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 On 03/20/2013 at 03:04 AM by KnightDriver See More From This User » |
Halo: Silentium, the third book in the Forerunner Trilogy, by Greg Bear came out today and I ran to Barnes and Noble and bought the big old hardback edition. On real paper! Imagine that! I do have an e-reader, but for certain books I'm really excited for, I get the hardback on day-one. This particular hard back, which is a little smaller than normal, sends me back to my high school days when I used to order sci-fi and fantasy novels through the mail. They would come in hard back, but in a slightly smaller and lighter format. Like they were using the cheapest possible matterials and cutting the size to save on costs. I didn't mind though, because I just had to read the next Piers Anthony fantasy or Samuel Delany science fiction, and I don't mind now because I just have to read the next Halo novel.
Greg Bear's Halo books though are anything but pulpy scifi as suggested by the cheap printing. They are well thought out, highly detailed and nuanced in the extreme. They are about Halo the video game, but not directly because all of this trilogy takes place millenia before Humans returned to space. "Returned to space" you say? Didn't Humans only gain space travel once in their history? Well, according to Mr. Bear's books, no. You learn about their ancient history. You find out who the Forerunners are and why they built the Halos. You learn about the origin of the Flood and its first infestation of the galaxy. You even learn a little bit about who came before the Forerunners, the unimaginitively named Precursors, and a strange creature called the Primordial from the edge of the galaxy.
I read the first few chapters of Silentium today. In the beginning, it attempts to recap the major events of the previous two books. I guess for those who haven't read them. I'm cool with it though. It's a nice summary of the major events that I read about last year in Halo: Primordium and two years ago in Halo: Cryptum.
I'll be putting all my other reading aside as I hungrily devour this, the only scifi series I follow at the moment, like I was reading Michael Moorcock's latest fantasy in the halls of high school. I still remember my English teacher looking at what I was reading and scoffing. Let a guy read some exciting stuff for a change I say! I did all my Thomas Wolfe and Dostoyevsky reading asssignments! Gee wiz!
Anyway, can you believe this is now the twelfth Halo book! I've read them all too and they were all pretty good. Except maybe Halo: The Flood, the second novel. That was a recap of the first Halo game and it was a little boring mainly because it had to follow the game, which I had played a lot. It would be the last book to stick to the story of any of the games though, which is a good thing. However, now that I think of it, the Halo: Fall of Reach novel is somewhat about the Halo: Reach game, but the book tells Master Chief's story, unlike the game, which tells the story of another team of spartans. So excpet for Halo: The Flood, none of the books really retell the story of any of the games. It makes the books more interesting to anyone who wants to find out more about the Halo universe. And I certainly do.
I've only ever really played Halo multiplayer, maybe seen a friend play a scene or two of a game, but I might like to read the books some time. I need to catch up on my own reading; Catching Fire, which is what I'm reading now, does that recap thing at the beginning as well.
I actually liked the Dostoyevsky we read in high school (Crime & Punishment), but I know what you mean, you have to read something fun for you instead of analyzing everything in a classic novel sometimes.
I did actually like my assigned reading. The Dostoyevsky I actually read on my own. It was the Brothers Karamazov. It's just sometimes you want to read a page turner like The Three Musketeers.
I still need to read that one (Brothers Karamazov
I've read all of the books except the Forerunner saga. I am in complete agreement that they are all generally pretty good except for The Flood. I started reading them because I thought they'd be kind of terrible, and now I've almost read them all. I really hope that next gen's ODST-style offshoot game is based on the Karen Traviss novels because that would be a nice change.
I'll be sure to read this series soon. Michael117 also speaks highly of them.
I would say Greg Bear's books are more technical and historical and less full of action than the others. I guess 'cause we're dealing with Forerunners who are super far advanced in technology and not at war with anyone other than themselves and the flood during the time the novels take place. There's no armored space marines flying in to save the day or Covenant armadas glassing planets like there are in the other books. There's a lot of history, and strange technology, and discussions over how to deal with the coming Flood invasion. It's cool though. I enjoy the different take on the Halo story.
I've never read a Halo novel, but I really like the Halo story. I loved Halo 4 and I thought it's story was amazing. The novels sound like they flesh all that backstory out nicely. It's probably a great way to keep all of it straight, because I know my first run through of Halo 4 got a little confusing with all the Frontrunner stuff and the Didact.
It's still confusing even after reading the books. It's a history across millions of years, so it's going to be complex. When I'm playing the games, I don't think about the story much until I come across a terminal. Then I think about it, get confused, and then go back to shooting.
Well, I hope you like it! Are there really twelve books at this point? I think I've read about six, but somewhere along the line I just lost interest in the ever-expanding Halo fiction.
Yea, 12 books. One of them is a collection of short stories, Evolutions, but it still counts. Ah what the heck, here's the list in chronological order:
Fall of Reach, The Flood, First Strike, Ghosts of Onyx, Contact Harvest, The Cole Protocol, Evolutions, Cryptum, Glasslands, Primordium, The Thursday War, and Silentium.
I've only recently gotten back into reading post-schooling (school made it feel a little like work if that makes sense). Now I really enjoy reading though. I may have to check some of these out. What would advise starting with out of these? I've played 1-3, ODST and Reach and recently started 4 if that makes any difference.
The book that tells of Master Chief's origins and is most relevant to all the games through Reach is Halo: Fall of Reach by Eric Nylund, the first Halo novel.
If you're really into the alien races that make up the Covenant, Halo: Contact Harvest was really cool because it told about humanity's first contact with them.
If you're really into Halo 4 though, I would say the Karen Traviss novels, Glasslands and The Thursday War are really fun because they tell of events going on right before Halo 4.
And if you want to know all about the Forerunners, read the Greg Bear books, Cryptum, Primordium, and Silientium.
Before Halo 4 came out I finished Cryptum which I loved. Now I need to get Primordium and Silentium, oh and The Thursday War too. So far I've read Fall of Reach, The Flood, First Strike, Ghosts of Onyx, Glasslands, and Cryptum. I'm also missing the Harvest one, but for now I want to focus on getting up to speed with Greg Bears series and the Kathrine Traviss series.
As soon as I get the chance I'm going to buy the box set with the first four books of the A Song of Ice and Fire series, so I may have to take a break from the Halo novels. We have a little time before Halo 5 comes along, so I'll have some time to get Primordium, Silentium, and Thursday War in at some point.
There's also another book trilogy on the way that I heard about on 343's podcast the other day. I forget the name of it though.
Thanks for the chronology. I was looking at those books today and saw there are a bunch now. Now I know where to begin. I like books based on games. All goes back to those Resident Evil and Tomb Raider books.
I've only read the first Mass Effect novel, but it was really good. I have to get into that series sometime.
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