Thoughts on the Kilo-Five Trilogy. I’m really disappointed given how hyped up it was to me, some saying it was peak Halo writing, which had been exciting given that it in part follows up my favourite Halo novel, Ghosts of Onyx. Now I’m not a die hard Eric Nylund fan, I think his books were a good entry point and are very strong, but there’s plenty of other novels that follow his that are also amazing. However, Karen Traviss’ writing falls completely flat to me and her books have not aged well (there are some really questionable statements made in those books)
Things I did not like:
-true to what I’ve seen others say online, Traviss does not seem to like pre established characters, which is fine, however the way in which she goes about expressing this dislike does not work for me. For example, I have no qualms discussing how Halsey is a horrible person, but it becomes so much of the sole focus point of the novels it’s like nails on a chalkboard after awhile. Meanwhile as this is done, Mendez is damn near let off the hook entirely for some reason
-Glasslands struggles because the authors writing style likes to have the characters constantly moving, so keeping Blue Team trapped in a single place for the duration of the novel results in really awkward decisions and lack of direction
-To go along with the previous point, it feels like Blue Team + Spartan III is only there because their story line needed to be tied up and it was contractually obligated.
-Until the second and third book, Kilo Five themselves do very little, things feel stagnant after awhile
-There are some really dumb narrative choices made in Thursday War, like Jul’s escape from Trevelyan. Like. What. There was no better way of getting to the same end goal.
-After Thursday War Jul just gets entirely forgot about and replaced with a group of Kig Yar who die by the end of Mortal Dictata.
-Holy shit the initial scene of how Naomi got kidnapped was wild. Steffan I do not care how mature you think your six year old is, do not let her ride on public transit alone, get off your ass and go pick her up, especially after her mentioned SHES GOTTEN OFF AT THE WRONG STOP BEFORE.
-Osman isn’t utilized nearly enough as a character imo.
-Other general gripes with characterizations that bothered me.
-overall these books struggle to execute the ideas to their fullest potential and also have a really hard time tying up story lines in a satisfying way.
-Cannot understate this, some lines and scenes did not age well what so ever.
Things I liked:
-For the most part I really enjoyed the core cast of the Kilo Five crew
-Has really interesting ideas, such as ONI instigating a civil war, in addition to the general overarching gray area nature of these novels
-Has moments of really good social commentary
-Phillips in that fucking temple man, most fun I had reading those books. Taking a normal dude and throwing him in the middle of a civil war and having to watch him understand the weight of what he is part of was great.
-Touching on the human side of the Spartans and the de-programming of Naomi, super important to me that this aspect gets brought up
-I liked the concept of Naomi facing up against her dad and having to come to terms with that
-The character relationships between the Kilo Five crew actually feel fulfilling and nice
Things I wish were different or there was more of:
-More time with Naomi and her POV especially to show her progression and realization of her being human and how what happened to her wasn’t right
-Osman actually showing her own skills and showing that while she may doubt herself, she’s still qualified to be an admiral
-More time learning about Black Box’s brain donor, I found that neat, wish we had a tiny bit more but not a whole lot more
-A refocus on the civil war effort throughout Mortal Dictata to some extent, I get why gears were switched but still
-IMO Naomi’s dad properly dying would have been more fulfilling to me, however the scene with Vaz and Naomi at the end of Mortal Dictata was good.
-More about Jul and hell, even his kids, in the third book, I get that he was going to Requiem to kick off the events of Halo 4 but that could have been easily expanded upon and would make things feel more unified.
Overall these books were rough to get through, they had a lot of good ideas and interesting concepts but they were just a struggle to have fully explored and illustrated in a satisfying way. Albeit nothing in the Halo universe is particularly meant to be satisfying, but still, that’s just my take on these books.
