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A review by anthonybanthony
Halo: Glasslands by Karen Traviss
1.5
Rating: D-
Thought this was overall well written on a moment to moment level, aside from some terrible attempts at humor, but good gravy the characters are rough. Every main human character hates Halsey, and Traviss wants everyone to know it. Halsey is whiny, annoying, impudent, and doesn't care about the Spartan-IIIs beyond being annoyed that someone used her research. Not saying she was perfect, but she clearly cared about the Spartan-IIs and went to great lengths to protect and nurture them. Also, none of the characters discuss ONI's culpability with the Spartan program. Every other moment on Onyx is her thinking 'oh, I'm such a bad person', 'what's left of Earth?', and 'everyone except me sucks'. The only time it works is a darkly comedic moment whenHalsey gets arrested by ONI and then they casually drop Miranda's death and Chief and Cortana's going missing on her. It's like something out of a Simpsons' bit.
All the other characters spend their entire time musing about how much Halsey sucks and how much they want her dead. I enjoyed the Kilo-Five stuff, but almost everything in the Onyx plot drove me crazy. Tons of characters pull a 180 on their personalities for the sake of drama, and Lucy's muteness pretty much becomes a joke. Every instance where I was getting roped in by the Kilo-Five plotline, we'd head back to Onyx, and I'd want to throw my Kindle across the room.
Thought this was overall well written on a moment to moment level, aside from some terrible attempts at humor, but good gravy the characters are rough. Every main human character hates Halsey, and Traviss wants everyone to know it. Halsey is whiny, annoying, impudent, and doesn't care about the Spartan-IIIs beyond being annoyed that someone used her research. Not saying she was perfect, but she clearly cared about the Spartan-IIs and went to great lengths to protect and nurture them. Also, none of the characters discuss ONI's culpability with the Spartan program. Every other moment on Onyx is her thinking 'oh, I'm such a bad person', 'what's left of Earth?', and 'everyone except me sucks'. The only time it works is a darkly comedic moment when
All the other characters spend their entire time musing about how much Halsey sucks and how much they want her dead. I enjoyed the Kilo-Five stuff, but almost everything in the Onyx plot drove me crazy. Tons of characters pull a 180 on their personalities for the sake of drama, and Lucy's muteness pretty much becomes a joke. Every instance where I was getting roped in by the Kilo-Five plotline, we'd head back to Onyx, and I'd want to throw my Kindle across the room.