The Halo saga...

[Mardigan8]

Well, I doubt I will go back to The Flood now but will keep it in mind if the I hit a dry spell and need some more Halo universe

Rattling through Onyx now and starting to focus back on Earth with some great stuff going on. Feel like the book is gonna end with quite a few cliffhangers and just pray to god they carry them forward into Halo3. The other SPARTANs really do deserve to be brought into the Halo3 story... not at the expense of time with the chief but would be good to see them part of the campaign and stuff.

[MJ]

I think I'm going to get these and might even ask for them for Christmas.

[NekoFever]

I'm one of the few who really enjoyed The Flood. Maybe it was the good memories of the first game that it brought back, but it was a great read that added a lot of depth to things that you never saw, such as Keyes' experience with the Flood. I thought the Fall of Reach was very good and probably found First Strike to be the weakest since it seemed a bit contradictory to Halo 2 (Spartans attack Covenant armada as it prepares to attack the humans on Earth; Halo 2 says that the Covenant didn't know that Earth was the human homeworld). All highly entertaining, though.

Annoyingly, I've got both the Halo Graphic Novel and Ghosts of Onyx sat next to my bed at home, but I have such a backlog of reading from when I went on holiday that I'll be lucky to get to them this side of Christmas ft:

[Mardigan8]

I'm one of the few who really enjoyed The Flood. Maybe it was the good memories of the first game that it brought back, but it was a great read that added a lot of depth to things that you never saw, such as Keyes' experience with the Flood. I thought the Fall of Reach was very good and probably found First Strike to be the weakest since it seemed a bit contradictory to Halo 2 (Spartans attack Covenant armada as it prepares to attack the humans on Earth; Halo 2 says that the Covenant didn't know that Earth was the human homeworld). All highly entertaining, though.

Annoyingly, I've got both the Halo Graphic Novel and Ghosts of Onyx sat next to my bed at home, but I have such a backlog of reading from when I went on holiday that I'll be lucky to get to them this side of Christmas ft:

The Covenant dont know Earth is the human homeworld in the book, they go there because the artifact the find leads tehm there but they dont expect the humans to be there... the Covenant fleet in First Strike wasn't being built with the initention to wipe out humanity, but the humans in the book assumed it was. No doubt it would have made its way there eventually though.

The book and the game have the same idea... the Covenant go to Earth because they know something is on that planet but they didnt expect there to be such a human presence... I dont think the book ever refers to them going to Earth as it being a plan to wipe out humanity. The book and the game maintain it as being part of "The Journey", hence their surprise in the game when there is humans EVERYWHERE!!

[JohnMcL7]

I'm fairly sure the Covenant knew where earth was during the first book in the same way they found Reach - they were attaching trackers to the big cruisers which revealed the locations of Reach and Earth when the cruisers were pulled back in defence of the inner regions.

The game on the other hand claimed that they didn't know humans were on earth and were caught by surprise.

The Covenant were wiping out humanity, like a religious cleansing - bear in mind they were glassing over planets to make sure they were wiped out entirely.

John

[Mardigan8]

I know the Covenant were trying to ascertain the location of human worlds in the books, but it wasn't this that revealed the location of Earth. The Artifact that the Covenant discover in Fall of Reach (When we first meet the Hunters) gives them coordinates to what turns out to be forerunner technology, etc. Earth is one of the places that this artifact leads them and Cortana discovers this while she is dediphering the artifact details herself does she not??

I never felt that there was any contradiction but the book certainly doesn't make it clear how the Covenant used the Artifacts astrological information to find Earth. The Covenant dont realise in the books that Earth is the homeworld, they always refer to it as part of "The Journey", which is centered around the Forerunner technology they are after.

[JohnMcL7]

As I said, they didn't use the artifacts - they simply tracked the earth ships by placing tracking devices amongst debris, as the human ships passed by the trackers attached themselves unnoticed. Then regardless of any random jumps the ships first, when they went to their true destination the Covenant would then know the location. Fairly sure it started when Keyes blew away the four Covenant vessels unexpectedly which gained the attention of the Navy, bringing some of their big ships along including Leviathon which was later pulled back to Earth or Reach.

John

[Mardigan8]

I was sure the Artifact and the coordinates that they and Cortana got from it gave them the location of Earth rather than any tracking devices. I dont mean the Artifact from First Strike that was on Reach but remeber in First Strike when The Cheif and Blue team had to go to a city on an outer colony (Cant remember the name) and the Covenant were there transmitting something from an artifact to their ships?? THIS is where the get some mad space telemetry that leads them first to Reach then to Earth I am sure??

I will check again tonight but I never thought it was something as simple as the Covenant just tracking ships that lead them to Earth. May be wrong though.

If I am wrong, what was the coordinates the Covenant and cortana got from this artifact for?? I know it identified the location of the Halo ring but I was sure this kind of lead them down a path which revealed Earths location aswell??

Also, in the game, it wasn't the full Covenant fleet that attacked Earth but one Prophet and his fleet so he may not have been party to the significance of Earth before he went there. In the game ity is only a small force that comes to Earth initially not a fore trying to wipe out humanity.

[JohnMcL7]

The artifact from the Fall of Reach gave the location of Halo, not Earth - they were definitely using tracking devices which were concealed in debris although the book implied they would find Earth and Reach anyway as they moved towards the inner core. Knowing this, the Navy pulled back their biggest ships for defence there. Wikipedia does agree with you though, I'll need to check myself:

"Earth remained undiscovered in part because of the Cole Protocol, a standing order by UNSC Admiral Cole, that directed retreating UNSC ships not chart a direct course back to Earth or other population centers in case the Covenant were able to follow. In fact, ships were required to self-destruct rather than lead the Covenant to Earth. This decision was apparently successful and the Covenant did not discover Earth until the events of Halo: First Strike, but apparently happened upon it by chance and were unaware that it was populated by the majority of humanity."

In the First Strike article it mentions:

"While this is going on planetside, Cortana finds out that the Covenant have discovered the location of Earth and are about to deploy a massive assault fleet."

This seems to be contradictory as this must have been before they actually travelled to earth although I guess there's two implications with finding earth - 1, they found that particular planet or 2, they found the central human city. On second thoughts, I guess it's not contradictory if you go for the first definition.

The book and game definitely split over what the Covenant planned for earth - I would say the first Halo 2 trailer seems to match the book as it shows huge explosions and comments across the radio such as "It's the goddamn apocolypse". Also, the game doesn't make much sense in that respect, if the Covenant had stumbled across earth, why didn't they call in the rest of the fleet? Even if there was anything they wanted to preserve there in terms of forerunner technology they'd need to have knocked out the defences first. Furthermore, they seemed remarkably well prepared to take out the rail guns in the first place if they weren't expecting them - from what I remember they took out the rail guns at Reach with ship mounted weaponry. I guess it's possible that after the damage the Reach MAC guns dealt, all covenant ships were equipped to deal with them using commando teams.

John

[Mardigan8]

Good points john

The fleet that arrived at Earth in Halo 2 was a breakaway fleet who were not under orders to go there if I remember correctly. It was only one of the Prophets who went there because the events of Halo, artifacts, "The journey", etc pointed to Earth being of some significance. I dont think the books or the game at any point make reference to them heading to Earth to destroy it... this is only what the humans in the book think is going on but when you read things from the Covenant perspective you see that them going to Earth during the books and at the start of Halo 2 was not part of the war with Humans, but part of their bigger plans, which the Humans dont see.

Nearly everything the Covenant do is focussed on "The Journey" and they only go ot Reach because of the artifact that is buried beneath the surface... it just happened to be one of Humanities most important strongholds, same as Earth just happenend to be Humanities home world. The Covenant go to Reach for what is buried on it NOT to kill humans, same as in Halo 2.

I think from the human perspective the Covenant have only ever wanted to kill humans and find out where they are based BUT I think in the books and the games the motives of the Covenant have been misinterpreted by the humans. As we see the book from mainly human perspective it is easy for us to do the same, you see what I mean???

Getting a bit carried away here but I think everything the Covenant have done up until now, which the humans believe is the Covenant trying to wipe them out is actually part of their bigger plan to follow the forerunner breadcrumbs and complete "Their journey"... just my theory and would love to hear what you think on it.

Unitl now the humans have been so focussed on the war they haven't realised what the Covenant are REALLY up to but from the original Halo3 trailer we are starting to see that there is much more going on.

I think some readers of the book may fall into the same trap humanity has in the story and think the Covenants goal is simply to wipe them out. Only toward the end of Halo 2 do The Chief and Cortana start to see the bigger picture... God I ****en love the story in Halo

[JohnMcL7]

Yep, I love the story as well - when I first saw the Halo intro I wanted to know what more about the Pillar of Autumn, what exactly was her main gun, what fighters did she use, what was the capability of the enemy cruisers etc. and the books do an excellent job of that, makes you really appreciate what the Pillar of Autumn was. Makes you almost shed a tear seeing her sitting beached during the last Halo level while you blow her to shreds.

I think I agree with your point in general that the Covenant didn't set out to destroy humanity but rather 'step on' anything which got in their way, as the humans have provided heavier resistance more resources have been dedicated to make sure they don't get in the way. Each time they've come across humanity, even in outer colony worlds the Covenant have wiped out any resistance and then destroyed all life on the planet so I wouldn't say it's quite as simple as they're on their journey - they seemingly either assimilate species or wipe them out, no happy medium. As for Reach, to be honest I think they went there for a dual purpose because a frontal assault was clearly not the efficient way to do it, they had spy ships which had evaded human ships before and they could have done so again this time. However by destroying Reach they also took out Earth's biggest asset, at the start of Halo 2 the Arbiter (do we know his name?) seemed to be proud of the fact that Reach was left in flames as if that was one of the objectives. I like the way Halo 2 ends though with a civil war and the Covenant splitting with certain species following the Elites and others following the brutes.

I think these posts illustrate that a book written entirely from the Covenant view would also be extremely interesting, showing the invasion from their point of view - what triggered them to move into earth space (forerunner technology I guess is the likely action), what they expected in terms of resistance, what ships they allocated, how their view of humanity changed etc. I would also like to know more of the Covenant history which is hinted at and briefly covered in the Arbiter's cutscenes in Halo 2, it was a shame they cut some of them as shown on the extra DVD as I thought they added more depth to the Covenant. Timothy Zahn (well known for his Star Wars books) wrote an excellent trilogy known as the Conquerer trilogy or similar - in it the first book is written entirely from the human point of view where they've met an alien fleet and welcomed them in peace but in return been brutally slaughtered. The second book is written entirely from the alien's point of view where they're telling their troops that it was the humans who fired first and started the war which a small group of captured humans know to be a lie. They try to convince some of the lower aliens that their leaders are lying to them starting a conspiracy movement until the truth is revealed - human communication systems damage the alien vessels (or specifically it hurt their elders or something) so the aliens thought the welcome message was an attack and fired back. The third book is then written from both sides as a small group of aliens and humans have realised the entire war is a massive mistake and are trying to get their respective leaders to stop. It's a well written trilogy in general but particularly so with having a book for the humans, one for the aliens and one for both - I think similarly it would work well for Halo.

Time will tell, I'm sure the books must have sold well which will hopefully encourage further additions to the Halo universe.

John

[TheBlackLodge]

I think these posts illustrate that a book written entirely from the Covenant view would also be extremely interesting..........etc

Which is exactly what I feel the Arbiter was introduced in Halo 2 to do, and The 'Zhirrzh Perspective' is probably why I'm one of the, seemingly, few that enjoyed his sections in the game. Also, nice to find someone else that read and enjoyed the Conquerors trilogy.

[peeveen]

Loved the Halo books, got the new one on the xmas list, can't wait.

Did any of you lot hear the ilovebees audioplay? Not exactly "required reading", but enjoyable nonetheless.

[JohnMcL7]

Which is exactly what I feel the Arbiter was introduced in Halo 2 to do, and The 'Zhirrzh Perspective' is probably why I'm one of the, seemingly, few that enjoyed his sections in the game. Also, nice to find someone else that read and enjoyed the Conquerors trilogy.

It puzzles me why people don't like the Arbiter, I thought it was a good idea and well implemented right from the start with the way it flicked between effectively the Master Chief as the winner getting his medal and the Arbiter the loser getting disgraced. Although his cloak was brief it was enough time to sneak up behind someone and wallop them with a melee or grenade them, or simply to make a run through a busy section. Also, I liked fighting amongst other elites who could actually take a decent amount of punishment - when your spectre was blown aside you flipped it back over and everyone hopped back on. With human partners they all just died, usually quite promptly, after reading through the books where you have the Spartans very much a team it was a big letdown that with Halo 2 the Master Chief is again entirely on his own. His voice, although not particularly Elite sounding I also liked particularly his line used in the trailer "There are things about Halo, even the hierarches do not understand"

Big fan of Timothy Zahn, thought his Star Wars books were excellent especially when a lot of the Star Wars books are barely the level of fan fiction. When you have a sci-fi writer writing their own stories it can be hit and miss, when they're writing for a well known franchise it's easier as everyone knows what a Star Destroyer looks like, how Han acts etc. so you don't need to be as talented to describe it all. However, Zahn's own work is impressive particularly the Conqueror's trilogy which I'm surprised you don't hear much about.

Nylund is much the same, enjoyed his Halo books but also loved his Game of Universe book.

peeveen - yep, listened to all the ilovebees audio, another great addition to the Halo story as it gives almost a real life aspect to the situation as you or I would probably be watching the battle from home worrying more and more as the Covenant came each step closer to earth.

John

[Mardigan8]

Well, looks like my Halo adventure is on pause for another wee while... finished "Ghosts of Onyx" last night and already aching for more.

As the book progressed I felt it was setting things up nicely for Halo 3 but this slowly dissolved as events started to unfold. More like a parrallel story to the events of The Chief we find out the fate of the remaining SPARTANs and quite a few other little secrets along the way. Also some real revelations about the forerunners and their technology that will NO DOUBT be referenced in Halo 3. Def not as action orientated as the previous books, but a thrilling read nonetheless.

Very little story on The Chief, which initially I was disappointed with BUT that all faded when the other characters came into focus. Really lets you appreciate the other SPARTANs and one in particular who left the story with a quote I will never forget.

Felt it ended on quite a sombre note but it is obvious this story will continue. I doubt however we will see these characters make it into Halo 3 given their situation so the dream of mass SPARTAN warfare may not be landing with us in Halo 3 as we hoped. Who am I to say what will happen though... It does kinda feel however that the writer took on board peoples views on the exclusion of SPARTANs in Halo 2 and wrote them into a situation where we cant really complain if they aint in Halo 3... might just be paranoid about this but will have to wait and see.

So, another fantastic addition to the Halo universe and if by the end of this book you dont have as much love for SPARTAN-051 as you do for the Chief then something has been missed a brilliant read and I cant wait for the next book or Halo 3, whichever comes first

We love you Kurt!!