I don’t like what I have seen so far. It is dour, depressive and a bit uninspiring. I actually do not feel as if I want to find out what happens next.
What is ONI doing? They are plotting to have Thel 'Vadam killed, the one who is by the sounds of things the only person standing between the Sangheili and the genocide of Humanity. They are plotting to arm the Sangheili dissidents and cause further catastrophe within the Sangheili society. Who are they doing these extremely dangerous dealings with? A religious theocratic fascist who does not seem to particularly like Humans, and who believes that the Sangheili have divine connection to the Forerunners (Something that rightly belongs to Humanity, which he would view as competition) and that, due to believing the old Sangheili beliefs, they should either respect Forerunner technology or inherit it themselves. That is against Humanity’s birthright. Why would 'Telcam not wish for Humanity to be wiped from the face of the galaxy due to their competition?
From that, the unrealistic stupidity of ONI becomes apparent. 'Telcam could kill two birds with one stone here. He could spill the beans on the whole plot, rally the Sangheili to destroy Humanity. After this, Thel’s faction would be weakened enough for him to strike. The end result is the elimination of the only competition facing him. Has ONI really not considered this? Also, Lord Hood wants a peace treaty as does the rest of Humanity from the sounds of things. However, ONI is willing to throw everything away for a half-chance to destroy a potentially powerful ally by conspiring with a capriciously untrustworthy religious zealot? Regardless of whether Humanity wants peace, the Sangheili will not see that fact if they find out about ONI. So ONI are prepared to throw away everything Humanity hopes for based on nothing almost.
And as for the Sangheili? Why is there still this dour, universal blind hatred of Humans that shows no sign of weakening? What reasons do they still have to maintain these irrational beliefs if, as we are told, the ones following Thel 'Vadam have rejected not just the teachings of the Prophets but the Forerunners as Gods too? They are still viewing Humans as completely inferior, as vermin worthy of nothing but a horrible death; as liars (What?), thieves (What?) who deserve to die because they should rightfully feel angry at the disgusting genocide that the Sangheili executed against them for nearly 30 years. This is not the behavior of beings who consider themselves to be honorable and noble. It is unscrupulous and petty and the writers want to simultaneously paint them as being this noble, honorbound and fairly intelligent race (Capable of using basic inductive logic and putting 2 and 2 together I presume? Because it does not look like it.) who also think and conspire to do unbelievably cruel and downright evil and wicked acts to an innocent race who did nothing to deserve such a fate, and they should know it. The writers want their cake and then eat it.
And if there is the faction of Human sympathizers out there, where are they? Why do we not get a glimpse of their point of views and follow them? Why are the Sangheili characters thus far, that we will probably be stuck with for the duration of the novel, all of the same ilk as everything we have ever seen before? Is it so much of a stretch to begin to reflect positive changes in their society and show them to us, or is the Haloverse going to live in the Human-Covenant war forever? Because we have all seen the usual points of view from these Elites in every other single novel thus far almost. It is sort of boring now. What ever happened to Conversations from the Universe that came with Halo 2? I doubt that Bungie just wrote that for the good of their health, it obviously had a purpose. As they did bothering to say on N’tho 'Sroam’s character profile that he is “a member of a growing number of Human sympathizers within the Sangheili youth”. What about everything in Halo 2 and 3, where the Elites broke away from the Covenant and joined with Humanity and fought and died alongside them, or Thel, Johnson and Miranda bringing down Tartarus and stopping Delta Halo together, or those iconic moments with John and Thel fighting together, or Rtas sparing Earth at the very probable risk of allowing a single Flood spore to survive, or seeing Zhar’s character develop with respect to Humanity, or the friendship between Rimmer and Henry or between Reff and Black 1 - are we just supposed to accept an “Oh btw none of that means very much; THIS is what is really going on” and not feel disappointed and expect a bit more after being led to see so much? I mean who actually cares what happens to this Jul idiot? An Elite who would quite happily kill countless Humans, why should we care what happens to this unscrupulous little worm? Why should we care what happens to the Sangheili at all now knowing that they have been made into murderers plotting to finish the job?
One last thing that really disapointed me was what Thel actually says during the meeting:
"But I plan to agree to a treaty, not because I have any fondness for humans but because I love Sanghelios."
So it was all meaningless afterall then. I think this ruins his character. The treaty is not due to a bad conscience for the years of butchery against an innocent race. It is not even partially that. It is solely for the continued realization of his people’s dominance. Making up for past sins appears to not be on the agenda for him at all. How can it not be even a little? Are we to believe that Thel actually has no feelings towards Humanity at all after everything he learned and saw? After the change he goes through at the end of The Cole Protocol? After struggling alongside John in those final days? I am sorry, but I cannot believe that there is a thinking person here who would believe such a thing.
Those two chapters were extremely disappointing. I wish that I had never read them now.