Posted by: grey101
obviously if you don't want "spoilers" then don't read this. I would also like to formally state that i had been looking forward to glasslands for months, thus the "you hated it from the start" will not apply here. Especally since i haven't been too active on Bungie
Halo:Glasslands is indeed a good despite any issues it my cause because this is our first look into the universe "post war".
But the book is far from perfect and her is where i will break it down.
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First off the book is a little hard to get into at first. People say that was an issue with cryptum but i feel that was due to it being a completely new vibe. This time i find it due to the writing style and the fact it jumps from perspectives far to frequently.
We were assured that the book was not a direct sequel to GoO but to be completely honest it is. The book starts off sepratly but ends up with all the perspectives meeting up with ONI finding halsey and the spartans at the end of the book. Which is odd since we were told they get out early and the book wasn't about them.
Here is where i start listing issues.
1. ONI- "Post war" this sect of the government has far too much power and i feel is grossly misusing it. They plan to beef up humanity so they can wipe out the Sangheili which i find completely stupid and proving the Sangheili's paranoia correct.
Not only that they seem to be completely neglecting the fact that humanity though being in good shape post war) is far from capable of fighting a war even 50 years from now. Instead of Helping the UNSC and UEG pull humanity together ONI is more focused on harassing the elites which could come back to the humans if caught.
ONI is acting as a completely separate group from the UNSC and is comparable to cerberus of mass effect. The goals seem to be of a more personal interest rather than for the best of humanity. Examples being spending money on Mark 7, spartan 4s, and infinity; all of which i will cover later along with the halsey hate.
2. "Post-war"- The timeline is another issue for this novel, it occurs too soon. Most of us were expecting it to be atleast a year plus later but all of these events are taking place a total of 3 months after the war ended. The last date is the memorial scene at the end of halo 3, that is pretty much where the book stops at.
obviously i hope you can see the issue with that. Forerunner drives,spartan 4s, all within pretty much 2 months? That clearly means this was started during the war in which if we had a forerunner-human ship, Spartan 4s, AND, Mark 7; why the hell weren't they used? and why are they getting more use now?
There is then the direct contradiction with Thel going to Sangheilios after he arrives at Earth yet during the cinematic he speaks as if he hasn't been there yet. Karen really needs to learn the lore of what she is doing and stop writing blind.
3.Elites gonna Hate- The Elites have some issues Post war which are to be expected; they are the victims more so than humanity in many cases. But they aren't without ignorance and stupidity.
The main reason the elites hate humanity post war is because they are pissed that they couldn't wipe them out in 30 years. Calling our expansion an "infestation" to the galaxy despite the fact we "control" an extremely small portion.
It pretty much comes down to "If we could have exterminated you we wouldn't be in this mess right now" which i find extremely childish.
You would think since they had a good 2-3 eons before us in colonization that are few hundred worlds (if that) we had would be nothing to the amount they should have. Suck it up elites and stop being mad that we built our SugarHoneyIceTea from the ground up.
4. [The blame game[/b]- The novel also introduces another childish and stupid factor "lets pin the blame on the women that saved humanity", thats right everybody is trying to blame halsey for the spartan program issue is.
A)ONI funded it- you can't complain about what happened when you spent 20 years working on the project and even funded ANOTHER project that had worse ethics than the first. Sure "The S-II program was before the covenant war" but from a few hints it seems that ONI was aware of high charity just before the war. Watch this not become a coincidence. Oh did i mention the part where WE WON BECAUSE OF THAT PROGRAM?
B) Mendez your a wimp- Nearly the entire novel mendez is complaining about how he never supported the program and how effed up halsey is. Last time i checked he never asked to be reassigned nor did he refuse to help the S-III project that was worse in ethics than the second(will get to).
Mendez has no right whatsoever to try an pin halsey as if she did anything wrong; she served her race with pride and nobody should be punished for doing what the military asks them to do.
C) Big B1t(h Maggie- You want to know the true source of the Halsey hate? Maggie, why? "Because you didn't tell me you were using clones."
ARE YOU EFFEN SERIOUS???
How are you going to brag about how you knew every little thing she was doing when she though she was so sweet yet NOT know every little thing she was doing? Halsey used clones to atleast give the familys some kind of comfort; she retorted with " Atleast seeing their child die was better than thinking they got carried off and R@ped somewhere".
Is that not reasonable? Sure i can see what is wrong with it yet at the same time you can't say she didn't have a motherly impluse with that move. Mendez tried saying that the S-IIIs "volunteered". Analogy.
If somebody comes and wrecks the car you just spent 25,000 dollars on would you not be pissed an want to beat the hell out of them?
So how are you going to ask 4-6 year old kids "do you want to kill the people that killed you mom?" and consider that "volunteering"?
5. Gathering a pointless army- At a time where ships (especially with forerunner tech) are needed ONI feels like they should gather up a large and costful army.
ONI plans to "start" a spartan 4 program (despite the fact there have been spartan 4s) and make it open like the orion project. They also plan on issuing Mark 7 full of new expensive tech.
How are you going to talk about how colonies are lost,ships are few, and it is going to take decades to rebuild but spend trillions of dollars creating an army with no war? Not only that but it isn't even the cost and efficient thing to do.
Post war the army should be issued with updated SPI armor along with standard injections with ODST training. That alone would be far more useful than dozens of spartan projects.
Seeing how 1 suit of MARK FIVE cost an entire battle group I don't see how they are making these Mark 7 suits,funding a program AND making a new tech ship. Smells like ONI is taking all the FEMA money.
6. Egg before the chicken- The Ruins under swordbase were the only ruins the UNSC had access to for more than a few days. Even then they couldn't unlock it until reach fell. So how are they able to have forerunner drives under 2 months after the war and what forerunner tech have they been looking at to make a ship in the oort cloud?
04 was destroyed,onyx was destroyed (at the time),halowars shield world was destroyed,The ark was destroyed, 04 II was destroyed, and many of the other ruins the UNSC found were destroyed.
So if the UNSC blows up anything they touch what could they have found and studied for atleast a decade to create such a ship? ontop of that they did this WITHOUT halsey; who we have been told for the last 10 years is the leading expect on the forerunners yet it takes time for her to even understand the basics. So Halsey must not have been that good if somebody cracked the forerunner drives in a far shorter time than it took her to crack a "simple" jackal shield.
The only thing that could add up is if they found a shield world. but you would expect far more advanced weaponry if they did.
7. Engineer or not to?- According to Osman ONI only had 1 Engineer during the entire war even at that it was a few years ago. Which doesn't add up since Virgil was grabbed right before halo 3 and a group of them were caught in FS. So we are just as mangled with the engineers as we are with the spartans.
On top of that she said the Engineer made some interesting developments. It couldn't have been that interesting if it wasn't stated; she should have just said the damn thing unlocked the drives for humanity.
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All in all i will NEVER tell anybody not to buy a halo book for whatever reason. Always buy the new books and stay updated in the lore, But Glasslands while it IS interesting i think it needs a different author.
+1 internets