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  • Subject: Q/A with Karen Traviss on Halo Glasslands(Discussion Thread)
Subject: Q/A with Karen Traviss on Halo Glasslands(Discussion Thread)

yas334229812

Some intresting things are here, just to point out the source i got this from was Halo waypoint.

http://torforge.wordpress.com/2011/11/01/qa-with-karen-travis s/

[Edited on 11.25.2011 2:57 PM PST]

  • 11.01.2011 1:18 PM PDT
Subject: Q/A with Karen Traviss on Halo Glasslands
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Deva Path


Posted by: DecepticonCobra

We are all going to get banned aren't we?

Can somebody just copy and paste it over here? im having server issues.

  • 11.01.2011 1:20 PM PDT
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:)

Halo: Glasslands is the first novel in an all-new HALO® trilogy by #1 New York Times bestselling author and game writer Karen Traviss. Traviss, critically acclaimed for her original series "The Wess'har Wars" as well as novels written in the Star Wars® and Gears of War® universes, managed to find time in the midst of her Gears of War 3 insanity (she serves as lead writer on the game) to sit down with her publicist at Tor Books and talk HALO.

Justin Golenbock: How did you first become involved with the HALO franchise?

Karen Traviss: I was asked if I wanted to write a novella for HALO: Evolutions. I'm endlessly curious and always up for anything new if it sounds cool so I was interested. I was working on Gears at the time (as I still am) so I wanted to be sure they were cool with it, and they thought it was a great idea. If it's military, if it's a game, if it's an IP I know nothing about (essentialI can't work on things that I might have a pre-existing opinion on) and it has the moral grey areas I work best in, then I'll probably give it a go if I have the time.

JG: Glasslands has been highly-anticipated by HALO fans as the first book or game in the franchise to delve deep into the chaos of the post-HALO 3 universe. Can you reveal anything about the plot for eager gamers and readers?

KT: As a former defence correspondent and a military writer, I approach HALO as a real situation. War is bad enough, but when a relatively straightforward wartwo sides, clear stakesends, then fragmentation usually takes place. Hostility doesn't end cleanly. Factions emerge. You're not sure where the threat is coming from, and it keeps changing. In HALO, it's like the end of the Cold War. So who operates best in this uncertain landscape, where conventional force - weapons and ships - have no targets or conventional wars to fight? Intelligence. Enter ONI, the Office of Naval Intelligence. If your enemy is off balance and licking his wounds, you grab that chance to knock him down so hard he never gets up again. You use black ops techniques using smart, adaptable people who can operate off the grid and handle themselves in the most dangerous environments in deniable operations. ONI assembles a team of ODSTs, a Spartan II, a civilian Sangheili expert, and an AI spy. It ought to be a simple case of doing the dirty on the bad guys by sneaky means, but things get very complicated when the secret roots of the Spartan programme is blown wide open....

ONI also has its hands full with another problemHalsey has been a very bad girl and strolled off with a few Spartans mid-battle. While they're hunting for her, she's stranded in a Dyson sphere with "her" Spartans, some Spartan IIIs she views as third rate, and Chief Mendez. It's a sealed world. They could be the last sentient life in the galaxy. They don't know if the Dyson sphere will turn out to be a haven or a hell, or indeed if it's already inhabited. They're cooped up with one another for what might be forever and now they have to face the previously unspoken tension, guilt, and blame about a shocking era in Earth's history - the terrible abuse of kidnapped children to create Spartans. It's very uncomfortable and now it's about to get personal and really painful. Cue mayhem!

JG: What was it like integrating characters of your own creation into the lives and stories of those who have already lived on the page (and in the games)?

KT: First and foremost, I'm still a news journalist at heart. I want to start from scratch, ask my questions, and get answers. I want to be objective, tell the truth, and let the interviewees speak for themselves, without twisting their words or injecting my own opinionsto see the world through their eyes.

So I decided which existing characters I wanted to follow, and looked again at the raw datathe absolute neutral basic facts, i.e. what they did and when they did it. Then I rebuilt the characters using psychological profiling techniques. The result is that you'll see characters you think you know portrayed differently, perhaps too differently for some fans' tastes, but I've done what i always dobuild or rebuild fully realised characters who behave like real people, place them in the environment, and then follow where they lead, seeing the situation and the events through their eyes. They won't always see the event the same way and there will be contradictionsthe reader has to do some work and make their mind up about who they believe. No easy answers, no heroes or villainsjust people, even if those people are aliens. Make up your own mind.

I think fans will find a very different Mendez to the one they've seen before. This is a CPO, and if you're navy (as I am!) then you know the power of the Chief. And this guy is hardcore. He trains SBS/ SEALS, effectively. He certainly won't wilt in the face of Catherine Halsey, believe me. He doesn't give a damn about her Ph.Ds and he's as stained by the Spartan programme as she is. Then there's Halsey herself. Boy, as a journalist, I'd love to have interviewed a real individual like her. I have to see the world as she sees it, to be her for the duration of her point of view scenes, and getting into her head means that the logic and justification that makes sense to her must also make sense to me, however much I feel repelled by it when I step outside her head. Not even a serial killer sees himself (or herself - let's not be sexist) as evil. Their world makes perfect sense to them. I don't inject my opinions or steer readers. The joy of writing for me is to explore other minds totally unlike my own. Sometimes it's fun, sometimes it's unsettling and even unpleasant, but it's always new. Maybe Halsey is right and she's a patriot, maybe she's a monster like Dr. Mengele. It's your call.

And then there's Margaret Parangosky. She's solid gold for a writer like me. I couldn't believe nobody had developed her before. A 92-year-old serving admiral who's also the chief spook? Damn, she's got to be one tough old bird. She and Halsey, alpha female to alpha female - one of the most rewarding scenes I've ever "reported."

Oh, and Lucy. Lucy the Spartan III. I'm big on dialogue, but how do I tackle a character who can't speak? Read the book and find out...

JG: Let's talk 2012. What can your fans look forward to after the publication of Halo: Glasslands and the great, big, massively-anticipated release of Gears of War 3?

KT: The next year is going to be spent catching up with my novel scheduleI've been tied up with Gears 3 for a couple of years and I have to write more books now! I'm going to be getting on with my new creator-owned series, Privateers (Simon & Schuster), which isn't the usual speculative fiction you've seen from me. It's set on Earth a few years from now, in an even more uncertain world than we face today, and it's about private military contractors, sometimes unkindly called mercenaries. But it's still full of the mucky politics, authentic military action, and vivid characters you've come to expect from me. Some of my friends work for PMCs and I thought it was time a few fictional stereotypes were dispelled. So the first book is out next year, title to be announced. There'll be another Gears of War book out next year, tooThe Slaband I'm continuing the Gears comic series, as well as the next HALO novel, obviously. So busy, busy, busy. Very busy.

  • 11.01.2011 1:30 PM PDT
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Deva Path


Posted by: DecepticonCobra

We are all going to get banned aren't we?

Thank you.

anyways who is the AI spy?? BB isn't spying on anything or one.

  • 11.01.2011 1:34 PM PDT

I would copy paste it, but the system gives me a problem that there are some mysterious characters that are not allowed on B.net so I can't copy paste......argh.

Still have to read it myself.
But did catch a line in which she says it may not be to the liking of every fan, and that its up to us to decide if Halsey is a monster or not (and we don't really get that space at all according to a lot of people who feel Traviss forces her own vision upon us, so thats a bit strange)

  • 11.01.2011 1:36 PM PDT
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:)

and I quote

"Maybe Halsey is right and she's a patriot, maybe she's a monster like Dr. Mengele. It's your call."

Yeah right. A big portion of the book was "Halsey's bad. Bad evil bad". Didn't exactly give the reader that opportunity to judge for themselves.

  • 11.01.2011 1:36 PM PDT

By the power of truth, I, while living, have conquered the universe.

Posted by: jross1993
"Maybe Halsey is right and she's a patriot, maybe she's a monster like Dr. Mengele. It's your call."


My god, she actually said this?!

  • 11.01.2011 1:38 PM PDT


Posted by: jross1993
and I quote

"Maybe Halsey is right and she's a patriot, maybe she's a monster like Dr. Mengele. It's your call."

Yeah right. A big portion of the book was "Halsey's bad. Bad evil bad". Didn't exactly give the reader that opportunity to judge for themselves.


No, it allowed Halsey to voice her own opinion on the matter, as well as it allowed Mendez and Parangosky to voice her opinion on the matter. Its just Mendez and Maggie had more to say since in Halsey's case what is done is done and her case had been made in every prior Halo installment that had her in it. While neither of the former have ever had their opinions spoken outloud. The book never tells the reader what to think, it only tells the reader what other characters think for once.

Traviss works under the assumption her readers actually don't mind using a little brain power while reading something for recreational purposes, and thinking for themselves. What use does Halsey having internal thoughts on things that we've already heard serve? We've got a pretty good idea about what her opinion is by now, now Glasslands shines the other side in the spotlight for the first time in the series and people cry foul because she had the balls to bring up a different opinion (see what I did there?) then Nylund on a topic when the entire purpose of said opinion was supposed to be one decided by the readers and did not reflect what the author thinks the reader should think.

Universe forum: where different opinions go to die.

  • 11.01.2011 1:48 PM PDT

On Waypoint I'm rocketFox;
http://halo.xbox.com/forums/members/rocketfox/default.aspx

Old GTs; RebelRobot, Flamedude

So..... she's just rewriting characters as she sees fit. Great. Thats the problem with the Halo expanded universe, too many cooks.

  • 11.01.2011 2:22 PM PDT

In regards to novels and "canon". I will pick and choose which ones to support as I damn well please. Cryptum and Glasslands are irrelevant as far as I'm concerned.

Don't like that? Boo hoo.

Sure they're "canon" but that doesn't mean I have to support them, their existence, or the continued careers of their respective writers.

Huh, from her description I almost thought she was decent again. Then I remembered the whole "Halsey is bad" tone and how characters like Mendez who was once proud to teach the Spartans is now a polar opposite.

Bleh. Moral grey areas huh? Her trying to force/invent some is what put me off of it.

  • 11.01.2011 2:23 PM PDT

Welcome to bungie, you have no rights. play nice!
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Posted by: jross1993
and I quote

"Maybe Halsey is right and she's a patriot, maybe she's a monster like Dr. Mengele. It's your call."

Yeah right. A big portion of the book was "Halsey's bad. Bad evil bad". Didn't exactly give the reader that opportunity to judge for themselves.

Or most complainers have a really slow mind or something that explains it.

  • 11.01.2011 2:24 PM PDT

On Waypoint I'm rocketFox;
http://halo.xbox.com/forums/members/rocketfox/default.aspx

Old GTs; RebelRobot, Flamedude

I just think the Halo world, and particularly someone like Parangosky, is made of tougher more cynical realistic stuff. She, above anyone else, would understand that during times of war hard decisions must be made. Military commanders would do it all the time, condemn people to their deaths to save time, find intel etc. She should understand this tradeoff.

Suddenly getting on her moral high horse about the clones...... I just think Traviss doesn't quite get the Halo world. It's not all peaches.

  • 11.01.2011 2:32 PM PDT

In regards to novels and "canon". I will pick and choose which ones to support as I damn well please. Cryptum and Glasslands are irrelevant as far as I'm concerned.

Don't like that? Boo hoo.

Sure they're "canon" but that doesn't mean I have to support them, their existence, or the continued careers of their respective writers.

Posted by: flamedude
I just think the Halo world, and particularly someone like Parangosky, is made of tougher more cynical realistic stuff. She, above anyone else, would understand that during times of war hard decisions must be made. Military commanders would do it all the time, condemn people to their deaths to save time, find intel etc. She should understand this tradeoff.

Suddenly getting on her moral high horse about the clones...... I just think Traviss doesn't quite get the Halo world. It's not all peaches.

One would also think that Parangosky would approve of the use of clones since, as even Halsey put it, it gave the families a sense of closure and prevented investigations from popping up. ONI was kept in the clear and got their super soldiers, and nobody on the outside was the wiser.

Let's not forget how Mendez changed from a proud instructor of the finest warriors that humanity has ever seen, who knew the full extent of how the trainees were acquired, to a complete opposite of that.

  • 11.01.2011 2:37 PM PDT

By the power of truth, I, while living, have conquered the universe.


Posted by: Spartan 100

Posted by: jross1993
and I quote

"Maybe Halsey is right and she's a patriot, maybe she's a monster like Dr. Mengele. It's your call."

Yeah right. A big portion of the book was "Halsey's bad. Bad evil bad". Didn't exactly give the reader that opportunity to judge for themselves.

Or most complainers have a really slow mind or something that explains it.


All you've done is -blam!- about people who think Glasslands is bad, your bigotry has gone past the phase of being cute to the point where it's just arrogant now. You resort to the same fallacies over and over again, it's really quite pathetic.

People have opinions that differ from yours, deal with it.

  • 11.01.2011 2:42 PM PDT
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Do not waste your tears, I was not born to watch the world grow dim. Life is not measured in years, but by the deeds of men.

Posted by: goldhawk
We should know better, because we are better.


Posted by: ajw34307
Posted by: jross1993
"Maybe Halsey is right and she's a patriot, maybe she's a monster like Dr. Mengele. It's your call."


My god, she actually said this?!

Behold, Godwin's Law in action!
But this comparison is way too much. Yes, Halsey did some bad experiments that are morally questionable in the best of circumstances, but to compare her to the Angel of Death? There is no way that Halsey is even half that bad.

  • 11.01.2011 2:56 PM PDT

Welcome to bungie, you have no rights. play nice!
CLICK!

No, some people seem to not think to me.
She also explicitly said, it's us who will view her the way we want to view her.
I'm really glad she tried to portrait her as doing these monsterous things. It's what I've been trying to do to her sometimes when talking about her to other people.
I still like her and all that. My judgement remains.

  • 11.01.2011 2:56 PM PDT

"Find where the liar hides, so that I may place my boot between his gums!" - Rtas 'Vadum

Well, I fail to see how genocide is a morally grey area nor how anyone with a properly functional brain could think that, or sympathize at all with the Sangheili characters in this book promoting it. Whilst I was reading it, I was honestly hoping that ONI would win and finish the Elites off forever. It was honestly that repulsive that it makes you want to tread on your own beliefs. It is quite literally, "Let's make amends for our genocide against Humanity by committing more genocide and finishing the job!" And not a single Sangheili character even gets uneasy at that thought. Even within the Arbiter's own camp there are Sangheili, like Levu 'Mdama who we thought was all meek and mild, who would happily slide their blades across Human throats if it were not for the fact that they have no plasma blades to do so with. (Figuratively speaking of course, they obviously still have those...) It is only pragmatism in that they cannot wage war anymore that stops them, rather than a pursuit of a clean conscience.

So from where I am standing it looks quite easy to see who is "good" and who is "bad". Humans (Good) Vs Sangheili (Evil). Unless self-defense is suddenly immoral and genocide is suddenly moral, then I cannot see how it is any other way. Jul's motivations may make sense to him, but so did the Son of Sam's killings make sense to himself. Just because it made sense to him does not mean that it is "morally grey". I preferred Bungie's take on the Elites where they doubted the Humans as being worthless heretics and doubted the wars validity. No one that works at 343i worked on Halo's story back in the day anyway so its not like I am being arrogant. A few fans with copyrights hardly reflect what the canon truly is. The original writers at Bungie with that original vision do and it is obvious, at least to me, that there are two sets of "Halo" canon now.

[Edited on 11.01.2011 3:13 PM PDT]

  • 11.01.2011 3:12 PM PDT

@accordingto343

Your one stop shop for all of 343's fabulous errors and ridiculous notions in the Halo lore.

They essentially took the Great Schism and threw it away.

  • 11.01.2011 3:28 PM PDT

Welcome to bungie, you have no rights. play nice!
CLICK!

If you don't like halo, then get out.
There is one canon. It's fixed, it's that.

The great schism hasn't been ignored but I fail to see how you people imagine people. The book is still pretty realistic to me and I was facinated when I read it. I asked myself what was wrong with the people who say she's a bad author when I was in the middle of reading it.

Some brutes are still against the elites you know? Not every person of the same race thinks alike you know?

[Edited on 11.01.2011 4:22 PM PDT]

  • 11.01.2011 3:49 PM PDT

@accordingto343

Your one stop shop for all of 343's fabulous errors and ridiculous notions in the Halo lore.

Posted by: Spartan 100
You don't like halo, then get out.
There is one canon. It's fixed, it's that.


I don't completely like one book, therefore I don't like Halo. Pristine logic there champ.

/sarcasm

The great schism hasn't been ignored but I fail to see how you people imagine people. The book is still pretty realistic to me and I was facinated when I read it. I asked myself what was wrong with the people who say she's a bad author when I was in the middle of reading it.

Some brutes are still against the elites you know? Not every person of the same race thinks alike you know?


Oh no, not some Brutes, most. In a lot of parts of the book the Elites always point out how they don't trust Brutes, they say they are just essentially barbarians, and that they don't trust them.

However the majority of Elites we follow in Glasslands want to just kill humanity. Be done with it.

So what was learned in the Great Schism? Honestly now.

I mean, the Brutes and Elites didn't get along to well since the beginning of their relationship and it all came pouring out during the Great Schism. Brutes killed the Elite Council, Brutes ate Elites they just killed, Brutes and Elite ships fought each other above High Charity and Delta Halo, Brutes and Elites continued to fight each other well into 2559.

However Brutes are now clipping some oriental trees, act as the Elite's personal UPS delivery drivers and do some heavy lifting.

But humanity, oh they are such vermin and filth and must be cleansed away! Sounds a lot like the Prophets that the Elites, you know, fought against.

Where are the lasting lessons? Do I expect the Elites to just turn around and say, "Sorry"? No. But do I expect the Elites to at least reconsider everything they've done instead of trying to finish what the Prophets started?

No.

  • 11.01.2011 3:58 PM PDT

On Waypoint I'm rocketFox;
http://halo.xbox.com/forums/members/rocketfox/default.aspx

Old GTs; RebelRobot, Flamedude

You really think there is only one canon?? Don't be naiive, there are clearly two. The original intent of Bungie and the expanded universe which is just like the Star Wars expanded universe; an absolute wreck. The reason being simple; Bungies story was focused and complete, the expanded universe is being worked on by multiple authors (who even admit to knowing little to nothing about Halo).

Heres another way of putting it; do you think Bungie's secret halo bible contains any of this nonsense?

Would you like it if a beloved story of yours had a sequel written by someone who knew nothing about it?

Lord of the Rings: Miami!

  • 11.01.2011 4:04 PM PDT

Welcome to bungie, you have no rights. play nice!
CLICK!

[Facepalm]
There is only one canon. Fact. Deal with it, stop crying.

We mostly follow some characters that are not representative of the whole population. Then you guys go in and generalize.

  • 11.01.2011 4:22 PM PDT

@accordingto343

Your one stop shop for all of 343's fabulous errors and ridiculous notions in the Halo lore.

Posted by: Spartan 100
[Facepalm]
There is only one canon. Fact. Deal with it, stop crying.

We mostly follow some characters that are not representative of the whole population. Then you guys go in and generalize.


How am I crying exactly? I'm just pointing out some of the things I find odd. And honestly, why are we only following some characters with one viewpoint? There are human sympathizers, always have been during the war.

We see none of them.

But you can continue to do damage control if you wish and just insult everyone who doesn't like the book. Seems like it's all you're good at.

[Edited on 11.01.2011 4:30 PM PDT]

  • 11.01.2011 4:29 PM PDT


Posted by: anton1792
Well, I fail to see how genocide is a morally grey area nor how anyone with a properly functional brain could think that, or sympathize at all with the Sangheili characters in this book promoting it. Whilst I was reading it, I was honestly hoping that ONI would win and finish the Elites off forever. It was honestly that repulsive that it makes you want to tread on your own beliefs. It is quite literally, "Let's make amends for our genocide against Humanity by committing more genocide and finishing the job!" And not a single Sangheili character even gets uneasy at that thought. Even within the Arbiter's own camp there are Sangheili, like Levu 'Mdama who we thought was all meek and mild, who would happily slide their blades across Human throats if it were not for the fact that they have no plasma blades to do so with. (Figuratively speaking of course, they obviously still have those...) It is only pragmatism in that they cannot wage war anymore that stops them, rather than a pursuit of a clean conscience.

So from where I am standing it looks quite easy to see who is "good" and who is "bad". Humans (Good) Vs Sangheili (Evil). Unless self-defense is suddenly immoral and genocide is suddenly moral, then I cannot see how it is any other way. Jul's motivations may make sense to him, but so did the Son of Sam's killings make sense to himself. Just because it made sense to him does not mean that it is "morally grey". I preferred Bungie's take on the Elites where they doubted the Humans as being worthless heretics and doubted the wars validity. No one that works at 343i worked on Halo's story back in the day anyway so its not like I am being arrogant. A few fans with copyrights hardly reflect what the canon truly is. The original writers at Bungie with that original vision do and it is obvious, at least to me, that there are two sets of "Halo" canon now.

Thank you.

I feel like the series has changed so much since it left Bungie's hands that it's not even the same story anymore. The Forerunner/Human history, the re-writing of much loved characters, new unmentioned Spartans popping out of the blue, forerunner tech on human ships months after the war. What the hell? I understand that 343 is run by people that love Halo, many of them being originally fans of the series, but that doesn't mean they should have continued the series when Bungie, the series creators specifically wanted to end the series with Halo 3. Could Bungie have wanted to continue the story eventually? The Halo 3 legendary ending left the possibility open, but the folks at Bungie wanted to move on to something else and to gain independence from MS and the cost of that freedom was the right's to their baby. I've said it before and have even been called a fanboy for it, but I still feel the original trilogy and the expanded canon related to it was vastly better than anything that 343 has pumped out.

[Edited on 11.01.2011 4:47 PM PDT]

  • 11.01.2011 4:34 PM PDT

yas334229812

Well we have to see later on if the things that are happening is going to carry on or what we see now is just a slight minority.

Also the elites may want to kill humans but how many fought with humans side by side, few even on earth they stayed seperate never truly learning anything of the other side.

I believe that the powerfull elites do not know what to do, and some many may still cling to their religious belief so humans are still heretics and desecrators as they are still trying to rip apart forerunner artifacts a completly heretic act in the eyes of the elites.

Still that is not the reason for them it is that humanity will avenge themselves and trust me humanity will, by controlling trade and somehow turning elites into a weak nation.

Also the elites do not know what to do so maybe they just want to keep doing what they were doing, it was easy and not as hard to do as it is to restart and start a civilization on your own. Maybe they do not have anything else to do, and they need a purpose and this is the only purpose they can find while the Arbiter is trying to find a purpose for them. This may be why the elite from the Return was going around, he understood they were doomed if they did not find a purpose soon enough.

  • 11.01.2011 4:47 PM PDT