Forum:Halo: Mortal Dictata: Difference between revisions

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== Cover and Title ==

As you can see we now have the new ''Halo: Mortal Dictata'' which I can't wait to read as I've already read ''Glasslands'' & ''The Thursday War''. However, I can't help to think, who thought of this as a cover for a Halo novel? It's kind of unusual IMO. By the looks of it, I can only assume that the little girl on the front cover is "Naomi", starring at a Mjolnir helmet - in other words, her "future". <s>I'm also gonna assume the title is a reference to The Didact.</s> IDK. Anyway, its just a thought I had to get out there.--'''''[[User:Killamint|<span style="color:Black; font-family: Arial;">Killamint</span>]]''''' <small>['''''[[User talk:Killamint|<font color="Gray">Comm</font>]]'''''|'''''[[Special:Contributions/Killamint|<font color="Black">Files</font>]]''''']</small> 12:39, 9 July 2013 (EDT)

::Hey, I didn't know such an article existed. Well I guess that explains the title. If it is a place holder I guess it would be similar to ''Silentium'' where this shows only part of the actual cover.--'''''[[User:Killamint|<span style="color:Black; font-family: Arial;">Killamint</span>]]''''' <small>['''''[[User talk:Killamint|<font color="Gray">Comm</font>]]'''''|'''''[[Special:Contributions/Killamint|<font color="Black">Files</font>]]''''']</small> 12:48, 9 July 2013 (EDT)

:::::From what's been released so far, it certainly looks like Sentzke is relying on the ''Pious Inquisitor'' alone. There's several options: A: he tries to attack Earth and gets turned into Swiss cheese by ''Infinity'' and the surviving ODPs (turns out, he knew this would happen - going out in a suicidal blaze is the only way he can get closure for his lifelong torment), or B: the narrative grants the ''Inquisitor'' insane hax powers and Earth is powerless or C: Kilo-Five and Naomi intervene before he can do anything and dramatic character moments ensue. Whether he gets to Earth or not, I'm putting my money on the narrative operating under the presumption of option B; i.e. that the ''Inquisitor'' is going to be treated as a credible threat to Earth as opposed to target practice for ''Infinity''. The way these books have treated technological capabilities and military strength so far has largely been "whatever the plot demands", so I wouldn't rely on logic or consistency in that area. --[[User:Jugus|<font color="MidnightBlue"><b>Jugus</b></font>]] <small>([[User talk:Jugus|<font color="Gray">Talk</font>]] | [[Special:Contributions/Jugus|<font color="Gray">Contribs</font>]])</small> 00:49, 20 January 2014 (EST)

:::::::Possible. To its credit, the novel does make an offhand mention that Earth's defenses should be able to take the ship, though the ship in itself is treated as bigger of a deal than it should realistically be. --[[User:Jugus|<font color="MidnightBlue"><b>Jugus</b></font>]] <small>([[User talk:Jugus|<font color="Gray">Talk</font>]] | [[Special:Contributions/Jugus|<font color="Gray">Contribs</font>]])</small> 13:32, 26 January 2014 (EST)

:::::Definitely! I just wish they explained some of this in Halo 4/spartan ops at least as a teaser for this book.--'''''[[User:Killamint|<span style="color:Black; font-family: Arial;">Killamint</span>]]''''' <small>['''''[[User talk:Killamint|<font color="Red">Comm</font>]]'''''|'''''[[Special:Contributions/Killamint|<font color="Black">Files</font>]]''''']</small> 11:48, 25 August 2013 (EDT)

And I'm hoping for more Blue Team. I was sad to see them get left out of the previous book. [[User:Tuckerscreator|<span style="color:#6600cc;">'''''Tuckerscreator'''''</span>]]^{([[User talk:Tuckerscreator|<font color="#008000">stalk</font>]])} 16:56, 25 August 2013 (EDT)

::Why not both? =P --[[User:DC Ambrose|DC Ambrose]] ([[User talk:DC Ambrose|talk]]) 04:11, 1 October 2013 (EDT)

::Makes sense. I've been seeing a lot of requests for Blue Team to appear in Spartan Ops. Since Nylund seemed to have a plan for their adventure inside Onyx, maybe it would have been better for ''Glasslands'' to not have covered what happened to them at all and leave that to their own book. [[User:Tuckerscreator|<span style="color:#6600cc;">'''''Tuckerscreator'''''</span>]]^{([[User talk:Tuckerscreator|<font color="#008000">stalk</font>]])} 03:12, 20 January 2014 (EST)

==T'vao==

==A review==

I'll start with the good parts. As with the previous Kilo-Five novels, ''Mortal Dictata'' is at its best when characters are simply interacting with one another. This is one part Traviss gets right and her characters generally come across as natural and believable. What's more, unlike the previous two books, it genuinely felt like there was a plot to follow, instead of a random string of more or less connected events. I even found myself strangely engaged at times. The ending did suffer from the ''Return of the King'' syndrome in that it overstayed its welcome and could've been compacted further. As for the story itself, it was rather bare-bones. The Kig-Yar subplot started out as novel enough, but toward the end I found myself wanting to skip over those parts.

:I don't doubt that 343 would've been glad to give Traviss a copy of ''The Fall of Reach'' or any of the novels Halsey's been featured in. To get a proper idea of what her character is about you really have to read through the books, which Traviss openly states is not part of her MO (though it's clear she's flipped through the journal). Just like I doubt Lucasfilm told her to portray the Jedi as a sinister elitist dictatorship, I doubt all the hate was part of some higher-level decision. 343i probably told her to arrange for Halsey to be arrested and that's it, basically. Then Traviss takes a look at the basics of the Spartan-II program and sets off to set it right the only way she can. So I do think 343i had the precedent material thing covered. It's just that they don't seem to have much in the way of editorial control over the final product. Though who knows; maybe there used to be twice the amount of hate and it got cut down in the process? --[[User:Jugus|<font color="MidnightBlue"><b>Jugus</b></font>]] <small>([[User talk:Jugus|<font color="Gray">Talk</font>]] | [[Special:Contributions/Jugus|<font color="Gray">Contribs</font>]])</small> 14:47, 26 January 2014 (EST)

:Like I said, it's not the fact that given characters hate Halsey that bugs me (most of them have their reasons), it's the flagrant hypocrisy on part of many of said characters and the one-sided treatment that does a disservice to the complexity of the whole issue. In every other case of moral dilemmas in these books, the ambiguity is acknowledged or sidestepped. The Insurrection? Ambiguous. Both sides had their reasons. Arming the Sangheili rebels? Ambiguous, but bent towards justified by the narrative and its portrayal of the Sangheili. The SPARTAN-III program? Acknowledged to be wrong, but mostly ignored sans a few mentions. The SPARTAN-II program? Irredeemably, unconditionally wrong. Absolutely no middle ground. Halsey is an evil, unfeeling eugenicist who deserves nothing but contempt; never mind Parangosky and the ONI leadership who cheerfully funded the whole thing and held Halsey's hand every step of the way to the point Halsey had to keep them from getting too excited with things like surgically induced brainwashing. --[[User:Jugus|<font color="MidnightBlue"><b>Jugus</b></font>]] <small>([[User talk:Jugus|<font color="Gray">Talk</font>]] | [[Special:Contributions/Jugus|<font color="Gray">Contribs</font>]])</small> 14:47, 26 January 2014 (EST)

::I liked it overall, barring the "Halsey is an unrepentant Satanazi" and "Huragok are ''dei ex machina''" irks I've come to expect from the series. I appreciated Sentzke's ending, though it felt very familiar. I wonder wh - {{Plain|[http://youtu.be/ohQY7kpOc50 oh, ''yeah'']}}. I agree that the characterization of the original (read: Traviss-created) characters is the strongest part of the ''Kilo-Five'' books. I really empathized with Staffan, despite knowing objectively that the SPARTAN-IIs really were utterly essential to humanity's survival. I'm in the same boat about the Kig-Yar story arc, though; it had a strong start, but halfway through Chol Von had become nothing more than an extraneous plot device. Unfortunately, we're left hanging on Parangosky's plan to incriminate herself and everyone else associated with the SPARTAN-II project, which is brought up maybe three times throughout the trilogy. Still, it shows that Maggie acknowledges her guilt in spite of the S-III double standard.

:::''"Some days, you just can't get rid of a bomb!"'' I tend to come across as supremely negative but as I said, there were times when I actually found myself liking it. Traviss shines when she's writing about her own characters (the times she's not using them as her personal soapbox anyway). I could see the series being much more enjoyable if 343i had just told her to write her own story. No Halsey, no Blue Team or Mendez, no throwaway Arbiter cameos and definitely none of that hamfisted and awfully convenient Didact foreshadowing. And a bit more editorial hand-holding to keep the Huragok from being that absurdly overpowered. That wouldn't leave much in terms of connecting threads to the games, mind you, but it would've been more suited given the author.

:::But I am definitely curious to see who they'll get to pen their next inevitable novels (and where they'll go, story-wise). I'm sure they're aware of the overwhelming demand for more Nylund, but that's entirely up to the man himself: I almost get the sense that he's sort of had it with Halo and wants to focus on his own creations. I could be wrong and maybe there's some backroom politics were weren't made aware of - it does strike me as odd that Frankie and co. were talking a ''Ghosts of Onyx'' sequel with him, only to hire a different author over the obvious choice. Creative differences? Or simply a schedule thing? And then there's Nylund's departure from Microsoft, not that one's job dictates who they can write novels for.--[[User:Jugus|<font color="MidnightBlue"><b>Jugus</b></font>]] <small>([[User talk:Jugus|<font color="Gray">Talk</font>]] | [[Special:Contributions/Jugus|<font color="Gray">Contribs</font>]])</small> 00:14, 27 January 2014 (EST)

I can't really comment on this novel, since I haven't read it (and can't afford it for a while), but I can already tell that the Halsey-bashing is going to annoy me. I didn't mind most of the rest of the other books - I liked her original characters, even Osman, and I've started to come around to the idea that Parangosky's hypocrisy was deliberate - that we're meant to be outraged at it, and to think that they're just as bad as each other. Because that's what I'm left with.

But what really still irks me is that she gives (or gave, at least) no time to Halsey's perspective, and didn't care to. I've never thought she was squeaky clean - Nylunds books paint her as a monster, but one who knows she's a monster. She has always known that what she did would send her to hell, if she believed in it. She spent so much of Fall of Reach and First Strike ''rationalising'' it to herself, but she knew it was all full of shit. It's something she's ''regretted''. I loved Halsey ''because'' she was a bitch and knew it, and that just went unacknowledged. It's as if Traviss never even took the time to read the Nylund books, and I'm nearly convinced that this is true, since she herself has commented that she doesn't like doing that kind of research when she writes. And really, that's the core of my dislike (not hatred, but certainly no love lost) of Traviss as an author - she just doesn't care about what she's writing about beyond her own little corner of it. And that's okay for an original series, but when you come into a franchise, you need that context so things don't seem jarring - which was what the sudden turning of everyone around Halsey seemed like.

:It's implied that Staffan Sentzke is happy enough with the closure he got and will leave Earth alone. That's just him, though. But since he was a quite major player in the rebel scene on Venezia, he could have some influence on the colony's foreign policy. That is assuming he isn't faking the whole thing, of course, and planning to resume his murder-crusade at the first opportunity (unlikely, given the resolution to his arc). On the Sangheili side of things, there's nothing on Jul 'Mdama and his Covenant, and barely anything on the Abiding Truth, other than that Jul's son has become 'Telcam's apprentice. Any action in the Sangheili insurrection seems pretty low-key. On the whole, it doesn't seem like the status quo has changed much during the three months of this trilogy. No one died, Kilo-Five hasn't split up, though some of the chapter heading quotes suggest that Phillips becomes a (part-time?) lecturer for aspiring Section II personnel. --[[User:Jugus|<font color="MidnightBlue"><b>Jugus</b></font>]] <small>([[User talk:Jugus|<font color="Gray">Talk</font>]] | [[Special:Contributions/Jugus|<font color="Gray">Contribs</font>]])</small> 04:24, 27 January 2014 (EST)

The only changes that seem to have happened are only mild developments for the EU, and little that will affect the games themselves. Which is a big shame. From the pre-release of Staffan's threats, I thought this book was building up to the breakout of a second Insurrection. But nothing. The Innie threat seems to have fizzled out here, when it seemed to be heading in the direction of a full out schism among humanity. [[User:Tuckerscreator|<span style="color:#6600cc;">'''''Tuckerscreator'''''</span>]]^{([[User talk:Tuckerscreator|<font color="#008000">stalk</font>]])} 13:43, 27 January 2014 (EST)

It's been rumored that this time around Traviss was restricted from heavily directing the ''Halo'' universe's next storyline, to limit the damage. Just rumor, but I guess lessened damage is better than huge derailings to make up rip our hair out.

Also, it amuses me that the Covenant currency is called "gekz". As there is a Sangheili named [[Gek]], could this mean the human equivalent of his name is "Bill"? [[User:Tuckerscreator|<span style="color:#6600cc;">'''''Tuckerscreator'''''</span>]]^{([[User talk:Tuckerscreator|<font color="#008000">stalk</font>]])} 17:13, 29 January 2014 (EST)

==Dr. Halsey and Lies: A Conspiracy Theory==

:Probably not intentional enough to become an addition to the article, but I won't mind inserting into my "headcanon". Very handy how Halsey gets to become their scapegoat. Perhaps the cycle shall repeat and Osman will one day find herself being the patsy for every ONI crime instead. Must be the ONI way. [[User:Tuckerscreator|<span style="color:#6600cc;">'''''Tuckerscreator'''''</span>]]^{([[User talk:Tuckerscreator|<font color="#008000">stalk</font>]])} 17:13, 29 January 2014 (EST)