you shouldn't assume the story is taking an objective moral stand on Halsey from the perspective of the reader. Or even what most people in-universe might think of her. It does highlight some of her negative personality traits. It also suggests that she herself is unaware of how bad she can be, she has no personal objectivity. In the end it's basically ONI playing her up to be a big bad who deserves to suffer. I think the reader is supposed to savor the sheer hypocrisy there. The novel isn't trying to convince the reader Halsey is pure evil. It's ONI taking advantage of her grey status and an ONI officer who is clearly a cast iron bastard.
you shouldn't assume the story is taking an objective moral stand on Halsey from the perspective of the reader. Or even what most people in-universe might think of her. It does highlight some of her negative personality traits. It also suggests that she herself is unaware of how bad she can be, she has no personal objectivity. In the end it's basically ONI playing her up to be a big bad who deserves to suffer. I think the reader is supposed to savor the sheer hypocrisy there. The novel isn't trying to convince the reader Halsey is pure evil. It's ONI taking advantage of her grey status and an ONI officer who is clearly a cast iron bastard.
I can't believe how many people can consume a work of narrative fiction (and one that is clearly written to share the point of view of complex characters with very suspect and likely self-serving motivations) and forgot that it is not a piece of objective analysis.
Whether you like the writing style, pacing or even plot is something else entirely.
But to say the character's thoughts were "unfair" or one-sided is just missing the point of fiction entirely.
you shouldn't assume the story is taking an objective moral stand on Halsey from the perspective of the reader. Or even what most people in-universe might think of her. It does highlight some of her negative personality traits. It also suggests that she herself is unaware of how bad she can be, she has no personal objectivity. In the end it's basically ONI playing her up to be a big bad who deserves to suffer. I think the reader is supposed to savor the sheer hypocrisy there. The novel isn't trying to convince the reader Halsey is pure evil. It's ONI taking advantage of her grey status and an ONI officer who is clearly a cast iron bastard.
She claims not to inject her opinions or steer readers,
yet there's a distinct shift in Halsey's portrayal from Nylund's books to Glasslands and The Thursday War that I don't believe can be fully accounted for by how much time we spend in the heads of characters who share a hostile view of Halsey. We hear not a word from any character with an ambivalent, much less favorable, opinion of the Doctor in either book. Not to mention Halsey's own internal dialogue in Glasslands, which indicts her almost as harshly as anyone from the ONI crowd. Both books vilify her to such a degree, in fact, that a reader could reasonably conclude her personality was retconned. If Traviss's intent was to leave Halsey morally ambiguous, she was not successful.
What I'm saying is, there should have been some concessions to the "patriot" side of the patriot-Mengele equation Traviss describes in the quote above, if the reader was truly meant to be the final judge of Halsey's nature.
Overall, you make a convincing point. I just can't help but wonder how much more effectively Nylund could have conveyed the picture of Halsey that you propose and Frankie endorses. The subtext in Traviss's books that would support your interpretation is either subtle or nonexistent. But I'm willing to accept the Word of God on this one, and I can overlook the Halsey problem in the Kilo-Five trilogy since the other character stuff is so good.
That is true, and I'm not denying that, but for ONI to sit there and call her out for all of her so called morally bankrupt projects that THEY FUNDED and the fact they've inarguably done shit far more fucked up than she did, reeks of hypocrisy of the highest level.
To me, it seemed like Halsey was scapegoated for ALL of ONI's morally unsound practices, when in reality, they are far more despicable than Halsey could ever be.
Yes and Yes. And thats why I love the books.
It is in the end believable, as Parangosky states that she would have done the same as Halsey, but keeps her as a possible scapegoat if need be. Pure powerplays, hypocrisy at the highest level.
The only moral dilemma is for the reader. Halsey commited war crimes. But did the end justify the means? ONI is not the white knight either. And Admiral Hood? Does he use ONI? Or is he too weak?
It was quite awesome. I wish a bit put off at first due to the static acting and small feeling of being confined to the base. But all of it grew on me and now I'm eagerly lookg forward to the next episode.
I was talking earlier that Halo could be an awesome sci-fi tv show. Maybe the next Battlestar. Admittedly I haven't checked out...er Falling Skies I think it's called so maybe that's good. I didn't really dig 'V' all that much from what I watched of it.
This, please. Get this on tv with a bigger budget. Im thinking Walking Dead and Band of Brothers for style, quality and inspiration. As other have said, a series about ODSTs seems to be a natural fit and would seriously kick ass.
This is a large reason why KFT's portrayal of Halsey is so lacking.
Nylund wrote this very thing into Halsey's character, and it's this very same thing which prompts Halsey to kidnap Kelly and head on to Onyx. Her guilt over what she did to the Spartans, mixed with her impending sense of humanity's destruction, told her to run and take as many of her "children" with her as she could. She felt she had to save them. Her motivations were very clear in this regard. Traviss basically ignored this twisted motherly angle and tried to paint her as a selfish war criminal. The only depth which can be derived from this development is the hypocrisy of ONI, which was already implied and clearly not enough to drive the plot with. Halsey was the central character in the Halo extended universe. Almost everything can be traced back to her directly. She's been a major player in the fiction until now.
A faithful reader has been subjected to three Nylund renditions of Halsey, and she proved to be a plot driving, interesting character with depth. Nylund did not spend overlong on the moral implications of her actions, so that's what Traviss tried to expand upon. The problem is that it really only resonated with people that felt that way about Halsey in the first place. She wrote a whole book that ran the exact range of the situation that Nylund handled in a paragraph or two. This was unsavory for two big reasons to me:
Nothing new was brought to the table. An opportunity to pull back the curtain on the S2 Program and
her relationship with Miranda
was not used. Cut those terrible ODSTs out and enough room would have been made for universe-expanding Halsey character revelation for proper tearing down. The S2 Program is something that just happens to a lot of readers, and it's extremely easy to say that the ends justified the means. Especially since Nylund wrote Halsey as remorseful for the entire duration of the process. And the surviving Spartans still revered her; an indoctrinated John even thanks Halsey for giving him purpose and it's implied that the rest of the Spartans agree. Much more needed to be done to make a convincing case beyond the inherent shadiness (with respect to current sensibilities) of the government kidnapping children.
Parangosky and Osman are boring, flat characters. Osman in particular is a misfire because she should have been Traviss' answer to Nylund's Master Chief in terms of a mouthpiece for the author's direction on Halsey, as well as the driving character of the fiction. Things are supposed to happen around her, and they do, but to much lesser effect than John. As such, all the pages spent on them are forgettable because they contribute nothing to the overall fiction. All the real fury Traviss gave Lucy, an S3, should have went to Osman. Or at least Naomi, so this
father is an Innie
thing could have some juice.
This is all beyond my preferences of Nylund's prose compared to Traviss'. I thought her short story in Evolutions would be a sign of great things to come. I suppose not.
This is a large reason why KFT's portrayal of Halsey is so lacking.
Nylund wrote this very thing into Halsey's character, and it's this very same thing which prompts Halsey to kidnap Kelly and head on to Onyx. Her guilt over what she did to the Spartans, mixed with her impending sense of humanity's destruction, told her to run and take as many of her "children" with her as she could. She felt she had to save them. Her motivations were very clear in this regard. Traviss basically ignored this twisted motherly angle and tried to paint her as a selfish war criminal. The only depth which can be derived from this development is the hypocrisy of ONI, which was already implied and clearly not enough to drive the plot with. Halsey was the central character in the Halo extended universe. Almost everything can be traced back to her directly. She's been a major player in the fiction until now.
A faithful reader has been subjected to three Nylund renditions of Halsey, and she proved to be a plot driving, interesting character with depth. Nylund did not spend overlong on the moral implications of her actions, so that's what Traviss tried to expand upon. The problem is that it really only resonated with people that felt that way about Halsey in the first place. She wrote a whole book that ran the exact range of the situation that Nylund handled in a paragraph or two. This was unsavory for two big reasons to me:
Nothing new was brought to the table. An opportunity to pull back the curtain on the S2 Program and
her relationship with Miranda
was not used. Cut those terrible ODSTs out and enough room would have been made for universe-expanding Halsey character revelation for proper tearing down. The S2 Program is something that just happens to a lot of readers, and it's extremely easy to say that the ends justified the means. Especially since Nylund wrote Halsey as remorseful for the entire duration of the process. And the surviving Spartans still revered her; an indoctrinated John even thanks Halsey for giving him purpose and it's implied that the rest of the Spartans agree. Much more needed to be done to make a convincing case beyond the inherent shadiness (with respect to current sensibilities) of the government kidnapping children.
Parangosky and Osman are boring, flat characters. Osman in particular is a misfire because she should have been Traviss' answer to Nylund's Master Chief in terms of a mouthpiece for the author's direction on Halsey, as well as the driving character of the fiction. Things are supposed to happen around her, and they do, but to much lesser effect than John. As such, all the pages spent on them are forgettable because they contribute nothing to the overall fiction. All the real fury Traviss gave Lucy, an S3, should have went to Osman. Or at least Naomi, so this
father is an Innie
thing could have some juice.
This is all beyond my preferences of Nylund's prose compared to Traviss'. I thought her short story in Evolutions would be a sign of great things to come. I suppose not.
This is a large reason why KFT's portrayal of Halsey is so lacking.
Nylund wrote this very thing into Halsey's character, and it's this very same thing which prompts Halsey to kidnap Kelly and head on to Onyx. Her guilt over what she did to the Spartans, mixed with her impending sense of humanity's destruction, told her to run and take as many of her "children" with her as she could. She felt she had to save them. Her motivations were very clear in this regard. Traviss basically ignored this twisted motherly angle and tried to paint her as a selfish war criminal. The only depth which can be derived from this development is the hypocrisy of ONI, which was already implied and clearly not enough to drive the plot with. Halsey was the central character in the Halo extended universe. Almost everything can be traced back to her directly. She's been a major player in the fiction until now.
I don't see this the same way reading Glasslands - of course, as I mentioned earlier, I had just read Pariah in Evolutions (not to mention a re-read of everything in prep for Halo 4).
I've always seen Halsey as stoic, troubled but ultimately interested in puzzles, it's how she deals with things, but Glasslands has really just brought her inner doubts and conflicts to the fore, dictated by events - Halsey thinking that John 117 is gone may at the same time as finding out about Miranda is bound to provoke introspection.
Read the final few paragraph's of Pariah - this is the exact same Halsey as Glasslands IMO, just down the ine, more weary and the burden a lot heavier.
This is a large reason why KFT's portrayal of Halsey is so lacking.
Nylund wrote this very thing into Halsey's character, and it's this very same thing which prompts Halsey to kidnap Kelly and head on to Onyx. Her guilt over what she did to the Spartans, mixed with her impending sense of humanity's destruction, told her to run and take as many of her "children" with her as she could. She felt she had to save them. Her motivations were very clear in this regard. Traviss basically ignored this twisted motherly angle and tried to paint her as a selfish war criminal. The only depth which can be derived from this development is the hypocrisy of ONI, which was already implied and clearly not enough to drive the plot with. Halsey was the central character in the Halo extended universe. Almost everything can be traced back to her directly. She's been a major player in the fiction until now.
A faithful reader has been subjected to three Nylund renditions of Halsey, and she proved to be a plot driving, interesting character with depth. Nylund did not spend overlong on the moral implications of her actions, so that's what Traviss tried to expand upon. The problem is that it really only resonated with people that felt that way about Halsey in the first place. She wrote a whole book that ran the exact range of the situation that Nylund handled in a paragraph or two. This was unsavory for two big reasons to me:
Nothing new was brought to the table. An opportunity to pull back the curtain on the S2 Program and
her relationship with Miranda
was not used. Cut those terrible ODSTs out and enough room would have been made for universe-expanding Halsey character revelation for proper tearing down. The S2 Program is something that just happens to a lot of readers, and it's extremely easy to say that the ends justified the means. Especially since Nylund wrote Halsey as remorseful for the entire duration of the process. And the surviving Spartans still revered her; an indoctrinated John even thanks Halsey for giving him purpose and it's implied that the rest of the Spartans agree. Much more needed to be done to make a convincing case beyond the inherent shadiness (with respect to current sensibilities) of the government kidnapping children.
Parangosky and Osman are boring, flat characters. Osman in particular is a misfire because she should have been Traviss' answer to Nylund's Master Chief in terms of a mouthpiece for the author's direction on Halsey, as well as the driving character of the fiction. Things are supposed to happen around her, and they do, but to much lesser effect than John. As such, all the pages spent on them are forgettable because they contribute nothing to the overall fiction. All the real fury Traviss gave Lucy, an S3, should have went to Osman. Or at least Naomi, so this
father is an Innie
thing could have some juice.
This is all beyond my preferences of Nylund's prose compared to Traviss'. I thought her short story in Evolutions would be a sign of great things to come. I suppose not.
This sums up my feelings on the matter pretty efficiently. Glasslands just seems to backtrack on certain aspects that GoO had set up, and the majority of those are Halseys character arc. I don't hate the book, not by a longshot, but there are certainly some things in it which I am not a huge fan of.
I'll just say this. There is a reason why Traviss no longer writes Star Wars novels and why many Star Wars readers were happy and overjoyed to see her go. She likes to ignore what other people have done and are doing and making up her own facts (even when they don't make sense in context of everything else) to push her vision time and time again. Sounds like she's doing the same thing here with Halo and it's characters. She doesn't seem to play well in established universes.
Of course it is, but there is none. At least no introspection that hasn't been present before in the fiction. She's always had some doubt as to whether she was "doing the right thing." Traviss didn't introduce that element to Halsey's character. John's presumed death and Miranda's actual death are used as attacks against Halsey in order to throw her "failure" into her face (and by proxy, into ours, the readers).
I'll just say this. There is a reason why Traviss no longer writes Star Wars novels and why many Star Wars readers were happy and overjoyed to see her go. She likes to ignore what other people have done and are doing and making up her own facts (even when they don't make sense in context of everything else) to push her vision time and time again. Sounds like she's doing the same thing here with Halo and it's characters. She doesn't seem to play well in established universes.
It wouldn't be that bad if she didn't just retread over established ground. Traviss wrote Halsey close enough to how Nylund wrote her so it's not like Halsey is a completely different person. It's the tone the book takes without earning such a stance, so to speak, that is the problem.
I would be fine if Traviss wanted to take this direction with the book and added something new to the fiction. Or even really gave a solid reason for such a shift in the theme surrounding the character. Of course many readers/fans expected some blowback for her role in the S2 Project, but in the KFT it comes off as forced. Then there is that entire ONI hypocrisy element that just falls limply off the pages.
You're right though, Traviss does have that reputation. When she said in an interview that she won't read the prior books, many fans (it seems rightfully) took issue with the statement.
