Quote from: SpaceMarines on Apr 17, 2012, 05:36:43 AM
On another note, I've been thinking about having a Summer of Halo; picking up CE and 2, playing through all the games. I thought maybe I should check out the books, too. But I have to ask; are they good? Any that I should skip over? Would it be worth it to buy them, or just get 'em from the library? And is there a particular order they should be read in?
I did the summer of Halo thing last summer. Played through all six games in chronological order, and it was awesome
As for the books, I read the first seven of them, and would recommend them all. I'll give you a brief run down, if you want to know what they're about. And I would say read them in the order that they were released (the order I posted them in) rather than chronological, because events tend to span over the course of years and overlap from book to book.
The Fall of Reach- This one is often considered to be the best. It deals with the start of the Spartan II program, ultimately concluding with the fall of Reach (as the title says). Unlike the game set on this planet, Master Chief is the star here.
The Flood- This one is probably the most skippable. Its a retelling of Combat Evolved, so most of it is already known. The most interesting parts were those that weren't about Chief, and dealt instead with other UNSC forces on the ring or the Covenant.
First Strike- This one here is a direct follow up to CE/The Flood (in the same way the CE/The Flood are followups to Fall of Reach). Bridges the gap between Halo CE and 2 and shows what happened to Chief in the meantime. Really good, from what I remember.
Ghosts of Onyx- This one here was my absolute favorite. Its the first one that doesn't deal with Master Chief, but instead another Spartan II named Kurt. Its about the start of the Spartan III program, and for the most part is set in the timeframe of Halo 2.
Contact Harvest- Some people don't like this one, but I loved it. Its about Sgt. Johnson and the start of the war on Harvest. Also has some very interesting stuff about Tartarus and the brutes, as well as an interesting subplot about a grunt and an engineer.
The Cole Protocol- Probably my least favorite of the bunch, but no terrible. Its just that its not very memorable. I'd still say to check it out, though, because it had some cool stuff with Gray Team (a team of SIIs), Captain Keys, and some jackals. I think it takes place around the time of Halo Wars, after Harvest has already fallen.
Evolutions- This one is a compilation of short stories by various authors. Most are worth great, a few are average, and there is only one that comes to mind that I didn't like at all. Amongst my favorites were "Human Weakness" and "The Impossible Life and Possible Death of Preston J. Cole". If possible, get this as two separate volumes rather than one large book. Supposedly if you go with the smaller format, each volume has an extra story.
After that comes Cryptum (the first Forerunner book), then Glasslands (the first post Halo 3 book as well as a sequel to Ghosts of Onyx), and then Primordium (the second Forerunner book). Coming soon is The Thursday War (second post Halo 3 book). I haven't read these, but I've heard good things.
But yeah, the order I posted is the order they should be read in to get the most out of it. They are cheap enough that buying them shouldn't be a problem, but getting them from a library wouldn't lessen the impact or anything. For being based on a video game, they are surprisingly well written.
EDIT: If you can get your hands on Dr. Halsey's journal, the book that came with the special editions of Halo Reach, that is also well worth the read. It clears up a few small continuity errors that exist between Fall of Reach and Halo Reach, and is a very entertaining read. I was able to get a copy off of ebay for cheap.
