of characterisation, so if I write an American character, they sound American both in dialogue and narrative. (All of a scene is the character's POV, not just the dialogue.) The same goes for all nationalities in my fiction. In this case, the characters weren't bound by nationality, so I made them sound like the blokes I was used to talking to in the British armed forces. That wasn't just the jargon, it was the attitude and mindset as well.

I have occasionally been asked by editors on other books to make those kinds of changes and I've refused. The characters are the way they are for a reason, and readers are smart enough to cope with differences between cultures, whether they're based on nationality, age, or whatever. It's part of the colour and texture of storytelling. Editors try to dumb down books too often, which is a bit insulting to the customer. In my experience, readers are intelligent and also more than capable of using a dictionary to look up terms they've not understood! :)

And thank you for the kind comments. I'm glad you're enjoying the books.(less)

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Karen Traviss’s books

Average rating: 4.11 · 96,695 ratings · 4,156 reviews · 153 distinct works • Similar authors

	Star Wars: Republic Commando - Hard Contact (Star Wars: Republic Commando, #1) 4.23 avg rating — 9,155 ratings — published 2004 — 26 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Legacy of the Force: Sacrifice (Star Wars: Legacy of the Force, #5) 4.04 avg rating — 7,701 ratings — published 2007 — 26 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Legacy of the Force: Bloodlines (Star Wars: Legacy of the Force, #2) 3.94 avg rating — 7,498 ratings — published 2006 — 27 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Star Wars: Republic Commando - Triple Zero (Star Wars: Republic Commando, #2) 4.23 avg rating — 6,784 ratings — published 2006 — 24 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Legacy of the Force: Revelation (Star Wars: Legacy of the Force, #8) 3.98 avg rating — 6,782 ratings — published 2008 — 23 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Star Wars: Republic Commando - True Colors (Star Wars: Republic Commando, #3) 4.26 avg rating — 5,866 ratings — published 2007 — 23 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Halo: Glasslands 4.09 avg rating — 5,993 ratings — published 2011 — 30 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Star Wars: Order 66 (Star Wars: Republic Commando, #4) 4.26 avg rating — 5,364 ratings — published 2008 — 25 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Star Wars: 501st (Star Wars: Republic Commando, #5) 4.19 avg rating — 4,580 ratings — published 2008 — 26 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Aspho Fields (Gears of War, #1) 4.11 avg rating — 3,831 ratings — published 2008	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Karen Traviss…

128 posts
Karen Traviss's Blog

Print editions of HERE WE STAND to order

While I was doing the pre-order stuff for the Kindle edition of HERE WE STAND, one of the paperback editions appeared on Amazon. I admit I wasn't expecting that one to be on sale so soon – it can take anything from a few hours to a few days for a book to appear, and this time it was hours.

The Ingram paperback and hardcover – the editions you can order from any bookseller – are still working their Read more of this blog post »

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Published on March 03, 2023 01:40

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Series by Karen Traviss

Star Wars: Republic Commando (5 books)
by

Karen Traviss (Goodreads Author)

4.23 avg rating — 31,941 ratings

Kilo-Five (3 books)
by

Karen Traviss (Goodreads Author)

4.12 avg rating — 12,083 ratings

Gears of War (8 books)
by

Karen Traviss (Goodreads Author)

4.17 avg rating — 11,396 ratings

The Wess'har Wars (6 books)
by

Karen Traviss (Goodreads Author)

3.94 avg rating — 6,026 ratings

Nomad (2 books)
by

Karen Traviss (Goodreads Author)

4.51 avg rating — 812 ratings

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Karen is Currently Reading

Karen Traviss is currently reading

Falklands War Heroes: Extraordinary true stories of bravery in the South Atlantic

by Michael Ashcroft

bookshelves: currently-reading

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Dec 20, 2021 04:13AM

Karen Traviss is currently reading

Fullmetal Alchemist, Vol. 3 (Fullmetal Alchemist, #3)

by Hiromu Arakawa

bookshelves: currently-reading

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Aug 12, 2018 10:58AM

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The Hut Six Story: Breaking the Enigma Codes

by Gordon Welchman

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Apr 28, 2016 11:50PM

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Karen’s Recent Updates

Karen Traviss wrote a new blog post Print editions of HERE WE STAND to order While I was doing the pre-order stuff for the Kindle edition of HERE WE STAND, one of the paperback editions appeared on Amazon. I admit I wasn't expe Read more of this blog post »
Mar 03, 2023 01:40AM · like
Karen Traviss answered Khrail's question: Am I questioning the REAL Karen Traviss? I was browsing for possible SACRIFICIAL RED release in Amazon, when I stumbled upon a passing comment. Is there any veracity on the said remark? Saddened if the Ringer series get cliffhanged. Hi. Merry Christmas. Ahh... if you subscribed to my newsletter, you'd be aware that I've just put it on hold to get HWS done and I've been slow this year (and indeed the last couple of years) for domestic reasons. No, it has not been "cliffhanged," b See Full Answer
Dec 25, 2022 05:16AM · 3 likes · like
Karen Traviss made a comment on Yes, it's that time of year again. " I ate the loser, as is traditional among my people. Glad you're enjoying MD! ...more "
Dec 26, 2021 10:29AM · see blog post
Karen Traviss is currently reading Falklands War Heroes: Extraordinary true stories of bravery in the South Atlantic by Michael Ashcroft	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Dec 20, 2021 04:13AM · like
Karen Traviss made a comment on December newsletter is out " I did do reserve duties (RNXS first, then TA when the RNXS disbanded) but the story about the most dangerous thing I faced being a navy meat pie is tr ...more "
Dec 16, 2021 03:23PM · see blog post
Karen Traviss made a comment on Chillizilla " No, I've never grown chillies before. I'm not into hot ones these days anyway. But I cook a lot of Japanese food and I thought the shishitos were wort ...more "
Sep 12, 2021 06:00AM · see blog post
Karen Traviss made a comment on Question for pepper growers out there " They're done very well in pots. They're a lot taller than I expected, but still manageable on a windowsill. The weird thing is how competitive they see ...more "
Sep 12, 2021 05:57AM · see blog post
Karen Traviss made a comment on We're getting there " It's just over 275,000 words. (Which is why I say three times the average novel, but someone said it was more like four times as long given the number ...more "
Aug 24, 2021 02:37PM · see blog post

More of Karen's books…

Quotes by Karen Traviss (?)

“Ugliness is an illusion, gentlemen. Like beauty. Like color. All depends on the light. The only reality is action.”
― Karen Traviss, Star Wars: Republic Commando - True Colors

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“If you take a shot at someone, you keep firing until they can no longer return fire. Wound them, and you have an angry enemy who knows your position.”
― Karen Traviss

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“So you want a knife, a nice sharp knife. You hone that blade to its limits. It even cuts through stone when you want it to. It saves your life. And then you're outraged when it cuts you accidentally. You see, knives don't switch off. And neither do people, not when you hone them to a fine edge.”
― Karen Traviss

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Polls

NOVEMBER SCIENCE FICTION: This poll decides which two books will go on to the run off poll for November 2015's Science Fiction BOTM.

The Darwin Elevator by Jason M. Hough

16 votes, 19.5%

The Girl with All the Gifts by M.R. Carey

16 votes, 19.5%

To Live Forever by Jack Vance

16 votes, 19.5%

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers

14 votes, 17.1%

Terms of Enlistment by Marko Kloos

8 votes, 9.8%

City of Pearl by Karen Traviss

6 votes, 7.3%

The Summer Prince by Alaya Dawn Johnson

6 votes, 7.3%

82 total votes

2 comments

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Topics Mentioning This Author

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SciFi and Fantasy...: January Sci-Fi Book Noms	36	128	Dec 14, 2009 06:33PM
The Sword and Laser: Top favorite authors!	130	797	Mar 06, 2011 02:38PM
SciFi and Fantasy...: May Science Fiction Nominations	12	39	Apr 26, 2011 11:06AM
The Sword and Laser: Video Game Based Novels	31	83	Aug 11, 2011 10:28AM
Brain Science Pod...: Books and Ideas 44 : Karen Traviss	1	7	Nov 12, 2011 06:58AM
The Seasonal Read...: Fall Challenge 2011 Completed Tasks - DO NOT DELETE ANY POSTS IN THIS TOPIC!	2264	772	Nov 30, 2011 09:05PM
100+ Books in 2023: Aga is reading also in 2011	202	349	Dec 31, 2011 05:59PM

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Karen’s Quotes

“I know genes are a big deal, son, but they're not the be-all and end-all." Rob slowed to a halt at the lights, wishing the dickhead behind would back off. "If they were, you'd be in a seafood salad and I'd be in prison.”
― Karen Traviss, Going Grey

tags: destiny, genetics, identity, self-belief

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