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: The Fall of Reach SPOILERS!

The very first Halo novel, Halo: The Fall of Reach by Eric Nylund tells not only the Battle and Fall of Reach, but how the Spartan-2 project came into existence, how Jacob Keyes became a Captain, and how Cortana was created into being. While the brutal Covenant juggernaut sweeps inexorably through space, intent on wiping out humankind, only one stronghold remains--the planet Reach. Practically on Earth's doorstep, it is the last military fortress to defy the alien onslaught. But Reach's defenders have another, higher priority: to prevent the Covenant from discovering the location of Earth. Outnumbered and outgunned, the soldiers seem to have little chance against the Covenant, but Reach holds a closely guarded secret. It is the training ground for the very first "super soldiers." Code-named SPARTANs, these highly advanced warriors, specially bioengineered and technologically augmented, are the best in the universe--quiet, professional, and deadly. Now, as the ferocious Covenant attack begins, a handful of SPARTANs stand ready to wage ultimate war. They will kill, they will be destroyed, but they will never surrender. And at least one of them--the SPARTAN known as the Master Chief--will live to fight another day on a mysterious and ancient artificial world called Halo...

The prologue beings with the Battle and Fall of Jericho VII. The Master Chief and Blue Team prevent Covenant forces from getting a fortress up and running, but lose the planet to the Covenant's glassing. Back in the past, Lt. Jacob Keyes and Dr. Catherine Halsey land on Eridanus 2 where Halsey looks over a boy called John. For the next few years, John and the other children, trained by CPO Franklin Mendez and an AI called Deja to fight against the Insurrectionists. Halsey has them bioengineered for super strength and speed. Not all make it through. A few months later and their first mission against the Innies goes well but dark times approach soon.

Admiral Stanforth, in a private meeting, reveals that Harvest has fallen to an unknown alien race. John-117 and the rest of the SPARTANs are being accelerated to Project MJOLNIR. During a fight against the Covenant, the SPARTAN known as Sam dies. In the Sigma Octanus Star System, the Covenant appear and attack. Jacob Keyes, now a Commander, fight the enemy. Admiral Stanforth arrives with the second largest space fleet ever seen and help retake the system while the Master Chief and three teams of SPARTANs retake the planet. During the battle, Keyes is promoted to Captain. The Covenant retreat, but not before placing a tracing beacon onto Keyes' ship. It leads them to Reach.

John-117 is given the MJOLNIR armor and tests it out with the AI Cortana. They pass with flying colors. A new mission is assigned the entire SPARTANs and Keyes. They are to take Pillar of Autumn and perform a hit in Covenant Space and capture a Prophet. Just as they are about to leave, the Covenant show up and being to destroy the planet. The Master Chief sends all of the SPARTANs down to defend Reach except Linda. Johnson and his strike team are disabling every vessel that's been damaged, wiping data so the Covenant can't find Earth. Linda and John end up in cryo. (This whole ending part of the novel takes place over the events of Halo: Reach, which shows the SPARTAN 3's waging war against the Covenant). Pillar of Autumn flees Reach and ends up in the Threshold system, where a mysterious ring is balanced between Threshold and its moon Basis.

All in all, a very well crafted and fast-paced novel from Eric Nylund. Despite being an 11-year-old novel, it's still one of the best in the Halo franchise.

Book Review: Halo: The Cole Protocol SPOILERS

The novel Halo: The Cole Protocol by Tobias S. Buckell continues the fight between the humans and the multi-species Covenant.

In the first, desperate days of the Human-Covenant War, the UNSC has enacted the Cole Protocol to safeguard Earth and its inner colonies from discovery by a merciless alien foe. Many are called upon to rid the universe of lingering navigation data that would reveal the location of Earth. Among them is Navy Lieutenant Jacob Keyes. Thrust back into action after being sidelined, Keyes is saddled with a top secret mission by ONI. One that will take him deep behind enemy lines, to a corner of the universe where nothing is as it seems.

Out beyond the Outer Colonies lies the planet Hesiod, a gas giant surrounded by a vast asteroid belt. As the Covenant continues to glass the human-occupied planets near Hesiod, many of the survivors, helped by a stonghold of human Insurrectionists, are fleeing to the asteroid belt for refuge. They have transformed the tumbling satellites into a tenuous, yet ingenious, settlement known as the Rubble--and have come face-to-face with a Covenant settlement of Kig-Yar. . . yet somehow survived.

News of this unlikely threat has spread to the warring sides. Luckily for the UNSC, this uneasy alliance is in the path of the Spartan Gray Team, a three-man renegade squad whose simple task is to wreak havoc from behind enemy lines in any way they see fit. But the Prophets have also sent their best, an ambitious and ruthless Elite, whose quest for nobility and rank is matched only by his brutality. . . and who will do anything to secure his Ascendancy and walk the Path.

All in all, a good read on a nice spring day. Tobias has demonstrated an ability to clearly define the action and set the stage for further war stories.

Book Review: Halo: Contact Harvest SPOILERS!

Halo: Contact Harvest by Joseph Staten, reveals how the Human-Covenant War, as seen in the Halo universe, got started. It is the year 2524. Harvest is a peaceful, prosperous farming colony on the very edge of human-controlled space. But we have trespassed on holy ground--strayed into the path of an aggressive alien empire known as the Covenant. What begins as a chance encounter between an alien privateer and a human freighter catapults mankind into a struggle for its very existence. But humanity is also locked in a bitter civil war known as the Insurrection. So the survival of Harvest's citizens falls to a squad of battle-weary UNSC Marines and their inexperienced colonial militia trainees. In this unlikely group of heroes, one stands above the rest, a young Marine staff sergeant named Avery Johnson.

The novel starts with a prologue showing Johnson, as a Marine, with his buddies taking down an Insurrectionist op in a diner. Johnson doesn't kill the target and the operation goes to hell when the Innie detonates the bomb. Next, the book goes to an AI on Harvest as it goes about its normal routine. Johnson, back on Earth, learns his auntie is dead and demands to be let back into service. Sure enough, he is assigned to Harvest and meets a Marine from the failed op, Nolan Byrne. On a Covenant vessel scouting for holy relics, a company of Jackals and one Grunt and Engineer, hijack a UNSC vessel and scavenge the ship. They decide to investigate it's point or origin: Harvest. As Johnson and Byrne settle old scores and being to settle into the routine of training new recruits (Jenkins, Mendoza, Bisenti), the Covenant comes ever closer to Harvest.

The novel deviates to two ambitious San 'Shyuum, the Minister of Fortitude and the Vice Minister of Tranquility learn of the large amount of "relics" found on Harvest and begin to plan a coup of the current Hierarchs using this as a fulcrum. To keep the Sangheili from using this discovery as a way to upset the balance of power, they utilize a Jiralhanae-controlled ship captained by Maccabeus and crewed by his pack of Jiralhanae (including a youthful Tartarus). The two began a secret attempt to seize the planet. This marks the beginning of the powerful alliance between the Jiralhanae and the San 'Shyuum, and the key to their eventual betrayal of the Sangheili leading to the Great Schism later in the war.

Needless to say, shit happens and the Humans and Covenant start fighting. The Jiralhanae glass Harvest while Johnson and the others try to hold them off, allowing the civilians to evacuate. They make a series of random jump and arrive at Earth to tell the UNSC what happened. Meanwhile, the San 'Shyuum perform a coup and rename themselves the Prophet of Truth, Regret, and Mercy and cover their tracks. At one point, they learn from the renegade Forerunner AI Medicant Bias that the Humans are the Reclaimers and thus the true heirs to the Forerunner knowledge.

All in all, a great first novel from a game designer who captures Johnson and the Haloverse as accurately as the games. Great pacing, tight plot, great characters makes a great novel.

Book Review: Halo: Glasslands SPOILERS!

I've recently read the novel Halo: Glasslands by bestselling novelist Karen Traviss. Set between the flight from the Ark at the end of Halo 3 and the memorial scene in Halo 3, Glasslands and Traviss draw you into a world dealing with the after effects of war.

On Earth, the Office of Naval Intelligence sends out a team lead by a failed SPARTAN II candidate with a mixed-bag team compromised of a Spartan II named Naomi, two ODSTs called Val and Maz, an AI named BB, and a Sangheili (Elite) linguistics expert to sell weapons back to the Elites hoping they'll start a war with The Arbiter Thel 'Vadam. They do this all while killing Brutes and Jackals and planting fake footage of them attacking Elite ships.

Meanwhile, in the Dyson Sphere that used to be Onyx, the remaining Spartan 2s and 3s with their trainer Franklin Mendez and Spartan creator Catherine Halsey explore the world they were trapped in during the events of Halo: Ghosts of Onyx by Eric Nylund. They're trying to find a way out as well as new Forerunner technology while thinking that the Flood have overrun the galaxy or that the Halos have all fired and wiped out all life. They find a way out eventually with help from three original Forerunner-made Engineers.

On Sanghelios, the homeworld of the Elites, a group of Elite terrorists have started making plans to fight the Arbiter for dismissing the Forerunners as gods and for promoting peace with the humans. The three plots come to a head when one of the Elites is kidnapped by the ONI group before they race off to arrest Halsey for stealing war assets.

Admiral Hood invites Vadam to attend the memorial where they agree that The Master Chief is dead (as of the trailer for Halo 4, we know that's not true, but the characters believe this). The novel comes to a close as Halsey is shipped off to work with others on the Spartan-4 project while the captured Elite helps human technicians with acquiring Forerunner technology from the now open Dyson Sphere. The linguistics expert goes to Sanghelios as a guest of the Arbriter and the Elite Terrorists strike, signaling the end of the book.

A good book that provides enough detail and character moments as well as recaps of the storyline from the other Halo works for the average reader to easily follow along.