Book Review: Halo: Ghosts of Onyx SPOILERS!

Halo: Ghosts of Onyx was Eric Nylund's last Halo novel. It's about the birth of the SPARTAN-III project by Colonel James Ackerson and Lieutenant Kurt Ambrose. Yes, these were the Spartans seen in Halo: Reach. The SPARTAN-II program has gone public. Tales of super-soldiers fending off thousands of Covenant attacks has become the stuff of legend. But just how many Spartans are left? While the Master Chief defends a besieged Earth, and the myriad factions of the Covenant continue their crusade to eliminate humanity, an ultra-secret cell of the Office of Naval Intelligence known as "Section Three" devises a plan to buy the UNSC vital time. They're going to need hundreds of willing soldiers, though...and one more Spartan to get the job done. Planet Onyx is virtually abandoned and the perfect place to set this new plan in motion. When the Master Chief destroys Halo, however, something is triggered deep within Onyx. Action begins to boil and the Ancient Forerunner technology stirs. Armadas of UNSC and Covenant race to claim the Forerunner secrets in order to change the course of the Human-Covenant war. But this reawakened and ancient force may have plans of its own...

The prologue begins with the 300 SPARTAN-IIIs of Beta Company being deployed to the Covenant Planet, Pegasi Delta in 2545. The only survivors are SPARTANS Tom-B292 and Lucy-B091. They are revealed to be twelve years old and Lucy, as a result of loosing all her friends, goes mute. Rewind back to 2531 to a raid by SPARTAN-II Blue Team against insurrectionists on Planet Victoria to recover stolen FENRIS nuclear warheads. Five months later,  Ackerson meets with three ONI officers, Rear Admiral Rich, Captain Gibson and Vice Admiral Margaret O. Parangosky. During the meeting, Ackerson moves forward a proposal for a new SPARTAN program which retains most of the effectiveness of the Series II program without the high costs of the previous project. This becomes the SPARTAN-III program, a more streamlined, "disposable", as well as more numerous, company of SPARTANS that must be trained for high-risk operations. Ackerson is given the UNSC controlled world Onyx with the purpose of training the SPARTAN-IIIs, and is promised one of the SPARTAN-IIs to train them. The next month, Kurt, Kelly and Fred are sent to Station Delphi in the Groombridge 34 system to "investigate" a ruptured Shaw-Fujikawa Translight Engine. When Kurt tries to approach the engine, his T-Pack malfunctions and sends him spinning away into deep space. Kurt awakes a month later and meets Ackerson, who informs him that the events as Station Delphi were staged in order to recruit him. Kurt is told of the SPARTAN-III project and is given orders to train the volunteers of the SPARTAN-III program. Ackerson promotes him to Lieutenant (Junior Grade) and assigns him the surname Ambrose to hide his previous service as a Spartan.

Kurt trains the recruits with MCPO Franklin Mendez. The first batch of SPARTAN-IIIs dies completing a mission Kurt vows to do better. The next batch is the one that Lucy and Tom came from. After their mission, Kurt has them assigned to him. A few years later, another group of SPARTAN-IIIs are one a live-fire exercise on Onyx when a sentinel shows up. It begins to attack and, after a few days, Kurt and the rest are warring with the sentinels. In transit to the planet, Dr. Catherine Halsey and Kelly approach and try to make contact. Their ship crashes and Kurt finds them. Kelly is shocked to learn that Kurt is still alive. Halsey wakes up and berrates Kurt and Mendez for what they did to make the SPARTAN-IIIs. Kurt points out that now isn't the best time and that he didn't have to take orders from her as his superior officer is Ackerson. Halsey notes that there's a Forerunner construct where the sentinels are coming from. They go there, but not before Halsey sends word to Admiral Lord Terrence Hood--piggybacked off of Cortana's warning about Halo Installation 05--for SPARTAN reinforcements.

Hood gets the message and sends Fred, Linda, and William to Onyx. They get there and everyone reaches the Forerunner construct and find out that the Sangheili are there. Both sides fight for control with Will ad four of the SPARTAN-IIIs dying. Halsey, Mendez, Ash, Olivia, Mark, Fred, Kelly, and Linda make it through. Kurt, Tom and Lucy attempt to hold them off. Kurt's dying and, in an attempt to save his two proteges, knocks Tom unconscious and orders Lucy to take Tom and enter the portal. The portal seals as Kurt dies killing the rest of the Sangheili troops. Inside the portal, it's revealed that the landmass inside is about the size of Earth orbit around the Sun. Halsey says they're in a Dyson Sphere and that Onyx's surface was false. The novel ends there, but if you read my review of Halo: Glasslands, then you know the ending to that story.

All in all, a decent novel and one of the best by Eric Nylund. Well crafted, fast-paced, and everything a Halo fan could ask for. Oh, and great characters too.

Book Review: Halo: First Strike SPOILERS!

Halo: First Strike is written by Eric Nylund, as is his second in the Halo novel series. First Strike picks up where Halo: Combat Evolved and Halo: The Flood ended. Well... somewhat. Halo has been destroyed, and the threat it posed to sentient life, neutralized. But victory has come at a terrible cost for the UNSC. Thousands of valiant soldiers fell in the battle to prevent the alien construct from falling into the enemy's clutches. Now, everything depends on the Spartan known as the "Master Chief." Yet even with the aid of the artificial intelligence Cortana, the Master Chief will be hard-pressed to rescue survivors and evade the Covenant ships patrolling the remains of Halo in debris-strewn space. Ahead lies a dangerous voyage home, through a gauntlet of Covenant forces. For the sake of all, the Master Chief and his war-torn squad must not only survive, but take the fight to the enemy with a decisive first strike.

The novel opens with the final moments of Reach. No, not the game, the events of The Fall of Reach. Fred, Kelly, William, and a few others not only fought, but survived to make it to a stronghold where Dr. Catherine Halsey is located. The Covenant glasses the planet and power is cut. Fast-forward to the end of The Flood, and the Master Chief, with Cortana, sit in the Longsword, scanning the debris field for survivors. The Covenant armada descends and Cortana identifies a low ping off a Pelican. They slingshot around Basis and Staff Sergeant A. J. Johnson comes aboard first. The Master Chief accuses Johnson of being a Flood victim and Johnson rebuffs this by saying the Flood passed him up. Cortana confirms this but John-117 wants to make sure, but is willing to wait until they get back to UNSC controlled space. The rest come aboard and the Chief tells them they're going to take the Covenant's flagship. They do so and plot a course for Reach, as it is no longer in UNSC hands. The ship is mostly full of Huragoks.

One of the Huragok repairs the MJOLNIR armor for the Master Chief and Lt. Elias Haverson kills it, believing that if given the choice, it'll turn on them and report back to the Covenant. They jump to slipspace and arrive at Reach to find what's left of the human fleet in debris fields with a couple of Covenant cruisers placed above the planet. John-117 overhears a rhythm being played on a com channel and makes preparations to land on the planet. In a meeting, it's almost revealed that Colonel Ackerson has a back up plan for the SPARTAN-IIs. What it is is any one's guess. Ackerson insults the Spartan-2s despite Lord Admiral Terrence Hood telling him to shut up and show them respect. Ackerson says sending a recon team to Reach is pointless as there can be no survivors.  Back on Reach, Halsey finds a file labeled "King Under The Mountain" with contents such as CPOFM and S-III. The ONI base continues to collapse.

Five days later, The Master Chief lands on Reach and stumbles across Admiral Danforth Whitcomb with a couple of Spartans. The Chief tells them everything he knows and Johnson and the others fill in the rest. They find and extract Halsey, Fred, Kelly and the rest and high-tail it off Reach. They rendezvous with Insurrectionist Jacob Jiles and borrow his ships to fight off the Covenant. Halsey says the reason Johnson couldn't be infected by the Flood is because of Boren's Syndrome (which is a cover for his time in the ORION Project, the Spartan-I program). She panics, drugs Kelly and flees for Ackerson's S-III base. Hood saves the day and John-117, Fred-081, Linda-058, and William-043, with several copies of Cortana take the fight to the Covenant aboard the Unyielding Hierophant. They succeed in delaying the Covenant from attacking Earth and the Inner Colonies. The Prophet of Truth summons Tartarus to bring him the one who failed.

All in all, Eric Nylund wrote one hell of a novel and in 2003, it made the New York Times Bestseller list. Well crafted, great characters, good plot, and a fantastic read for any Halo fan.