I haven't personally read any of her books myself so I can't form a proper opinion, but from what I've heard, she's not only been a burden to the Halo franchise of books, but to the Star Wars fiction and universe as well.

Do you really need to even ask? O_o Where to even begin, there are so many things she'd done or gotten wrong, and not just with Halo. Best way to show you what's so bad is to just look around her blog, I'll start you off in the FAQ section, you can find your own way from there [url=http://karentraviss.com/page10/index.html]link[/url]. Her whole entire mentality is wrong for writing any series that she herself didn't create or start. She refuses to research the series (won't read whatever books there are, won't play any games, watch any movies.....etc.), re-writes already existing characters as she sees fit and assumes that her characterization is automatically better than the personality and characterization the original creator gave them, twists facts or background information to fit her biases and then shoves her agenda hamfistedly into whatever she writes and tries desperately to shove that view down the audience's throats, she approaches every single story in [i]exactly[/i] the same way and thinks the exact same processes and themes will always work no matter what series she works on.....the list goes on and on. Here, have another link to offer more insights into her twisted and foul mind [url=http://flugelmeister.wordpress.com/2012/12/08/the-thursday-war-with-karen-traviss/]link[/url]. In regards specifically to Halo, her claims about Parangosky and her life expectancy is a prime example of her just not doing the research at all. The average life expectancy in Halo is [i]fare[/i] longer than humans in this current day and age, especially people in the UNSC military if they're never killed in the line of duty or people who travel extensively. There are several reasons why people live longer, the first is that humanity flash-clones organs, so there's no longer any need for organ donors, you can just clone a replacement from the person undergoing the operation....need a heart transplant? Just start the flash-cloning process on the person's heart and in hours or a couple minutes, they'll be having their heart being replaced with an exact, healthy copy of their old one. And then there's the complete elimination of common killers like cancer...almost to the point where people who have it respond with "cancer? what's that?" when diagnosed with it. In Halo stuff like cancer is as treatable and easily cured or prevented as the flu or chicken pox. One of the biggest problems with Karen Traviss, aside from her forcing her own biases and opinions on the readers as absolute truth, is turning any original characters she creates into complete and total Mary Sues as well as latching onto either already existing character or factions and treating them as Mary Sues as well. In Halo it's ONI that has become a Mary Sue, and in Star Wars it was the Mandalorians who were her personal pets who could never do wrong. If you read the interview with her that I linked, you'll also see when it comes to her writing that she is either a fullblown liar, or completely deluded and out of touch with reality. She claims that she doesn't have favorite characters or characters that she identifies with....well, one has only to read her works to know just how [i]wrong[/i] and completely false that is. As I already said, the issues with Traviss are many and numerous, read around for yourself and you'll see just why she is hated and why she is deserving of the lack of respect people have for her and deserves the reactions of dislike or hate she gets. It is an inevitable fact that she [i]will[/i] completely ruin whatever series she touches that is not her own. I wouldn't go so far as to say that she is a bad writer in general or overall (she would have never been published or had the opportunity to work on series like Star Wars, Gears of War, Halo if she were unequivocally bad overall), but she is absolutely horrid for any series that she has not started herself, that is a fact. The only satisfactory outcome would be to ban her from ever working on any series but her own again >_>

The books are fine, besides some stuff here and there. The main issue is her portrayal of Halsey. I didn't care when they made her out to be the devil, she isn't an angel, but the books just shove the idea down your throat. Not only that, but its like everyone turns a blind eye to the fact that ONI approved half the things she did. Added to that you have to deal with kilo being indoctrinated by Parangosky.

Because she's part of Microsoft's post-Bungie Halo. I should clarify that's why everyone else hates her. I think she's written the best 26th century-set books in the franchise.

I don't have a problem with her writing, but I wish she wouldn't portray Halsey like that.

I just think she is a bad writer she said order 66 was good and she said that the Jedi were evil and she portrayed Dr. Halsey as a monster

The portrayal of certain characters and factions in parts of the books usually throws me off. Her style does not tickle my fancy either.

Brumaaaaaak

Besides Halsey she also has a lot of in-your-face overly direct triple hyphenated words and describes every foreign structure as a [i]gantry[/i]. But I like her stories and am more forgiving how she portrays Halsey.

Because she writes awful novels.

I really enjoy the books, probably my favourites apart from TFOR/ TF/ FS trilogy.

I dislike how she doesn't seem to realize Halsey is morally grey and not outright evil. On the other hand, I'm glad she's not treating her like the Mary Sue Nylund wrote her as.