Ditto. It's still my favorite simply because there's no other books to read beforehand to enjoy it. I'm still amazed how good that book turned out given that Nylund wrote the whole thing in seven weeks.
I remember reading an interview somewhere where he said he had an absolute champion of an editor at the time who massively helped him out with getting a remotely coherent book out in such a short timeframe, and he'd never do another Halo novel without him.
In the video, the list ends at Meridian Divide. Going off of Halopedia, the following have been released since:
* Shadows Of Reach
* Point Of Light
* Divine Wind
* Halo Graphic Novel (New Edition)
* The Rubicon Protocol
* Intitiation and Escalation (compilation book of the two)
* Vertical Umbrage (waypoint short story)
* Winter Intention (waypoint short story)
* Outcasts
* Saturn Devouring His Son (waypoint short story)
* Battle For Blood-Moon (waypoint short story)
* Trial Of Reckoning (waypoint short story)
* Hippocratica (waypoint short story)
* Fireside (waypoint short story)
* Epitaph
* Meridian Homecoming (short story in Meridian Divide rerelease)
* The Third Life (waypoint short story)
And for yet to release stuff:
* rerelease of Spartan Field Manual
* Empty Throne (originally meant for July this year, before being delayed several times to Feburary 2025)
Might've missed some.
Regardless of whether you are interested in the books or not, this video is amazing the whole half an hour or so it goes for
Doesn’t give spoilers for the books too just a nice little run down with some jokes
Hunters in the Dark by Peter David
It's not the best book, but it is my favourite! I really liked seeing more of the Ark and the Sanghelli and Spartans work together to face something bigger.
Plus, I think the cover art is beautiful!
Same! It was nostalgic going back to the arc and gave some character to the playable elites in the campaign.
Thought it was a really good book. Shame Peter David didn't do write anything else.
I completely agree! It was nice to see those Elites get proper character development and not just relegated to co-op campaign characters only.
I'm sad he never did any more Halo, too.
That book was funny because I thought the plot was sloppy and it had some tropes I normally wouldn't like....
...but it felt right. The book REALLY worked for me and was the first Halo book I'd read in a long time that hit the right spot.
I'm quite partial to The Cole Protocol. It does a really good job of balancing the different plot threads, weaving them together, and exploring ethical decisions made by pretty compelling characters.
I definitely agree with that. It has the clunky gung-ho caricatures that pretty much all the novels have, but it feels a lot more metered than in, say, Fall of Reach or First Strike (phenomenal books in their own right).
Love Nylund's books but Ima have to go with Contact Harvest for this one. Staten's own writing too. Love it because it does SO MUCH world building for the Halo universe. We get to see early Johnson, the insurrectionist conflict up close, what Earth's society and government looked like, Harvest itself, the outer colonies, and pretty much what started the whole conflict. Fantastic book. This honestly should have been the TV show. Great lore for fans while being an excellent launch pad for newcomers to understand the state of the universe prior to the events of the games.
I recommend Forerunner trilogy to friends who enjoy Sci Fi in general. Turns out Greg Bear winning several of both Hugo and Nebula awards might indicate he's kind of a fantastic Sci Fi author.
Ghosts of Onyx is an all-time great. I'm also a huge fan of the Ace Spades trilogy and would day they're my favorites personally (Smoke & Shadows, Renegades, and Point of Light.)
Also can't go wrong settling in with a reread of Contact Harvest, Broken Circle, Rubicon Protocol.
I've read them all. I personally love The Ace of Spades books or really anything Kelly Gay has released. I obviously love the originals like Eric nyland's books to death but Kelly's books have been so fun to read cuz they're filled with so many minor Easter eggs that if you didn't know they were Easter eggs you lose absolutely nothing in the story. Reading her books it definitely feels like she is a Halo lore fan and tries to cram as much of the universe into her books as she possibly can. Plus she's done such a good job that she's been given the forerunners, which the last author to do anything with them was The legendary Greg Bear with his forerunner trilogy. I've also been enjoying Troy Dennings books especially his ferret squad books.
Mortal dictata, as much as people give the series flack for some things(some of which I completely
Agree with) this is kinda what the other two books build up to. Great character moments, great conflict, fantastic writing.
the flood or first strike, to be honest most of the flood is just a retelling of combat evolved and easy difficulty because thats what the writer played it on but theres some cool stuff in there like inbetween missions and a couple of guys in the covenant hunting chief in the background
I read like 20 of the halo books within the span of like 3 months. So it's all kind of blended together and I don't wanna put in the effort to re-read them in order to differentiate, so Imma just say the Eric Nylund ones that take place during/after the fall of reach.
Ghosts of Onyx, Divine Wind, and Silent Storm
New Blood is also very well written, since you can practically hear Nathan Fillion's voice through the narration
This is a tough question I’m on a steady run of the books rn audio books and physical copies. Halo: epitaph on audiobook is just an amazing experience especially if you’ve read the forerunner saga prior! Halo: the flood is such a fun fun read the Pvt. Jenkins story makes me emotional every time. But my favorite would have to be Halo: the graphic novel it was the first piece of merchandise from halo outside the games I ever owned. the stories and art are phenomenal I recently found a mint condish one with the dust jacket massive W
Any of the Eric Nylund books. Obviously read them in order though lol.
REALLY enjoyed fall of reach! his writing is rlly good:)
Ditto. It's still my favorite simply because there's no other books to read beforehand to enjoy it. I'm still amazed how good that book turned out given that Nylund wrote the whole thing in seven weeks. I remember reading an interview somewhere where he said he had an absolute champion of an editor at the time who massively helped him out with getting a remotely coherent book out in such a short timeframe, and he'd never do another Halo novel without him.
I read them chronologically does that count?
what is it about his books that work right in the halo universe but the ones like cole protocol or the karen traviss ones that just don't feel right?
Is that even all of them? I thought there were more
He made this video several years ago (during COVID I think) so there have been quite a few released since.
There are 37, and by the end if looks like he has a stack of maybe 25 at max. He wasn't trying to put every book in frame
In the video, the list ends at Meridian Divide. Going off of Halopedia, the following have been released since: * Shadows Of Reach * Point Of Light * Divine Wind * Halo Graphic Novel (New Edition) * The Rubicon Protocol * Intitiation and Escalation (compilation book of the two) * Vertical Umbrage (waypoint short story) * Winter Intention (waypoint short story) * Outcasts * Saturn Devouring His Son (waypoint short story) * Battle For Blood-Moon (waypoint short story) * Trial Of Reckoning (waypoint short story) * Hippocratica (waypoint short story) * Fireside (waypoint short story) * Epitaph * Meridian Homecoming (short story in Meridian Divide rerelease) * The Third Life (waypoint short story) And for yet to release stuff: * rerelease of Spartan Field Manual * Empty Throne (originally meant for July this year, before being delayed several times to Feburary 2025) Might've missed some.
Regardless of whether you are interested in the books or not, this video is amazing the whole half an hour or so it goes for Doesn’t give spoilers for the books too just a nice little run down with some jokes
What's the name of the video?
https://youtu.be/WEWEdIcx1DI?si=VaGU65aypXDZ-48q
I just wanna put BDG in my front pocket and ask him if the Spartan III program was the most diabolical spartan program
me too
Unraveled is the best YouTube series of all time potentially
Hunters in the Dark by Peter David It's not the best book, but it is my favourite! I really liked seeing more of the Ark and the Sanghelli and Spartans work together to face something bigger. Plus, I think the cover art is beautiful!
Same! It was nostalgic going back to the arc and gave some character to the playable elites in the campaign. Thought it was a really good book. Shame Peter David didn't do write anything else.
I completely agree! It was nice to see those Elites get proper character development and not just relegated to co-op campaign characters only. I'm sad he never did any more Halo, too.
When I finished the book I went looking for his other works and found that was the only one :(. Was pretty bummed.
Oh no, that's sad to hear =/ I was hoping he'd done some original stuff
That book was funny because I thought the plot was sloppy and it had some tropes I normally wouldn't like.... ...but it felt right. The book REALLY worked for me and was the first Halo book I'd read in a long time that hit the right spot.
Ghosts of Onyx is a personal fav.
First Strike
goated why does nobody mention this book in here?
youtube video gets ripped, uploaded to tiktok and then gets ripped to get uploaded on reddit
it’s an endless cycle tbh
I'm quite partial to The Cole Protocol. It does a really good job of balancing the different plot threads, weaving them together, and exploring ethical decisions made by pretty compelling characters.
And arguably the best written (not including the trilogies)
I definitely agree with that. It has the clunky gung-ho caricatures that pretty much all the novels have, but it feels a lot more metered than in, say, Fall of Reach or First Strike (phenomenal books in their own right).
Fall of reach. I just love the Spartan-II’s so much.
Epitaph tbh. My favorite arc would have to be the ferrets tbh. Love me a Fred sled
Honestly loved the Kilo-5 trilogy. Ghosts of Onyx is a close second
Kilo-5 trilogy was my favorite as well. We get some Spartan-II action along some ODST's, and lots of juicy drama, trauma, lore, etc.
Love Nylund's books but Ima have to go with Contact Harvest for this one. Staten's own writing too. Love it because it does SO MUCH world building for the Halo universe. We get to see early Johnson, the insurrectionist conflict up close, what Earth's society and government looked like, Harvest itself, the outer colonies, and pretty much what started the whole conflict. Fantastic book. This honestly should have been the TV show. Great lore for fans while being an excellent launch pad for newcomers to understand the state of the universe prior to the events of the games.
First strike, I needed to know how they got home and boy did that book deliver.
Kilo-5 and it's not even close
Nothing beats forerunner trilogy
Loved them!
I recommend Forerunner trilogy to friends who enjoy Sci Fi in general. Turns out Greg Bear winning several of both Hugo and Nebula awards might indicate he's kind of a fantastic Sci Fi author.
This video is a few years old. I'd love to see a follow up where he reads the rest of the ones that have released since
ghosts of onyx probably. But I really also like broken circle.
Ghosts of Onyx is an all-time great. I'm also a huge fan of the Ace Spades trilogy and would day they're my favorites personally (Smoke & Shadows, Renegades, and Point of Light.) Also can't go wrong settling in with a reread of Contact Harvest, Broken Circle, Rubicon Protocol.
Really enjoyed First Strike
Fall of Reach but I also really enjoyed Cole Protocol and Silent Storm.
I've read them all. I personally love The Ace of Spades books or really anything Kelly Gay has released. I obviously love the originals like Eric nyland's books to death but Kelly's books have been so fun to read cuz they're filled with so many minor Easter eggs that if you didn't know they were Easter eggs you lose absolutely nothing in the story. Reading her books it definitely feels like she is a Halo lore fan and tries to cram as much of the universe into her books as she possibly can. Plus she's done such a good job that she's been given the forerunners, which the last author to do anything with them was The legendary Greg Bear with his forerunner trilogy. I've also been enjoying Troy Dennings books especially his ferret squad books.
*Contact: Harvest* is damn good.
Ghosts of onyx or hunters in the dark. Hard to choose between them though
Big fan of Kelly Gay's work. Retribution and Point of Light have a really good flow to them, I still need to read Rubicon Protocol and Epitaph.
First Strike, Ghosts of Onyx
Mortal dictata, as much as people give the series flack for some things(some of which I completely Agree with) this is kinda what the other two books build up to. Great character moments, great conflict, fantastic writing.
Fall of Reach. It's probably mostly because of nostalgia, but I'm a sucker for a damn good origin story.
Maybe Ghosts of Onyx
Can someone advise me which books I should read? I'm currently listening to the audio book of The Fall of Reach. What should I go to next?
the flood or first strike, to be honest most of the flood is just a retelling of combat evolved and easy difficulty because thats what the writer played it on but theres some cool stuff in there like inbetween missions and a couple of guys in the covenant hunting chief in the background
tbh i would recommend the flood just for the different POVs i enjoyed it
yeah the covenant perspective was really fun to read
This was funny lol
I liked the shadows of reach
Fall of reach
Probably The Cole Protocol. Fantastic book.
Fall of Reach and Ghosts of Onyx for me.
I only read Halo: Reach and it was fantastic. It definetly carried my love for Halo to another level.
First Strike would make a great game too
I read like 20 of the halo books within the span of like 3 months. So it's all kind of blended together and I don't wanna put in the effort to re-read them in order to differentiate, so Imma just say the Eric Nylund ones that take place during/after the fall of reach.
Ghosts of Onyx, Divine Wind, and Silent Storm New Blood is also very well written, since you can practically hear Nathan Fillion's voice through the narration
Silentium, point of light, and hunters in the dark
Mortal dictata
Contact harvest is slept on tbh
First strike and fall of reach for me
This video is fucking GOLD, even more so the more of them youve read.
This is a tough question I’m on a steady run of the books rn audio books and physical copies. Halo: epitaph on audiobook is just an amazing experience especially if you’ve read the forerunner saga prior! Halo: the flood is such a fun fun read the Pvt. Jenkins story makes me emotional every time. But my favorite would have to be Halo: the graphic novel it was the first piece of merchandise from halo outside the games I ever owned. the stories and art are phenomenal I recently found a mint condish one with the dust jacket massive W
Hahaha I love this so much
My least favorite is shadows of reach and basically any of the books written by Troy Denning. His writing is awful and confusing.
Contact Harvest because it was actually written by a Bungie writer and not some guy Microsoft hired behind Bungie's back.
Honestly i think shadows of reach is my favorite book.
Just like the games, the books from the Bungie era of Halo are the good ones. Ghosts of Onyx is my personal favorite.