Didn't Troy Denning write some of those post-ROTJ Star Wars books?
Read Halo Oblivion by Troy Denning
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 On 01/01/2020 at 01:06 PM by KnightDriver See More From This User » |
1055 hours, January 1, 2020 (standard calendar)
Near Valley Forge Park
Pennsylvania foothills, Planet Earth, Sol System
I read a Halo book every year about this time. There’s always a new one out for the holiday season. I’ve been reading them since probably around 2003 and the third novel, First Strike. Most are by different authors. Some are more complex than others, but all have a lot of action and drama. I always enjoy them.
Oblivion Picks up soon after the events of previous novel Silent Storm where MC and Blue Team destroy a Covenant base in one of the first major conflicts of the Covenant/Human war. Oblivion begins with a mission to stop The Covenant from gaining raw materials on Mesra but most of the book concerns a mission to recover a downed Covenant ship on the desert planet Netherop (N’ba to the Covenant). But is it a trap for the spartans of Blue Team, John (Master Chief), Kelly, Fred and Linda? The book jogs back and forth between Blue Team and a Covenant Elite shipmaster named Nizat so you know what’s going on on both sides.
I found it a pretty good story; however, I was, at several points, wishing for a bit more. Several times you think there will be some new ancient tech revealed or a new place entered but it never happens. For the first 5 chapters you go to High Charity and the planet Mesra, but for 16 of the 21 chapters you're stuck in the deserts of Netherop/N’ba. I kept yearning for more locations.
The story’s end is somewhat of a downer, the mission being partly a failure. It feels like the middle book of a trilogy, which just may be the plan. Silent Storm tells of a hard-won victory and Oblivion a hard-won survival. They work well together and a third would wrap up the loose ends of this one. You could call Oblivion the Empire Strikes Back of the possible trilogy.
I feel like the focus on Master Chief and Blue team in the last few books, looks forward to the next game, Halo Infinity, coming in 2020, which is supposed to be a return to the series’ roots. I think this makes sense since 2021 will mark the 20th anniversary of the Halo franchise. I wonder what celebrations will occur.
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