Lit A question on Karen Traviss and her work(s)

^You know, expecting a flame war is only going to escalate things.

Her works were rather hit and miss, though I enjoyed most of them. Much of the controversy came from her abrasive approach to critics, and her very specific view of how things should work in the GFFA.

 

Overall story criticisms aside I thought she wrote Bloodlines and Sacrifice well. I think Revelation was one of the worst EU works though. It's been a while but I think she had a knack for writing politics decently(for star wars at least).

 

Karen Traviss was one of my favorite Star Wars authors and I really hated to see her go. I think her views of the Jedi were what fans disliked most, to put it bluntly Admiral Daala has about the same belief about Jedi as Karen Traviss, which admittedly makes me wish she could have wrote for this current series since it's covering an issue right up her alley.

 

I loved Karen's fresh approach to the Star Wars Universe... And her Clone books are among the best and detailed Star Wars books ever written!!! But then, that's my opinion...

 

And have Daala portrayed as right in blatant oppression?

 

Call me crazy but I liked the Boba Fett parts of LotF the best. I loved Jacen from Book 1-3ish, but after that it was all about Mirta and Boba for me.

 

Yeah, I would prefer the reader to make their own judgement about which side is right. Is Daala right for wanting to put the Jedi under government control or are the Jedi right for wanting the Jedi to remain only under Jedi control? I wish star wars story's could have someone who opposes the Jedi and doesn't turn into a raving evil dictator though. But I can hope that whoever takes over the GA will be Anti-Jedi but still hold repulbican principles and respect democracy and liberty, that would make for interesting stories.

 

I loved each and every or her SW books to a ridiculous degree: IMO they are perhaps the closest SWEU gets to "adult" fiction besides obviously Matthew Stover. So I can't really answer your question, sorry.

 

@ Clone army

She didn?t actually the second prequel movie itself and its novelization already made the clone army tiny. Other sources also point this out and have militia and mass conscription for defending the galaxy, and on both sides, since the droid forces where being beaten so badly that Seps had to go with mercs and living troops to keep ground (Clone wars campaign guide).



@ Traviss books

On a personal side not I dislike Traviss work rather a lot, because of her over glorification of the Mandos. They have been a race of raiders, slavers and mercs that got beaten into submission in just about every war they fought in and whose glory had long passed by the time of the Clone Wars (which Open Season made absolutely clear), but for some reason she had to resurrect them, with supposedly millions of Mando warriors out there that believe in some great warrior codex, which no Mando before actual was show to have. And which again makes no sense with later sources where Mandalor has a 2 warriors and a few enslaved farmers to form an insurrection force from against the Empire.

"They will die a death that will last millennia, until all that remains is their code, their history, and in the end, the shell of their armor upon the shell of a man, too easily slain by Jedi." Just holds way to true, to ever make sense of the Traviss Mando Resurgence.

If she wanted a race with a longer and actually more vainglorious and successful history that could still muster forces and where taken serious go for Hutts, which have literally succeed at everything the Mandos failed in.

Then there is this whole super ore suddenly found again on Mandalore thing, after the Empire slave mined the place for some 20 years and the strongest metal in the galaxy being hand crafted into stuff....

Also her treatment of female characters is rather disturbing showing a constant trend of them not caring for personal goals or interests and only wanting to get it on with a clone trooper or Mando as sudden purpose in live, along with the unfortunate implication that in Mando culture any children they have would be forces into a live of warrior culture, no matter what they would actually want to do.

There is also this rather wtf scene from the novel where the Mandos and there trainer break into a hotel, intimidate the owner and for all intends and purposes enslave one of his female employees?.

And better don't even get me started on her last LOTF book? way to much plane "stupid" stuff in that one..

 

The main problems with Karen Traviss especially in post-ROTJ works:

1. Shoehorning in the unnecessary Mando storyline in LOTF. That was the weakest part of the story. But it sort of felt like reading a story that was totally separate.

2. The glorification of Mando's and put down of Jedi - post-ROTJ this is simply not acceptable philosophy to take in writing Luke's Order.

 

Still on denial, eh?

Anger's next. Looking forward to that.

 

On top of everything, I think her writing is just terribly simple, akin to Kevin J Anderson, the master of telling everything and showing nothing.

Reading their stuff is like reading a summary of events rather than experiencing it.

 

I'm apparently in the distinct minority, but I found Karen Traviss' work to be a remarkable change of pace from most of the standard fare. It's been several years since I've read through Legacy of the Force, and I really ought to re-read it, but I distinctly recall admiring her ability to get me to like the Mandalorians. I've always been weary of them as characters, and her ability to flesh them out impressed me. Same goes for Boba Fett, whom I've also never much enjoyed. Also, as a Marine, it was readily apparent that she had at least some first-hand knowledge about the workings of military organizations (which I confirmed when I read her biography).

So I like her work, anyway. I'd need to re-read Legacy of the Force again to go into more detail as to why, but there you have it.

 

She made Mandalorians lamestream.

 

I agree with Jello, if Traviss actually called the jedi out on the wrongs the perpetrated that would be a valid argument, but she did not do that.

Traviss simply preached "magic sux" over add nausea.

I read her in LOTF, I did not see the mandalorians using, forethought, planning, science, or tactics to combat the Jedi and the force, She just used the "Jobber aura" that pops up in comic book crossovers.

Traviss writing reminded me a lot of season one Star Trek: The Next Generation, preachy, self-satisfied and full of itself. Ironically I found it made the Mandalorians seem exactly like she was trying to portray the Jedi as.

 

Haven't read much by her, but from what I have read (shorts only), I hated her prose.

It really showed that she was a journalist.

Oh, no, nothing's worse than Anderson's prose. I mean, the books of him that I've read are superbly plotted, I literally could not put them down -- I read the Jedi Academy trilogy in something like five days -- but his prose is painful. Painful. And I say this as a compliment.

 

I don't think this forum was the worst, but there was some flaming. I met her once at a book signing, we went out for coffee and talked afterwards. I asked her about the fans and I was shocked at some of the flaming and horrible things that have been done. One fan made a fanboy snuff film with an actress portraying her. I really don't blame her for not wanting to be around most fans.

She spent time in the military, so she enjoys writing about the clones and the clone wars. I think she does a fairly good job with that era.

I don't think she should have killed Mara. I will never agree with that decision.

 

Any evidence of the existence of said "brutal trolling" outside of the imaginations of her more overenthusiastic defenders? Reading back through the threads before she ragequit, I can't see a thing that could be considered such.

 

BTW, the Karen Traviss Clone Wars tie-in novel with Ahsoka was really enjoyable.

 

That is a strange one although one of my favorite filmmakers of all time, the brilliant Robert Altman didn't watch movies yet his style was unmistakable and endlessly innovative. Anyway, KT could be a big reader of biographies or history.

Yeah, both No Prisoners and TCW novelization were great fun. Leaps and bounds better than the movie to say the least.