The books deal with book characters for the most part. Since the Nylund books we haven't had any novels with Chief or Cortana at all.
Pedantic/ One of the short stories in Evolutions was about Cortana and one of them was about Master Chief. /end pedantic
Rules lawyer/ But if you take "novels" to mean full length fiction rather than as just a synonym for books, you're still right as an anthology probably isn't a "novel." /end rules lawyer.
Anyway, I haven't read Forerunner book 2 or Traviss book 1. Which would you guys say is better or a faster read? Forerunner 1 was a slog to start with, I gave up on it for like 3 months but then came back and rather liked the ending. Traviss I read all her Star Wars stuff (maybe missed a Clone Wars book that wasn't RC) and all her Gears stuff. After all that, her quirks add up and I sort of hate her now. She's still good, it's just she doesn't seem to have even a faint awareness of the crappy side of her writing and thus hasn't compensated. If anything, she's doubled down on it.
Anyway, I haven't read Forerunner book 2 or Traviss book 1. Which would you guys say is better or a faster read?
Primordium was a lot better than Cryptum, in my opinion. It kills me that the third one won't be out until after Halo 4, even though that means it'll be really heavily tied together.
I don't like Karen Traviss' stuff anywhere NEAR as much as Nylund's, but I like the direction the story is headed in, so I keep reading the Kilo-Five stuff.
I keep meaning to pick up Grasslands. Hopefully I can get to it before 4 launches.
XBL: That Stone Dude
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jerichotwofourThe artist formally known as S043.Registered Userregular
I just hope this trend of having characters appear in novels AND games means that we'll see some of the Kilo-Five gang, or the older Spartans, in-game. Someday.
I wouldn't hold my breath about Fred or Kelly making an in-game appearance. It would be too distracting to have Chief get all emotional at reuniting with his best surviving friends when they were no where to be seen over the course of four games.
However, their inclusion in Forward Unto Dawns is a good sign we'll be hearing more from them in the books hopefully.
Yeah, if other Spartan II are introduced, they'll be ones that the Chief has never met. Trying to fit all that back story in when your trying to tell a new one would be weird. Also, how would you do it? Cut scenes? People skip over those like day old bagels on their way to fresh donuts. And a lot of people don't read in game text. People would end up confused about where the other Spartan IIs showed up from. Also, unless they do a game focused on the Chief in the early days of the war, 343 would break the rule of show, don't tell.
You know what? That's going on my games I want but will never happen. The early days of Chief that plays like a mix of halo(action) and republic commando/brothers in arms(squad tactics). Right along side a Gears rts based on the Dawn of War II engine, and a remake of Alpha Centauri.
Yeah, if other Spartan II are introduced, they'll be ones that the Chief has never met. Trying to fit all that back story in when your trying to tell a new one would be weird. Also, how would you do it? Cut scenes? People skip over those like day old bagels on their way to fresh donuts. And a lot of people don't read in game text.
There are no Spartan IIs the Chief does not know; he was a team leader. Introducing some (Fred and Kelly) of them in FUD is enough to put them in-game, considering Lasky is in FUD, Halo 4 and the new novel. 343i doesn't seem to be putting this story together for people who haven't kept up with at least SOME of the supplemental material. There is no other reason to roll the Spartan II and IIIs from the other novels into the Spartan IV program if you're not going to introduce them into the first entry of the franchise that really deals with the Spartan IVs. They don't make the campaign for people who skip cutscenes/text.
Halo 4 Terminal/Thursday War spoiler:
There is a terminal video out that shows another character from the novels being introduced in-game as well: Jul 'Mdama, the leader of the Covenant that still believes in and is chasing the Forerunners legacy. Which means he gets away from ONI and to Requiem.
Thursday War spoilers:
I'm pretty sure Halsey will be on the UNSC Infinity, too. In the beginning of the book she's on-board, integrating the Forerunner tech from Onyx into the ship. There's been leaked shots of the Chief talking to a female scientist (that weren't very high-res), and she's mentioned within the first level of the game (as seen in the Chief's ViDoc, talking to Cortana, still on Forward Unto Dawn).
343i is completely embracing the EU/canon. It is time to show people who've never read into it that there are other Spartans out there.
Also, Forge looks fucking awesome.
EDIT: Fyre, tell Frankie that I want a job managing the lore pls.
EDIT 2: I am still running around the internet trying to prove to people that Jun is dead when it's right there in the goddamned book.
EDIT 2: I am still running around the internet trying to prove to people that Jun is dead when it's right there in the goddamned book.
Which book? Thursday War? Fall of Reach? Grasslands?
The reprint of FoR has an additional bit at the end, where an Elite in the field straight up tells a Prophet on High Charity that Jun is dead. It also explains how Noble Team operates on Reach in secrecy (through "Winter Contingency" - granting every member of the team the ability to basically pull rank and give orders to accomplish their objectives).
Under the LIMON-NAXLA EXCEPTION you are hereby ordered to ignore or countermand all mission-contradictory orders from ranking UNSC officers below the grade of secure-clear Captain. ONI ranking officers may still issue contravening orders but use your judgment and common sense in applying the EXCEPTION. If the logic of the situation dictates than an advantage may be gained in your mission by following orders then do so.
It's all there to tie Reach into the greater canon, something that a lot of people argue against, but I think it does a really good job. Fyrewulff and I have written many, many posts about why people should stop holding FoR so high up, as far as the rest of the canon goes.
Add to that; the Reach CE/LE is supposed to be a declassified ONI lockbox, that shows the otherwise secret actions of Noble team on Reach. It's full of files related to the invasion, the Spartan II and III programs, and of course, Halsey's journal. Halsey's journal and the files within are directly referenced in the new Traviss' books. The disc itself is presented as "the only surviving record of Noble's sacrifice", which is a nice touch.
The Legendary Edition's case is a repurposed armored boot container, used by a former ONI agent on January 15th, 2610 to send a statue of Noble Team (a 1:53 replica of the Reach War Memorial that was requested by the Museum of Humanity's curator) and an ONI 600 Series black box to a cousin from Esztergom, Reach to Earth. The operative came in possession of the package after the death of its previous owner, "the old man", the operative's former superior in the 2580s. The man had requested the items, which contains Dr. Halsey's journal (recovered from the ruins of Sword Base) and data involving Noble Team, most likely because of his involvement in Operation: WHITE GLOVE. The sender asked his cousin to either hand the black box over to the curator as a "curious relic", or to make the box's information public. Although the operative grimly notes that "there's plenty of stuff in there that the old guard may still be willing to kill over", he/she trusts his cousin to "do the right thing".
I treasure the shit in that box. I can't help but wonder if "the old man" ends up being Lasky.
I think the reprint of Fall of Reach has a report from the (now) Arbiter about how he fought and killed him while trying to get to Halesy.
I thought it was (and used to say it was) the Elite who became the Arbiter, at one point. I was wrong, it's a different Elite Commander; he shows up in the terrible CG anime episode "The Package", too.
Terrible? The Package is great, it's one of the better short films on Legends.
No, it's not terribly deep. But it's not supposed to be. It's about Spartans kicking ass.
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jerichotwofourThe artist formally known as S043.Registered Userregular
edited October 2012
Yeah, but I wish it were traditionally animated, and not in awful CG. The model for Halsey is crazy young, one of the Spartans had dreadlocks or something. I didn't like it. I only really liked the two introductory ones, with Cortana, and even then, they contradict themselves. I like the motion comics done based on Evolutions waaay more.
Now this new live-action stuff, I am 100% behind. I hope they keep doing them.
Haven't had a 360 in about four years, and had a hankering for Halo. I don't have nearly enough money to drop on a new 360, so I ended up buying the Fall of Reach book. Hopefully this will do the trick!
Hoping it's as good as the reviews say, I may end up buying a majority of the books, if I can get the full narrative that way.
All this talk of books is making me want to start reading them. I have been a sucker for the Halo lore, and I played Halo Wars to death just to unlock all the timeline stuff, but I have never ventured down the dark path that is video game novels. Where do I start?
3DS - 2878-9572-9277
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NocrenLt Futz, Back in ActionNorth CarolinaRegistered Userregular
Fall of Reach, First Strike and Ghosts of Onyx are good.
Haven't read any of the others after that.
Avoid Flood. Aside from some scenes not involving Chief, you've already played through it.
So there is no real order to the books other than where they fit in the overall timeline?
3DS - 2878-9572-9277
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NocrenLt Futz, Back in ActionNorth CarolinaRegistered Userregular
Pretty much. FoR, Flood and First Strike were the first published and are before/during/after the first game. Everything else kinda fills in in certain places and events that were mentioned in either the books or games.
Harvest is the first in the timeline (first contact), Cole Protocol is next, Onyx falls between/beyond Flood and Strike.
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jerichotwofourThe artist formally known as S043.Registered Userregular
edited October 2012
Anything written by Nylund is good (First Strike is a little weird), Contact Harvest is good (though I love Joe Staten, he's hilarious to listen to in any form) and the Greg Bear Forerunner novels are great, but they're COMPLETELY different. Traviss' two books are good, but nowhere near the level Nylund's were. She writes some of his (and they are his) characters oddly. The short story collection, Evolutions, is available in one big or two smaller volumes, and it was alright, but nothing stood out to me as amazing.
Mantiz, if I were you, I would read them in release order, since as the games changed, the books followed suit. Reading them in chronological order, certain elements of the franchise will be missing, because nobody can see into the future. This is the most obvious in Fall of Reach, because they gave Nylund no more than an outline and a deadline, and he cobbled the foundation of the canon together.
Also Fall of Reach mentioned a lot of silly things, such as hunters and elites not appearing until late in the war. It's a good book, but take none of its details as canon.
The reprint of FoR has an additional bit at the end, where an Elite in the field straight up tells a Prophet on High Charity that Jun is dead. It also explains how Noble Team operates on Reach in secrecy (through "Winter Contingency" - granting every member of the team the ability to basically pull rank and give orders to accomplish their objectives).
I thought it was (and used to say it was) the Elite who became the Arbiter, at one point. I was wrong, it's a different Elite Commander; he shows up in the terrible CG anime episode "The Package", too.
Oh okay. I didn't rebuy the books because screw that, but I did parse through some of the new sections. Must not have been paying attention for that part. It's not like Jun was this amazing character, so no big. It's just bizarre that he kind of skates out of the game with no mention that this is different from the rest of Noble in a big way. Also, the Winter Contingency is clearly explained in the game. In the first cutscene with Halsey, Carter quickly gets tired of taking shit from her and calmly notes that he could have her court martialed using the Winter Contingency. She STFUs pretty quick.
Things that 343i should TOTALLY do with canon:
-Re-integrate ilovebees. Make it a comic or something. It was vastly better written than 90% of the stuff out there so "it is minorly different from the story bible and involved a real life tie-in" are idiotic reasons to ignore it completely. Hell, the girl's dad and mom being Spartan I's is no different from the way they retconn'd Johnson. Just change the minor details that need to be changed and spread the love you dummies!
-Firmly choose a stance on Black Team (from Cole Protocol), the super elites from Evolutions, Red Team and the rest of the Wars characters, and other minor forgotten things from the tie-ins. If you wanna kill 'em, whatever or just use 'em. It's bizarre that "every Spartan died... except for all of Master Chief's best friends... and maybe this covert ops team... and maybe this team that was put on a bus for the RTS..."
-Force some weapon logic. Did the Covenant invent stuff during the war? If not, why the shift in weapons? Why is the DMR being used in 4? Stuff like that, I don't want them to ruin the gunplay for the story, but at least do us the courtesy of a handwave please.
Yeah, but I wish it were traditionally animated, and not in awful CG. The model for Halsey is crazy young, one of the Spartans had dreadlocks or something. I didn't like it. I only really liked the two introductory ones, with Cortana, and even then, they contradict themselves. I like the motion comics done based on Evolutions waaay more.
Now this new live-action stuff, I am 100% behind. I hope they keep doing them.
To me it was no more jarring than watching a cutscene. Plus, you can't show what a Spartan is truly capable of in live action, you can only approximate it.
They have 400% faster than average reflexes and can run in bursts over 25 miles an hour. Kelly clocked out at near 40. They can literally tear soldiers limb from limb in melee combat. You simply can't show that in live action without an insane budget.
To me, the Package shows what most Spartans are like during normal ground operations. It takes a fleet, a trap, or a really damn good warrior to kill one. Anything less and you're just wasting military assets.
Posts
Pedantic/ One of the short stories in Evolutions was about Cortana and one of them was about Master Chief. /end pedantic
Rules lawyer/ But if you take "novels" to mean full length fiction rather than as just a synonym for books, you're still right as an anthology probably isn't a "novel." /end rules lawyer.
Anyway, I haven't read Forerunner book 2 or Traviss book 1. Which would you guys say is better or a faster read? Forerunner 1 was a slog to start with, I gave up on it for like 3 months but then came back and rather liked the ending. Traviss I read all her Star Wars stuff (maybe missed a Clone Wars book that wasn't RC) and all her Gears stuff. After all that, her quirks add up and I sort of hate her now. She's still good, it's just she doesn't seem to have even a faint awareness of the crappy side of her writing and thus hasn't compensated. If anything, she's doubled down on it.
Primordium was a lot better than Cryptum, in my opinion. It kills me that the third one won't be out until after Halo 4, even though that means it'll be really heavily tied together.
I don't like Karen Traviss' stuff anywhere NEAR as much as Nylund's, but I like the direction the story is headed in, so I keep reading the Kilo-Five stuff.
However, their inclusion in Forward Unto Dawns is a good sign we'll be hearing more from them in the books hopefully.
You know what? That's going on my games I want but will never happen. The early days of Chief that plays like a mix of halo(action) and republic commando/brothers in arms(squad tactics). Right along side a Gears rts based on the Dawn of War II engine, and a remake of Alpha Centauri.
There are no Spartan IIs the Chief does not know; he was a team leader. Introducing some (Fred and Kelly) of them in FUD is enough to put them in-game, considering Lasky is in FUD, Halo 4 and the new novel. 343i doesn't seem to be putting this story together for people who haven't kept up with at least SOME of the supplemental material. There is no other reason to roll the Spartan II and IIIs from the other novels into the Spartan IV program if you're not going to introduce them into the first entry of the franchise that really deals with the Spartan IVs. They don't make the campaign for people who skip cutscenes/text.
Halo 4 Terminal/Thursday War spoiler:
Thursday War spoilers:
343i is completely embracing the EU/canon. It is time to show people who've never read into it that there are other Spartans out there.
Also, Forge looks fucking awesome.
EDIT: Fyre, tell Frankie that I want a job managing the lore pls.
EDIT 2: I am still running around the internet trying to prove to people that Jun is dead when it's right there in the goddamned book.
Which book? Thursday War? Fall of Reach? Grasslands?
Jun isn't with Halsey at CASTLE in Fall of Reach.
I think the reprint of Fall of Reach has a report from the (now) Arbiter about how he fought and killed him while trying to get to Halesy.
The reprint of FoR has an additional bit at the end, where an Elite in the field straight up tells a Prophet on High Charity that Jun is dead. It also explains how Noble Team operates on Reach in secrecy (through "Winter Contingency" - granting every member of the team the ability to basically pull rank and give orders to accomplish their objectives).
It's all there to tie Reach into the greater canon, something that a lot of people argue against, but I think it does a really good job. Fyrewulff and I have written many, many posts about why people should stop holding FoR so high up, as far as the rest of the canon goes.
Add to that; the Reach CE/LE is supposed to be a declassified ONI lockbox, that shows the otherwise secret actions of Noble team on Reach. It's full of files related to the invasion, the Spartan II and III programs, and of course, Halsey's journal. Halsey's journal and the files within are directly referenced in the new Traviss' books. The disc itself is presented as "the only surviving record of Noble's sacrifice", which is a nice touch.
I treasure the shit in that box. I can't help but wonder if "the old man" ends up being Lasky.
I thought it was (and used to say it was) the Elite who became the Arbiter, at one point. I was wrong, it's a different Elite Commander; he shows up in the terrible CG anime episode "The Package", too.
Guys, I swear to God I don't have Aspergers.
No, it's not terribly deep. But it's not supposed to be. It's about Spartans kicking ass.
Now this new live-action stuff, I am 100% behind. I hope they keep doing them.
Hoping it's as good as the reviews say, I may end up buying a majority of the books, if I can get the full narrative that way.
*everyone ignores anime halsey*
One: that big ODST trooper was suppose to be Dutch (Adam Baldwin), but there wasn't anyway to tell.
Two: when she takes off her helmet it's like a gag scene. *poof* Big blond hair everywhere.
Also, since 343i is trying to incorporate canon (bless them for it), I wonder if we'll ever see Nicole again?
Haven't read any of the others after that.
Avoid Flood. Aside from some scenes not involving Chief, you've already played through it.
Harvest is the first in the timeline (first contact), Cole Protocol is next, Onyx falls between/beyond Flood and Strike.
Mantiz, if I were you, I would read them in release order, since as the games changed, the books followed suit. Reading them in chronological order, certain elements of the franchise will be missing, because nobody can see into the future. This is the most obvious in Fall of Reach, because they gave Nylund no more than an outline and a deadline, and he cobbled the foundation of the canon together.
You have been warned.
Oh okay. I didn't rebuy the books because screw that, but I did parse through some of the new sections. Must not have been paying attention for that part. It's not like Jun was this amazing character, so no big. It's just bizarre that he kind of skates out of the game with no mention that this is different from the rest of Noble in a big way. Also, the Winter Contingency is clearly explained in the game. In the first cutscene with Halsey, Carter quickly gets tired of taking shit from her and calmly notes that he could have her court martialed using the Winter Contingency. She STFUs pretty quick.
Things that 343i should TOTALLY do with canon:
-Re-integrate ilovebees. Make it a comic or something. It was vastly better written than 90% of the stuff out there so "it is minorly different from the story bible and involved a real life tie-in" are idiotic reasons to ignore it completely. Hell, the girl's dad and mom being Spartan I's is no different from the way they retconn'd Johnson. Just change the minor details that need to be changed and spread the love you dummies!
-Firmly choose a stance on Black Team (from Cole Protocol), the super elites from Evolutions, Red Team and the rest of the Wars characters, and other minor forgotten things from the tie-ins. If you wanna kill 'em, whatever or just use 'em. It's bizarre that "every Spartan died... except for all of Master Chief's best friends... and maybe this covert ops team... and maybe this team that was put on a bus for the RTS..."
-Force some weapon logic. Did the Covenant invent stuff during the war? If not, why the shift in weapons? Why is the DMR being used in 4? Stuff like that, I don't want them to ruin the gunplay for the story, but at least do us the courtesy of a handwave please.
But yes, they do love putting a lot of people drifting into space when they're done with them.
for instance, I have a halo 3 video with 60k views, which generated most of my ad revenue on youtube. I have to take it off the partner program if I want to not get sued.
only if you have a commercial license like rooster teeth or machinima can you make money off these videos
PS - Local_H_Jay
Sub me on Youtube
And Twitch
To me it was no more jarring than watching a cutscene. Plus, you can't show what a Spartan is truly capable of in live action, you can only approximate it.
They have 400% faster than average reflexes and can run in bursts over 25 miles an hour. Kelly clocked out at near 40. They can literally tear soldiers limb from limb in melee combat. You simply can't show that in live action without an insane budget.
To me, the Package shows what most Spartans are like during normal ground operations. It takes a fleet, a trap, or a really damn good warrior to kill one. Anything less and you're just wasting military assets.
I'd be interested to see if someone could remake boarding action from Halo CE on that map
Probably wouldn't work too well with the current sandbox but it would be interesting nonetheless
Oh, fuck me.
Progression system details.
But now I can finally have my DMR/PP starts.
I'm sure that and BR/PP are going to be might popular with the masses.