- ROBERTO jh
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Posted by: Primo84
I honestly prefer her writing style to Nylund's. Eric Nylund seems more fit for writing action-adventure while Traviss seems intent on developing characters. Seeing as the novels are based on a sci-fi first person shooter, I think Nylund's style is what fans of the series have come to enjoy and expect, and it's why Traviss' work is getting a lot of flack: it's not what a lot of fans are used to.
It doesn't necessarily mean it's inferior though.
On the bit about Traviss not having done her homework before writing Glasslands, the only thing that tipped me off to that was how the Sangheili had Jiralhanae working for them. There were several other things that I think were overblown as a result of not having read previous books and being able to fully understand the context, but all in all, I think she did well.
I enjoyed Glasslands, and I look forward to reading more Halo fiction from Karen Traviss in the near future.
Oh wait a second. You think she never read prior Halo novels or the games? I think you guys misinterprets what she meant by "no prior connections."
When she gets signed on for a project outside of her own universe, she reads and delves into the universe like the nerdiest fanboy. She reads books/chunks of books, manuscripts and the scripts of the games (or even plays them maybe, but I don't know) in order to devolope a psycho-analysis on the characters, and in order to as closely as possible abide by the rules of any government or organization involved. It's only that before getting signed on, she cannot have been involved in the universe or else her pre-existing opinions could get in the way. She is a reporter by nature, and therefore reports on what people's opinions would be in a given situation. Which is why she writes character stories, since between any of us here, I'd imagine a reporter would be the most qualified to understand people.
If she actually never read a Halo book in her life, I'd understand more where you guys were coming from. If she refused to learn about the universe, 343i wouldn't have signed her on. But she does learn, and she learns the -blam!- out of the worlds she's in. Its all apart of the process of reporting, gathering background information, analyzing the situation, "interviewing" characters, by getting to know them via books and encyclopediac works (such as the Bible), etc.