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Halo Book Reviews
Access to the extended Halo universe has become a hell of a lot easier for the average Halo fan these days with the release of Halo: ODST and the Halo: Legends series appearing on Halo: Waypoint. Literature is still coming thick and fast from the newly formed 343 Industries which is now in charge of everything Halo related coming out of Microsoft.
Halo: Evolutions – Essential Tales of the Halo Universe is the latest novel and is a collection of short stories from various authors including Fall of Reach author Eric Nylund and Tobias Buckell who wrote The Cole Protocol.
There are a total of 16 stores in the novel, along with a smattering of Halo poetry and some simple artwork. Neither the artwork or poetry are anything to really write home about. The art is simple and recognisable as images of the Chief while the poetry feels very out of place with little relevance to the universe at all.
The stories are somewhat of a mixed bag. Jonathan Goff scores well with 'Headhunters' which follows the story of a two man Spartan-III team sent deep into Covenant territory to deal some serious damaged behind enemy lines while Robert McLees re-telling of a potion of Halo 2 that we don't get to play ourselves feels rather out of place and boring – perhaps the only interesting part is when Master Chief stumbles across a childhood friend.
Tess Kum and Jeff VanderMeer team up on 'The Mona Lisa' which is perhaps one of the highlights of the novel. Following 'Mama Lopez' and her team of Marines into a penal ship adrift among the debris of Halo Installation 4, they discover ONI have been conducting some nasty experiments and it features some gripping and imaginative descriptions of combat with The Flood.
Karen Traviss delivers perhaps the most compelling piece with 'Human Weakness' which gives us an exciting insight into “that” conversation between Cortana and the Gravemind which began at the end of Halo 2. The story includes some interesting insights into how the Gravemind works and into Cortana's character. Quite simply, the writing is of great quality and the topic is enthralling.
Halo: Evolutions does have some rather disappointing tales to tell from the Halo universe, but the positive ones outweigh them. Halo fans will certainly enjoy.
The Halo Encyclopedia is a great reference tool with fantastic artwork.
343 Industries have also produced The Halo Encyclopedia which is a great reference tool for those hardcore Halo geeks. It covers the Halo universe from Halo: Combat Evolved all the way through to Halo:ODST. No mention of Halo: Reach at all.
The encyclopedia covers everything from the UNSC to the Colonial Administration Authority, you can delve into an overview of human history in the Halo universe and how that pans out against the development of the Covenant. You'll find out a great deal of detail about the Covenant in general and it acts as a useful decoder for information about the Forerunners which was only accessible through study of the Halo 3 Forerunner terminals and other sources.
The foreword by Frankie O'Connor fails to deliver on promise and is a simple introduction to the encyclopedia rather than being anything genuinely insightful or interesting and the whole thing is edited by Tobias Buckell.
The best aspect of the encyclopedia is the sheer amount of fantastic artwork available throughout this large, hardback publication. The images ranging from icon shots of Master Chief to showing off Halo 3's great engine by using in game models to illustrate some of the pages.
Like Halo: Evolutions this will appeal to all the Halo fans out there but with a hefty £30 RRP perhaps the internet already holds the answers your looking for.
Halo: Evolutions – Essential Tales of the Halo Universe is the latest novel and is a collection of short stories from various authors including Fall of Reach author Eric Nylund and Tobias Buckell who wrote The Cole Protocol.
There are a total of 16 stores in the novel, along with a smattering of Halo poetry and some simple artwork. Neither the artwork or poetry are anything to really write home about. The art is simple and recognisable as images of the Chief while the poetry feels very out of place with little relevance to the universe at all.
The stories are somewhat of a mixed bag. Jonathan Goff scores well with 'Headhunters' which follows the story of a two man Spartan-III team sent deep into Covenant territory to deal some serious damaged behind enemy lines while Robert McLees re-telling of a potion of Halo 2 that we don't get to play ourselves feels rather out of place and boring – perhaps the only interesting part is when Master Chief stumbles across a childhood friend.
Tess Kum and Jeff VanderMeer team up on 'The Mona Lisa' which is perhaps one of the highlights of the novel. Following 'Mama Lopez' and her team of Marines into a penal ship adrift among the debris of Halo Installation 4, they discover ONI have been conducting some nasty experiments and it features some gripping and imaginative descriptions of combat with The Flood.
Karen Traviss delivers perhaps the most compelling piece with 'Human Weakness' which gives us an exciting insight into “that” conversation between Cortana and the Gravemind which began at the end of Halo 2. The story includes some interesting insights into how the Gravemind works and into Cortana's character. Quite simply, the writing is of great quality and the topic is enthralling.
Halo: Evolutions does have some rather disappointing tales to tell from the Halo universe, but the positive ones outweigh them. Halo fans will certainly enjoy.
The Halo Encyclopedia is a great reference tool with fantastic artwork.
343 Industries have also produced The Halo Encyclopedia which is a great reference tool for those hardcore Halo geeks. It covers the Halo universe from Halo: Combat Evolved all the way through to Halo:ODST. No mention of Halo: Reach at all.
The encyclopedia covers everything from the UNSC to the Colonial Administration Authority, you can delve into an overview of human history in the Halo universe and how that pans out against the development of the Covenant. You'll find out a great deal of detail about the Covenant in general and it acts as a useful decoder for information about the Forerunners which was only accessible through study of the Halo 3 Forerunner terminals and other sources.
The foreword by Frankie O'Connor fails to deliver on promise and is a simple introduction to the encyclopedia rather than being anything genuinely insightful or interesting and the whole thing is edited by Tobias Buckell.
The best aspect of the encyclopedia is the sheer amount of fantastic artwork available throughout this large, hardback publication. The images ranging from icon shots of Master Chief to showing off Halo 3's great engine by using in game models to illustrate some of the pages.
Like Halo: Evolutions this will appeal to all the Halo fans out there but with a hefty £30 RRP perhaps the internet already holds the answers your looking for.
