Halo: Broken Circle (BaDay 07)

On 02/07/2015 at 03:03 AM by KnightDriver

Linked to Article Series: Blog a Day (BaD) 2015

I just finished John Shirley's novel Halo: Broken Circle, the latest, and 13th, novel about events in the Halo universe.

hbc

John Shirley has written cyberpunk and horror novels. He's written for TV, film, and done lyrics for rock groups. He even fronts his own punk band, Obsession. He's also done a bunch of tie-in novels for games like Bioshock and Borderlands.

Halo: Broken Circle takes place in two different eras. The first half of the book is all about the creation of The Covenant, the alliance between Prophets and Elites that also ends up including all the other alien races in Halo. The point of view alternates between a Prophet who is uncertain of the new order, and an Elite who rejects The Covenant and attempts to form a rebel faction.

The second half of the book takes place many centuries later, just after the events of Halo 3, where Master Chief and The Arbiter have foiled The Covenant's attempt to secure The Ark. The point of view alternates again between a Prophet who has to choose a side in the civil war that breaks out between Elites and Brutes, and the decendents of the rebel Elite from the first half, who are living a bleak existence on the remote Forerunner construct.

Got all that?

It's an interesting change of perspective from the last trilogy, by Karin Traviss, which was all from the point of view of a human ONI special team, and taking place just after the events of the second half of Halo: Broken Circle.

I enjoyed the brief appearance of Brute leader Tartarus because he's the only action figure I have.

tartarus

There's a cool battle scene between Tartarus and Elites that showcase the effects of that energy hammer he carries. I remember that was a very fun weapon to weild in Halo 3.

So I really liked this novel. I've read all the Halo novels. This one is not the best, but it's pretty good. It was a quick read too. I generally like the denser Halo novels, like the ones Greg Bear did all about the Forerunners, but I enjoyed it. I wonder if we'll see in Halo 5, the more energetic Prophets who live on their home world who you get to meet in this book.

As sentinel, Enduring Bias, says as a goodbye in this book, "Happy algorithms!"

Blake Turner Staff Writer

02/07/2015 at 06:50 AM

In your opinion, are the Halo novels worth reading? Are they well written at all, and will they make the game's story not terrible.

KnightDriver

02/09/2015 at 03:27 AM

The only one I didn't like much was Halo: The Flood which was the only one to follow closely the story of one of the games, the first one. All the other 12 books are well written and tell much better stories than any of the games.

Travis Hawks Senior Editor

02/07/2015 at 12:07 PM

I read this one too and liked it quite a bit. I've yet to read the Forerunner books you mention, but I need to. I liked the dual timelines, and especially liked reading about the Prophets returning to their homeworld and learning a bit more about them and how they barely ascended to lead the whole Covenant in the first place. I am guessing we'll see some tie-ins with Halo 5 with the whatever-they-were-called Elites. Possibly another weak tie in to the story like Halo 4 did in the co-op missions. Oh well, the book was good on its own.

02/09/2015 at 03:36 AM

I think they don't try too hard to tie-in these books to the games. I struggle to think of one of them that directly led to something important in any of the games. But, I kind of like that because you get something different, and yet in the same universe.

PixlBit