- Fatal Factor
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- Senior Heroic Member
ONI are fully aware of the outcome of installing religious fundies as the head of the sanghelli race. They have no intention of honouring the "you leave us alone and we leave you alone agreement, and i suspect neither do the fundamentalists. Thats why ONI is sending in osman, the prof, nicole 101 and BB to crush the sanghelli whilst they fight amongst themselvs. The truce is a ruse.
Ill agree that were probably going to see more drama-ish interpersonal character interaction that perhaps were used to though. Travis is a character driven book writer and most of the books so far have been story and event driven. Thats ok though, theres nothing wrong with that though is there? Karen is a good writer, and if you prefer stories and events then thats what greg bear is for :).
Posted by: CavemanBCE
Time for the OP to weigh in.
I don't think Halsey is acting quite the way we're used to, which is annoying. This doesn't necessarily mean that she's being mischaracterized, however. It may just be the fact that she's in a new environment, surrounded by complete unknowns, where before Halsey had operated within her massive range of knowledge. Now, she's confused and a little lost, I guess. As for the animosity between her and Mendez...maybe it is the product of the author simply wanting more drama in the Dyson sphere, but I don't think it's completely out of the question, or as vulgarly unreasonable as some think. Mendez's thoughts on Halsey during the SPARTAN-II Program could have been dwelling in him for a long time without him actually baring any of it.
On to the ONI-Sangheili debacle. I understand ONI's worries about the Sangheili turning on them, but don't they realize the consequences of sowing the seeds of insurgency with religious fundamentalists? If the insurgency succeeds, how many days after Thel and other rational Sangheili are either killed, exiled, or turned will the theocratic maniacs attack humanity? Maybe Traviss is trying to draw a somewhat cheap parallel to the CIA funding bin Laden to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan, only to become our enemy later. Peace with fundamentalists never lasts, either. History has shown repeatedly that even if you meet the demands of a theocratic power and attempt to make peace, inevitably they will always destroy any treaties they've made.
I'm not willing to say this book is bad yet, but some of the machinations that Traviss is putting into motion seem to be driven by creating drama than dramatic creativity.
[Edited on 10.13.2011 10:28 AM PDT]