Why all the Karen Traviss hate?

I mean, aside from the obvious, why does everyone on this site seem to hate her writing? I may get flamed for saying this, but I actually liked her Republic Commando series, even if she did eventually go out of canon.

That is the face of a man who just ate a kitten. Raw.

I suspect that rather depends on which flaws you deem to be 'the obvious'.

What's precedent ever done for us?

Making races or characters awesome at everything with no apparent flaws. And the canon issue.

That is the face of a man who just ate a kitten. Raw.

Let's consider this another entry in our ongoing "answering your own question" series.

Didn't she also get into Character Derailment of characters other people created in order to make her own character look good?

I happen to loath that tendency in fanfic, so making it in non-fic is particularly aggravating.

But mostly it's the whole "Comparing people who disagree with her to the Taliban" that seems to turn people against her.

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she's like the Uwe Boll of literature.

edited 11th Oct '10 11:51:20 PM by Carbonpillow

The Blood God's design consultant.

Having never read anything about her except what appears on this very wiki, the answer is Mandalorians.

Those who accept their fate find happiness; those who defy it, glory.

Then there's the whole creating a new bunch of Proud Warrior Race Guys for her Gears Of War novel.

There is an art, it says, or rather, a knack to flying. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss.

Didn't they also have sanctioned rape camps in that? ...Or So I Heard.

edited 16th Oct '10 3:48:16 PM by snowbull

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There's also the irritating bit where she put a number on the clone army. Some single digit of millions.

For a galactic war against a droid army.

A galactic war with fewer people than were involved in our own World wars. GAH!

^Well, she wasn't actually the first one who used that number. However nobody else called readers "Talifans" for pointing out the obvious flaw with that number. So there's that as well.

edited 17th Oct '10 9:11:37 PM by Bowyn

There is an art, it says, or rather, a knack to flying. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss.

I enjyed her commando seriesw. and as far as I know her going against Canon was kind of partly Lucas' doing with how he messed up the Mandalorions, I found her charectres interesting and how she handled shedding light on the clones. they needed an in depth analysis I don't remember any sort of Derailment though maybe in her Legacy books that I havn't read.

We must survive, all of us. The blood of a human for me, a cooked bird for you. Where is the difference?

I didn't mind the characters, in fact, there were many who I really liked. It was just the constant Jedi-bashing and Skirata's inability to face long term consequences for his actions that bugged me.

Oh, and her insistence to show us what the Mandalorians are doing in the middle of a Republic civil war.

edited 26th Oct '10 6:18:03 PM by Bowyn

There is an art, it says, or rather, a knack to flying. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss.

"Oh, and her insistence to show us what the Mandalorians are doing in the middle of a Republic civil war."

This is what bugged me the most. And this was before I even realized who Karen Traviss was. I'm not the most attentive person, so I never really noticed when one author wrote one book in the series and someone else wrote the next. The exception to this was Traviss. The constant need to break off from the main story to write something else was annoying.

I have to wonder if the other writers felt the same way. I recall one of the last books in Legacy having Jaina train under Boba Fett and develope respect for him and his ways but the very next book begins with her flat out thinking she hates him with no trace of that respect present.

Plus, her Clone Wars novel (based on the TV show) makes Obi-Wan an asshole and calls him "Kenobi" for the whole book.

That's a really little thing, but it bothers me that a book told from Anakin's point of view refers to someone who in previous canon is "closer than a brother" and knows him "more intimately than a lover" by their last name only.

Hoo. That's been stewing for a little over 10 months.

edited 26th Oct '10 8:57:05 PM by HopelessSituationWarrior

"Weird doors open. People fall into things."

she compares her detractors to the Taliban, Slave-owners and Nazi's

that's taking Godwin's Law Beyond the Impossible

Admittedly, she does bend around some characters who are supposed to be seen as lawful good ("Kenobi" being a "glory-seeker who wastes too many men" and "charges in and ruins things before {the Nulls} can milk the situation" is the most notable example)and her characters are annoyingly Stuish. But you have to agree not ALL of them are. I thought Darman wasn't Stuish at all and he certainly seems to be separating from Skirata in 501st. I enjoyed the books as a whole. I thought a book from the clones' perspective was quite ... interesting. And her canon is only violated because Lucas decided to make the Mandalorians a bunch of pacifists, which makes no sense. I threw popcorn at my TV when I saw that episode.

Given that G. Lucas is responsible only for the movies, I fail to see how he messed up the Mandalorians, since they didn't even really get a showing.

edited 30th Oct '10 11:02:01 AM by MattII

Boba himself didn't even have that big a part. Only the EU made him the star wars staple he is today.

The Blood God's design consultant.

How can Lucas make the Mandalorians pacifists when the only representatives of their race in the movies that HE MADE were Jango and Boba Fett and they're both completely Bad Ass. It's generally acknowledged that the Mandalorians are a martial race. Then you get Duchess Satine ... wtf?

Because he only wrote the BOOKS OF THE MOVIES, someone else wrote the rest of it. Plus GL repeatedly states that he considers the books a separate world to his movies, one more given to author interpretation.

^^Clone Wars isn't written by George Lucas. Also, I don't remember any actual info in the movies that states specifically that the Mandalorians were a Proud Warrior Race. That was something writers inserted later on.

Besides Clone Wars gives the Mandalorians a martial history that they eventually turned away from.

"Everyone wants an answer, don't they?... I hate things with answers." — Grant Morrison

Me, I like her books, I just don't care for her as a person. She's an egotistical asshat, but I think her books are actually pretty good. And I like her take on the Mandalorians. Suck on that, fanboys.

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You should post that in the unpopular literary opinions thread.

I'm just now reading my first Karen Traviss novel (Legacy Of The Force: Bloodlines), and so far I'm loving how she's turning the Star Wars galaxy into a World of Badass. In fact, her writing reminds me of my own, except with less blood, cursing and gratuitous lesbian sex.

In case anyone's wondering, I didn't read the Republic Commando books because of prequel-related Dis Continuity. I haven't touched any of the prequel-era books.

edited 5th Nov '10 9:45:16 AM by Pinata

No breasts/scrotum on that last post. Shit just got real. -Bobby G