by Ian Whates

British science fiction author Karen Traviss has yet to make a real impression here in the UK, but that’s far from the case when it comes to the American market.

In March 2008, Karen’s ‘Star Wars’ novel Revelation sat proudly at the No 1 spot in the New York Times ‘Best Sellers’ list for mass market fiction paperbacks. Nor is this an isolated success, as Karen explains: "It's my fourth NYT best-seller in eighteen months, but with the tidal wave of work I've still got swamping my desk, I've not really had time yet to process what it all means. The upside is that you can ask cons for blue Smarties only, and you also get a better class of death threat. But I still have to clean my own lavatory."

She adds intriguingly that the final sentence is not entirely in jest, but declines to elaborate. Incidentally, when Karen says workload, she isn’t kidding. Her intention is to release no fewer than five new titles this year, a schedule that would surely make even Charlie Stross blanch.

As her City of Pearl trilogy demonstrates, Karen is equally adept at producing her own unique settings as she is at writing original stories in the universe of well-established franchises. Popular lines such as Star Wars, Star Trek and Dr. Who have taken on lives of their own and have moved so far beyond the rehashing of film or TV plots that the term ‘fan fiction’ hardly seems appropriate any more. Certainly, judging by Karen’s example, it’s possible to produce successful and well-written works within them.

Currently, Karen seems understandably focused on the American market, even to the extent of working Eastern Standard Time hours whilst still living in the UK, but who knows what the future may hold? Matrix wishes Karen every continued success, and we hope that one day soon her work will gain greater recognition on this side of the Atlantic as well.