Halo: Glasslands: Book One of the Kilo-Five Trilogy (11) Paperback – April 2, 2019

First off, as a fan of the entire Halo universe I would blindly buy any new Halo book even if all it did was describe kig-yar poop. That being said I tried to review this not just for foaming halo fans like my self but also for the average ones too. Too start off I don't understand these reviews that claim the book "doesn't feel right" or "makes Spartans seem like big babies". Sure Traviss does not say "smart AI" every time when talking about one but it is still very clear when she is talking about one. How so? Well for starters the only times she really talks of smart and dumb ai's is when she is describing BB's(main Ai in this book) feeling's and opinions. Anytime she is talking of "dumb" AI's Traviss will specifically write "dumb". The only reason I am talking about this is because one reviewer said she is nothing like Eric Nylund and lacks in military terms but I MUST completely disagree. This book is not "The Fall of Reach" or "First Strike". There are no major action sequences and battles... there are a few but nothing like other halo books. If you are expect pages on pages of spartans calling out positions and strategically moving in to kill enemies or ODST's dropping in and charging through intense enemy fire...then you might be disappointed. This book follows a team assembled by someone very high up, if not at the top of the ONI food chain. This team has 3 ODST's, a spartan, a scholar, BB the ship "SMART" AI, and Captain Osman who is also rather in a high position at ONI. Despite having such a crew capable of killing all sorts of anything this teams main role is to meet with Telcam an elite ship master who believes the Arbiter is a heretic for denying the gods and siding with humans. The team is supplying him with weapons in order to help fuel a civil war between the elites. Much of this book is doing some good ol' fashioned ONI SPOOKING... which is different from the norm yes but, the book also switches back and forth between our ONI friends and Halsey,Mendez and the Spartan 2's and 3's in onyx. I don't want to really give anything away about what goes on in the sphere but they do find some interesting technology and while the book description describes it to be LIFE CHANGING it's not like they found something like a pen that shoot Halo array beams. I really did enjoy the amount of emotion Traviss put in for each character and while others may think she is making Spartans seem childish or sensitive I believe she is keeping them human. I love the professionalism and lethal effectiveness of a spartan just as much as the next person but I also like to see their feelings and personality, they are not Terminators... I mean they are but they aren't robots. If all you wanted was a bunch of emotionless killing machines why not just shove an AI into an altered MJOLNIR suit it would produce the effect you want. Me on the other hand I would like to know if some Spartans still remember being taking away or seeing their family. Heck I can definitely remember stuff from when I was 4 so why shouldn't Spartans? If your answer is because they are supposed to be tough well dont worry for example the spartan that many reviewers think is being a baby completely OWNS a bunch of brutes and beats they daylights out of an elite. THEY ARE STILL TOUGH!!! They are just less machine like. Also although even I did not like how Halsey is being compared to many evil people and just outright hated a lot I must admit when I tried to get past the nerdy child in me who wished he could have been a spartan cause that would be SO COOL!!! I could very easily understand why people didn't like Halsey all to much. If you read Halsey's journal that came with special editions of REACH at first all you thought was THIS IS SO COOL!!! Then after reading this book you realize...okay maybe that wasn't really o k a y. ANY way to wrap this up I thought it was a great read and can't wait for the next one because this one left off at such a great cliffhanger just like Cryptum. Feel free to comment if you got any questions.

This is, in my opinion, the best book of the Halo series so far. Unlike the previous installments, the characters here are well developed and multi-dimensional, the narrative flows, and the book is enjoyable to read.When I read a few of the other reviews I could have sworn that they were written by teenagers still living with their parents because they all seemed convinced that life outside their world must consist of tightly-knit sequences of combat action interspersed with occasional reflection of the main characters glorious existence and/or the antagonist's evil scheming and plotting. Hence all the complaints about this book not having enough military action, having too much "whining", not following canon, using 20th century references, and so forth. The last two bits are downright ludacris - every new Halo item, be it a game or a book breaks canon in some way, and every book to date suffers from the same awkwardly tied 20th century references. But beyond that I was genuinely disturbed by the reviews that suggest the target audience for Halo novels demands much lower grade of fiction than Halo: Glasslands.I remember myself struggling through the previous Halo books, reading them not for their literary merits but rather in spite of the horrible writing because I wanted to know the major plot points and the back story of Spartans. I tried to look past the style of writing where characters walk around the battlefield thinking "Hur, hur. I am a super-soldier. Must. Not. Show. Emotion."This book was a pleasant surprise by comparison - I enjoyed it as a good read, not as a source of information on the post- Halo 3/Onyx events. The story seems to paint a pretty good post-war picture of general disorganization, infighting, factions, and local power struggles that are fairly representative of real life. There are very few action scenes here, as most of the fighting has subsided by the time the events of the book take place. I suppose I should say that if you were looking for more spaceship-on-spaceship action or big battle scenes, this is probably not the book for you. However, you do get a healthy dose of reality looking at a mixed bag of military personnel on all sides of the battle trying to cope with life after war. All of that serves as a backdrop to intertwined stories of a covert ONI operation, a discovery of perhaps the most significant cache of Forerunner artifacts in Halo history, and the best take on the Covenant Engineers to date. Yes, Karen Traviss manages to create a much more coherent image of the Engineers that explains a lot of their existence and lack of appearances in the previous novels. It is not entirely in line with what we see in Contact Harvest but I think her version is much more believable.All in all, this book does a great job continuing the Halo story and I am hoping for a sequel soon.

The plot and writing were really good. As others have mentioned it provided a very interesting insight into all three Spartan programs. Also the creation of the K5 team and its mission made for a great read. My issue is that one aspect of the Spartan 2 program must have really bothered the author (wont reveal what to prevent spoilers) as she spent an awful lot of time on it. For me it became rather tedious and I found myself flipping the pages every time it came up, including the last chapter. It is now engrained into multiple characters of the team and as a result, I am not going to be spending any more money on the rest of the series.

If you read ghosts of onyx, this book picks up right where onxy left off. It was a really good read. I really liked the premise of the ethical and moral issues about the Spartan program. Highly recommended.

Nickel !!!

El libro es bastante entretenido y bueno lo recomiendo al 100 y como siempre el servicio de envió una joya.

The Book as stated by many people isn't BAD !! but note this....it wasn't the best book available either, but the gaps had to be filled on what happened in the Halo Universe, after the Human-Covenant wars and How Arbiter (Thel Vadamee) changed his outlook towards the Humans and wanted a peace treaty between Humans and the Sangheli (Elites). But from either sides there were people who wanted to play spoilsport either to take advantage of the after effects of the war by bringing the black market of covenant and human weapons to everyone or just trying to break the peace either by Assassinating the Arbiter or Admiral Hood of the United Nations Space Center (UNSC).The book is actually...........................well written, Karen Traviss has done a great job in mixing different elements of a several subjects and then bringing them together, the ending was however kind of expected all Hell goes loose....But most readers seem to be focused on Halsey and how she is a Hard necked fascist Nazi who seems to feel what she did to the Spartans were right since humanity was loosing it's battle against the opposing Human factions knows as the Insurgents & the covenants, but she doesn't get till the end that no matter the consequence, she has to admit like Chief Mendez that her doings were extremely horrible and she must seek repentance for her act.There is also the Kilo-5 team which has Serin Osman who was initially abducted for the Spartan-II program but got rejected and was taken under the care of Admiral Paragosky who was the 2nd Head of Operations of Naval Intelligence (ONI), the book is mainly about this team playing a duel with the Arbiter and Telcam who is the head of a cult (Abiding Truth) group who believes they need to get rid of Arbiter and make Sanghelios (planet of Elites) the most powerful covenant planet.Karen Traviss narrates the story well by bringing different characters to the Halo Forray and how each one goes through a Physical and Mental strain to understand the consequences of the Halo wars on both Humans and Covenants.The key part of this book is when Halsey's actions are revealed to the Spartans and how they try to overcome the hate towards her or the emptiness that Spartans like Naomi feel when they find out they were abducted when they were young. Vaz and Mal were outstanding characters who feel a deep link to their teammates including Spartan Naomi who Vaz felt he must avenge by killing Halsey , but thanks to BB (Black-box) A.I, he lets that feeling go...can;t wait to read the Thursday wars...Its good, buy it , during the Sale....

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!