Halo: Glasslands Mass Market Paperback – September 25, 2012

Now THIS is how you start a trilogy.Heck, more than that – THIS is how you write a “Halo” novel.I won’t spend that much more time bagging on Greg Bear’s “Forerunner Saga,” since a.) I’ve already spent 3 reviews doing my fair share of that, and b.) life’s too short. That being said…man, what a refreshing change of pace “Glasslands” is from the stilted, emotionally disengaged nature of Bear’s novels. I can’t begin to emphasize how nice it is to read a book that has a clear plot, characters that are easy to relate to and care about, and actual narrative momentum – or, as they’re also known as, the basic tenants of good storytelling.It’s also just a real kick being able to dig into the Halo universe, post-Halo 3, and see what this world and mythology looks like through a non-Covenant-War-lens. Karen Traviss does a great job of telling a singular story that’s satisfying on its own, picking up threads from past novels and expanding them in ways that feel like natural continuations, while also ably setting things up for Books #2 and #3 without ever feeling like she’s dipping too far into the MCU playbook. If the goal of the first book in a trilogy is to make you eager to pick up the second, then by those standards, “Glasslands” is a resounding success.

Halo remains one of my favorite sci-fi franchises. The setting is a book, comic, and video game series featuring military characters doing battle with an alien theocracy known as the Covenant. The Kilo-5 novels, which starts with Glasslands, chronicles the events following Halo 3 when the Master Chief has disappeared, the Covenant has been defeated, and an uneasy peace exists between humanity with the various former Covenant races. The premise is the Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) has decided to start arming insurgent alien religious groups with weapons to rise up against the strongest remaining Covenant state. Admiral Parangosky, leader of ONI, believes this is the only way to guarantee humanity's survival against future aggression despite the current leadership being friendly with humanity. Given the author Karen Traviss' familiarity with real-life blowback from doing the same with the future Taliban during the Soviet-Afghanistan War, I can only assume the foolishness of this action was deliberate. Meanwhile, Doctor Catherine Halsey is marooned with a group of Spartans on a Forerunner shield-world, unaware of the events of Halo 3. Doctor Halsey is attempting to make up for her crimes in creating the original Spartans by protecting them from the destruction of the galaxy at the hands of the Flood. Not knowing this has been prevented, the group slowly begins turning against her as Chief Mendez vents his decades of guilt over the same project she's trying to atone for. It gets worse for Doctor Halsey as Captain Serin Osman, a Spartan-II program "washout", plots revenge against her for the kidnapping and body-horror she endured. As these events go on, Sangheili (one of the Covenant races) Jul'mdama has grown to hate and loathe humanity. Refusing to believe his current government's path is the right one, he chooses to ally with the very same religious fanatics currently being armed by ONI. It's a twisted collection of plots, subplots, and counter-plots which all come together in a prequel for the events of Halo 4. What's interesting is all of this is built on the organic foundation of Halo's politics and faction rather than anything typical of video game sci-fi like ancient artifacts or some dastardly villain setting plans in motion. It all flows from the fact, post-Halo 3, just about everyone working together to defeat the Prophet of Truth and Flood still hated each other. I've been a big fan of Karen Traviss and her writing since her days writing for the Star Wars Expanded Universe. I loved her Republic Commando books and even had a neat little pen-pal relationship with her on RPG.net for a short while. I even sent her a package of my books back when I was a very-very crappy writer. Hehe. While I didn't always agree with her portrayal of characters in those books, I've rarely met an author who was nicer to her fans. I also felt she was a great fit for the Haloverse as she does excellent military science-fiction depictions. The Kilo-5 team is an interesting collection of individuals and I have to say I enjoyed spending time with them. I enjoyed how they're able to wrap themselves in the comforting warmth of patriotism and doing what was necessary even as the narrative makes it clear they're somewhat deluding themselves. As we see in Halo 4, their actions will have terrible consequences for humanity but they trust their superiors to know what they're doing even as the book slowly unravels that trust. I was particularly fond of Spartan-II Naomi who came off as an adorable cutie despite being raised as a supersoldier. I also enjoyed the character of Black Box as the A.I. vacillated between ruthlessly manipulative and supportive. Captain Osman is also a somewhat tragic character as she has allied herself with ONI out of misguided rage and personal loyalty but the consequences of such may well be her becoming the same sort of person who created her tragedy in the first plans. Some fans may have difficulty with the treatment of fan favorite Doctor Halsey who is called out repeatedly for her kidnapping of children to create the Spartans. I believe Karen Traviss is aware of just how hypocritical Chief Mendez and Admiral Parangosky are being, though, attempting to project guilt from their own sins on her. Indeed, Doctor Halsey says Mendez's remorse is an illusion since he repeated the crime without her a decade later. Much of the book depends on irony and self-justification which is something which fits into spy fiction as we see everyone attempting to play off their shady deals as the right thing to do, no matter how dishonorable or brutal those actions may be. The other guy is always bad and thus anything done to them is justified. I especially liked that we got into Doctor Halsey's head about the fact she's just lost her daughter, Miranda Keyes, and that she doesn't have any beliefs or remaining loved ones to provide her comfort during this time. The fact the UNSC is turning on her during this just makes it a double gut-punch. Doctor Halsey may have done some awful things but she was a humanized character and the engine which enabled her actions moves on without her. Some of the writing is overwrought with Doctor Halsey talking about being a soulless being but I can't help but assume she's confronting her own guilt. This is a entertaining military science fiction novel but sometimes goes a bit overboard in depicting its characters reactions. I think they'd be a bit more subdued personally with their self-righteousness given the moral ambiguities of their work but, despite this, I think it was really entertaining and encourage Halo fans to pick up the trilogy before playing Halo 4.9/10

I purchased this book despite the bad reviews. I was hoping it was a case where I would enjoy it even if others haven't. Honestly, it is the worst Halo novel I've read. I own and love all the Halo novels before this one including the Forerunner Saga. However, Karen Traviss took what we had known about the characters from the previous novels and completely threw it away. I'm not sure how people can actually like this book, because of this fact.Others have written about the flaws of this book, but here are a few points I have to get off my chest.[Spoilers]Halsey is basically the devil incarnate in this novel series. I understand Halsey did morally outrageous acts. However, she is made with such a lack of dimension in this book; she comes across as a comic book villain. Nothing is really said about the fact that she did actually care about her Spartan-IIs. To an extent at which someone like her could. In real life extremely smart people often have problems relating to others, especially those with less intelligence. I, for instance, am not extremely intelligent, but smart enough that when I see people doing stupid things all around me it gets on my nerves. So, I can almost relate. I just take my annoyances and multiply them, a lot.Even Chief Mendez turns on Halsey. When Halsey fires back about the Spartan-IIIs, he defends himself by saying they were volunteers and that basically wins the argument. Nothing is said about how the Spartan-IIIs were created for suicide missions and that they were culled from orphans. Also the fact that they were very young, which means even if the "volunteered" they were still just children, Another fact is that the augmentations for Spartan-IIs wouldn't have worked well with ordinary people, that is why they chose the people with the best genes. It was only later that the procedures were improved which lead to higher success rates and they probably wouldn't have been able to improve them if Halsey hadn't created the Spartan-IIs in the first place. Finally, the Spartan-IIIs were given increased aggression that could interfere with rational though if not kept in check, Mendez was an intelligent soldier. He maybe haunted by his actions, but based on the previous novels I believe that he would have known he had no moral high ground to stand on. If he had even been moved to blame Halsey anyway. However, Traviss apparently decided that these points were unimportant and she just needed yet another character to bash Halsey with.I liked Lucy in Ghosts of Onyx, but in this story she became yet another victim of the idea that everyone must hate Halsey. She ends up punching Halsey and freeing herself of her psychological muteness, because Halsey was badgering an Engineer? How does this make sense? I doubt Halsey would have be so abrasive with it. Sure she can be abrasive, but the scenario just felt like it was written just so Lucy would attack her. As I was reading it I remember thinking, Halsey wouldn't be acting like this and Lucy probably wouldn't be getting so angry either.I don't know how anyone can actually care about Kilo-Five. The ODSTs came off as idiots. Osman is a washed out Spartan-II who has been brainwashed by Parangosky, who is nothing better than a personal enemy of Halsey. In fact, she new everything about the Spartan-II project, because it was an ONI project. She also has no moral high ground, but is quick to dispense judgement. Osman is the same, because she was trained by Parangosky to hate Halsey, even though Kilo-Five's entire mission is a deplorable atrocity. Instead of helping their number one supporter Thel 'Vadam, they help his opponents. Apparently, they want the Elites to remain in chaos, but they basically enable the anti-humanist faction and maybe even instigated the next war between Humans and Elites. I doubt Jul 'Mdama would have been able to come to power over the Elite splinter factions and cause so much chaos later.Traviss doesn't seem to know the definition of Top Secret, Classified information, or need to know basis. She has Osman tell the ODSTs everything about the Spartan-II program. Well, almost everything, since it is all a manipulation on Traviss' part to make the characters hate Halsey. The ODSTs did not need to know about any of it to accomplish they mission. I don't care if Osman wanted to create a bond with her team or some such thing, that wouldn't have happened. That's all I have to say about that.Traviss' seems to grasp the concept of black ops enough to try to write a book about a black ops team. However, a key point bought up to make Halsey look even more devious was the flash cloning of the Spartan-II children. Supposedly, Halsey authorized this herself without permission, which is doubtful to begin with. Somehow, this was an unnecessary evil, because the parents thought their kids had died when the clone deteriorated. It was a calculated maneuver, not some personal whim Halsey tacked on to her highly detailed, Top Secret program. By making clones, there isn't going to be 75 missing children investigations. If someone manages to see a Spartan-II and recognize them as the child, they are more likely to dismiss them as just looking similar, because they "know" that child is dead. These are just two very good reasons for the flash clones. THe book indicates one person suspecting the flash clone not being his child. That is better than seventy-five entire families looking for their loved ones. Frankly, I view Parangosky as an idiot if she is head of the most secretive department in human civilization and not realizing this.Traviss even has Parangosky rub in the fact to Halsey that Colonel Ackerson died a hero. I'm glad he did something redeemable. However, he tried to kill John-117 and Cortana in the training ground just to prove Halsey wrong. Also, he started the suicidal Spartan-III program largely as Halsey's rival. He had few redeeming qualities, but of course Traviss tries to make him look better than Halsey.Halsey did some very terrible actions, but she did them because many people thought there was going to be a massive war between Humans. She was authorized by ONI. She made smart, calculated, if cold decisions. However she is far from Mengele, as Traviss heavily tried to point out. Mengele did experiments because he could and didn't care if they succeeded or the patients survived as long as he got information from them. He wanted to further the German race as he viewed it. Halsey had a purpose for her experiments and tried to make sure they were successful with minimum casualties and she thought she was furthering the entire Human race. Considering this idea of augmenting Humans was still in it's infancy, she did rather well and paved the way for Spartan-IIIs, Spartan-IVs, and perhaps eventually all of humanity.[End Spoilers]Karen Traviss does manage to get details right, but she glosses over them if they don't fit here overall scheme. So this book was a huge disappointment. I was looking forward to seeing the post war galaxy, but it was drowned out by Traviss' own agenda, blatant disregard of previous character's personalities, and dislike of certain characters.

As others have said, this is a must-read for Halo fans and anyone who has read the numerous other novels in the Halo series.It follows on from the Ghosts of Onyx, and adds some very compelling and tense new factors to the story that takes place after the Halo ring is destroyed and the covenant has collapsed.I was a little disappointed at the lack of action - compared to other novels there's very little, and only a single moment of spartan combat. However, if you look at the title of the next book in the trilogy, The Thursday War, this book may have just set a brilliant scene for things to follow. It's great to get a look at the inner workings of Sangheli society too, and there are so many factions now working with and against each other that I'm fairly confident that the next two novels will be fantastic!

This book is yet another suprisingly good story to add to the ever expanding Halo Universe. Glasslands switches its focus from the main story line of the Halo games to the politics within the different species across the universe. The new characters which the author brings in are well rounded and while individually they may not be the most likeable people their camoraderie and group bonding is simply done yet well crafted. The portrail of Halsey and the moral code of Vaz in this book are truly refreshing break away from the standard ultilitarian views that the games run on and add real depth to the characters.The level of detail that is given to the technologies is as solid as you would expect from a Halo book and gives yet more insight into the mysterious god-like forerunners. If you are not familiar with the Halo universe and dismiss this book due to it being related to a computer game then you are seriously missing out. If however you do fancy giving it a try do not start with this book as you need to have read at least Ghosts of Onyx (and probably the cole protacol) before hand for it to make any sense and I would suggest reading all the previous books if you wish to get the full bang for you're buck.

This is a fantastic continuation of the Halo storyline post-Halo 3. It follows on from the Eric Nylund novel Ghosts Of Onyx and is therefore certainly worth a read after that - unfortunately however, the Eric Nylund novel is considerably better and when reading Glasslands you can't help but feel you've been starved of Nylund's superb writing quality. Regardless, this book is more than worth the read and should definitely be following by The Thursday War to fully comprehend the events that lead the humans back into war with the covenant, it also says a lot about Halsey, and really connects Halo 3 and Halo 4 perfectly.

Being a long time Halo fan I was excited to read this book after my usual year or so of Halo seclusion - that awkward time between games where nothing is announced or released for ages which is then followed by drips of information that i try my best to avoid.Somehow I managed to miss the release of Glasslands so when it arrived I got straight into it.My Fiance kept going on about how Karen Traviss is a brilliant author as she has taken care of the Gears of War franchise novels for quite a while now. Obviously I expected loads of action and military accuracy as this is apparently what she is known for.Military accuracy and detail - yes; action - not so much. But this is a very good thing.Now I admit I love my straight-forward explosions and skirmishes with lots of adrenaline but I found myself totally enthralled from the start despite the lack of this exact thing; it still had everything to keep me turning the pages. It wasn't until the end that I realised this...There are only a couple of action sequences that I remember, and they were brief. Unusual for a Halo novel as I seem to remember lots of boarding actions, battlefield epicness and fisticuffs in the previous installments.Everything is perfect in this novel - the characters are three-dimensional, every one of them. The Elites come to life like never before with more depth to their personalities thanks to the brilliant development of a few of their characters.The Kilo-Five team are all brilliant, a good mix of characters from different backgrounds and they're all given their time in the limelight without it feeling cluttered.There are some excellent plot twists and a very emotional bit where we see one of the Halo universe's legends through the eyes of the common ODST and it's not pretty.Suddenly what we may have thought about the Spartans and the people who are responsible for it is challenged.Also, for those excited for Halo 4 this seems to tie in, or at least build up to a tie-in with hints of a certain high-tech warship and a new project on the cards. I would love it if some of these characters make an appearance in the game.this book is worth reading even if you're not a Halo fan but if you are - bonus!

I absolutely loved the Kilo 5 trilogy. It feels like the first set of books since the original trilogy that I can get invested in. There is a ton of character development, plenty of different settings and a very sinister tone to the plot thanks to the deeper look in to ONI, not something we have seen this much until the recent run up to Halo 5.