- Wolverfrog
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- Fabled Legendary Member
I've just finished Glasslands, and I've got to say; it might just be my favourite Halo book yet. I find the idea of a 'cold war' of sorts springing up after the great war fascinating, and completely believable. You've officially got humanity trying to broker peace with the Sangheili and vice versa, but behind the scenes the spooks are trying to undermine the enemy.
The fascinating thing is that unlike our post-WWII cold war, the Sangheili are completely ignorant in espionage. Jul's discovery of its value in this book is definitely setting up something in the future. But right now, ONI has the upper hand because although the Sangheili may be the better warriors, we're the best at playing dirty and that's exactly what the situation calls for right now.
So we've got Parangosky, a woefully under-developed character by Nylund who was fleshed out wonderfully in this book. This 92 year old who makes grizzled ODSTs quake in their boots; she knows she's going to hell if there is one, but she's determined to keep the rest of humanity out of it. People in this thread are saying she's on a high horse; she's really not. She knows she's just as bad as Halsey, but the difference between the two is that Parangosky knows fully that she's done some terrible things that can't be forgiven -- Halsey's still lying to herself.
The team she assembles irritated me a little at first because it seemed like they came out of no-where, but over the course of the book I grew attached to them and now I regard them just as fondly as Fred, Kelly, Mendez or any other beloved book character. BB especially was a highlight -- he's like the anti-thesis of Cortana, who tries to delude herself into humanity whereas he knows full well what he is, although I think over the course of the book it frustrates him a little. BB is definitely being set up for a confrontation with Cortana at some point, or something like it.
Naomi was wonderfully humanised, something I don't think Nylund ever truly managed to do aside from maybe with Kurt. It was a joy to see the armour come off the Spartan and see her not just work with the rank-and-file but also bond with them, especially Vaz. Quite a touching if unorthodox relationship formed there and I'd love to see it carried on. I think Mal was a little underdeveloped, but still great all the same.
Phillips was another highlight; he's one of the only humans who would be sorry to see the Sangheili go extinct, and it makes for a fascinating character as he wrestles with the morality of what he's doing for ONI. When Thel offered to put him up on Sanghelios, I felt a little thrill -- the evolution of what I thought would happen after Halo 3 when Hood took Thel's hand carried on nicely. His ability to solve Arums is something interesting and I think it means more than at first immediately apparent.
Mendez and Halsey were a little different to how I remembered them, but it didn't feel like an unnatural evolution; for so long they'd been in war, and able to justify all their actions because colonies were falling and their abhorrent acts were stopping that -- once the bullets stop flying though, then they think about what they've done and that causes some serious tension, which was explored realistically and beautifully. People here defend Halsey -- really, was she any better than the -blam!- scientists? Perhaps not as cruel, but arguably almost as inethical -- it's not even like she created the Spartan IIs to combat the Covenant, it was to fight other humans, some of whom were only wanting independence from the UNSC. That's inexcusable, and she deserves to be arrested as much as I can sypathise with some of what she did.
Mendez was done very well in this book, expanded beyond the drill sergeant we'd seen in Nylund's works. It's easy for him to say nothing when the Spartans he trains go to fight and turn the tide of war, but when he's left with them isolated from all that then wherever he looks he sees a mirror of what he's done, and it disgusts him. Some say he's unnecessarily hostile to Halsey, and that's true. I think he holds contempt for her, but a lot of his hostility in Glasslands is projection of the loathing he has for himself too.
I liked seeing the Spartans presented as vulnerable here, it made for an interesting change-up. For once they weren't the masters of their element -- they thought for the first time upon just what had happened to them. Halsey had kidnapped them as children, left their parents with dying clones and brainwashed them into the ultimate soldiers, and this is the first time they really see past that indoctrination and realise that what was done to them wasn't right, even if it did save lives.
The part where we hear about how Naomi's mother killed herself after the clone died made me actually loathe Halsey for a moment, and ironically although Halsey created the Spartan II project to combat insurgency her actions have sparked another as Naomi's father, convinced that his daughter was part of a conspiracy seems to want to bring down Earth; I think what he really wants to do is find the truth, though.
That's going to escalate into some amazing conflict in later books in this series, and I can't wait to see it. Traviss has set up some wonderfully tantalising hooks for the future of the Halo universe, and I can't wait to see them explored.
The only part I felt the story sagged was on Sanghelios; I wasn't gripped by 'Telcam and his entourage the same way I was the ONI team and those in Trevelyan, but one part I adored was when Hood visited Sanghelios and casually brokered perhaps the most important meeting in human history with the Arbiter.
All in all, when going into this my expectations were low due to all the hatred I'd seen on these forums and elsewhere. I've never read any of Karen Traviss' works before aside from Human Weakness, and so I didn't really know what to expect.
What I got was an amazingly tense novel full of intrigue and thankfully devoid of the dull fighting Nylund loves to weigh down his books with to appeal to the mindless dullards who love reading about explosions and soldiers shooting weapons.
My interest in the Halo universe was lower than ever, and Cryptum did little to change that. But after reading Glasslands, I consider myself well and truly a Halo fan once more.
I can't wait to see what Traviss does next with the Halo universe, and how all the open-ends in Glasslands tie into Halo 4 and future installments.
I know I'm in the minority on this forum with that view, but it's mine. There were a couple of moments in the story that didn't sit right with me (like ex-Covenant integrated into Venezian society, for example,) but in general it held true to the Halo universe and then some, expanding the bland character templates of Nylund and throwing some true moral ambiguity in there to contrast against his rather black and white painting of the universe.
Loved it.
[Edited on 11.20.2011 2:14 PM PST]