Halo Novels

[Farmer]

Ever since Halo CE came out, I've been a big fan of the series and of the game universe, but only recently discovered the books.

Last week I found a copy of Contact Harvest and read it. Since then I've finished that, First Strike, and starting up Fall of Reach. (I know, wrong order, but I bought First Strike for the plane and they didn't have Fall of Reach).

First Strike and Fall of Reach read like an action FPS in book form, pretty enjoyable and super fast page turners. But Contact Harvest has a more genuine sci-fi feel to it, perspective from Covenant side, and side story (albeit shallow) involving AIs.

Whose read these? Which one is your fav? I'd have to say of the ones I read so far, definitely Contact Harvest.

 

[Raduque]

Was it Fall of Reach where the human squad (non SPARTANS) stole the Covenant cruiser? I liked that one.

 

[Anubis]

I have read all of them but the newest one. enjoyed them all

 

[Ruptga]

I once read Contact Harvest. I only read it because I was on-call and had nothing better to do. I was expecting something absolutely terrible and was pleasantly surprised. I'm not really big on books, but I actually took it from the break room to finish it at home.

 

[Farmer]

Halo does a good job of keeping with military customs and etiquette, but one thing annoying about the Nylund books: they salute NCOs and call them sirs. I quit ROTC after 2 years but that annoys me so much.

"Chief" is acceptable. "Sir" is not.

 

[OVerLoRDI]

I just read the first one.. Fall of Reach I think? I remember being surprised at how good it was considering it was a video game derived novel. I can't remember what their huge guns on the ships were called, but the space combat in those books was really cool.

 

[darkswordsman17]

I just read the first one.. Fall of Reach I think? I remember being surprised at how good it was considering it was a video game derived novel. I can't remember what their huge guns on the ships were called, but the space combat in those books was really cool.

I think they were called MAC cannons.

Yeah, I was pretty impressed. No they're not masterpieces, but they're enjoyable and a step above the typical pop-novel fodder. The first and third books were good. The second was kinda bland. I don't think I've read any of the others.

 

[Farmer]

The science fiction in the Halo world is actually pretty well grounded in real science. The MACs, the ship movements. Even the most far-fetched stuff, like "slipstream," is explained by "anomalous quantum gravity effects." Quantum gravity being a frontier science right now, that's kind of more believable.

So far, I think the 1st book, FoR, trumps the 3rd book First Strike.

 

[brblx]

i would make fun of this, but i've read the mass effect books (just two).

prolly about the same. not great literature, but competently written. the funny part about the mass effect books is that the universe seems so expansive and informitive in the game that the book doesn't really give you a ton extra.

i'd probably enjoy a halo book a hell of a lot more than a halo game. who's writing them? with mass effect, iirc it's the same guy who writes the stories for the games.

The science fiction in the Halo world is actually pretty well grounded in real science. The MACs, the ship movements. Even the most far-fetched stuff, like "slipstream," is explained by "anomalous quantum gravity effects." Quantum gravity being a frontier science right now, that's kind of more believable.

So far, I think the 1st book, FoR, trumps the 3rd book First Strike.

kinda how i feel about mass effect. definitely my favorite fully conceived sci-fi universe. and i did always feel that the backdrop and BASIC story of halo was pretty good, it just needed (sorry) much better games.

 

[NikolaeVarius]

The science fiction in the Halo world is actually pretty well grounded in real science. The MACs, the ship movements. Even the most far-fetched stuff, like "slipstream," is explained by "anomalous quantum gravity effects." Quantum gravity being a frontier science right now, that's kind of more believable.

So far, I think the 1st book, FoR, trumps the 3rd book First Strike.

Oh comon, to claim that halo is anything above soft science is lunacy. Just because it sounds more "believable" doesn't mean its grounded in real science.

Hell, 40K novels can do science better than the Halo novels.

 

[brblx]

i know what he means, though.

it's like watching lost. even the 'scientific' episodes were retarded, but they were a hell of a lot more than the ones that concluded that the island was pure magic coated in magic with magic fillings and blessed by jesus.

 

[Farmer]

Oh comon, to claim that halo is anything above soft science is lunacy. Just because it sounds more "believable" doesn't mean its grounded in real science.

Hell, 40K novels can do science better than the Halo novels.

Meh, to each their own.

I think its grounded in real science at a high level. The details are obviously fabricated. Quantum gravity is an active field in modern research, and to link something as far-fetched as faster than light travel to quantum gravity shows awareness of current direction in physics research, and pays homage to historical sci-fi explanations for such things, a la Star Trek (which I believe explained it using GR alone). The explanations are manufactured, but the vocabulary is academic and to the laymen sound fairly authentic.

The Covenant plasma weapons are magnetically confined plasma, and magnetic confinement fusion is/was a very active field of research.

The concept of AIs, von Neumann machines, all classic sci-fi stuff. The merging of technology and mysticism makes the story feel more epic.

I mean, TBH, the Halo story sounds like every other video game story, especially Starcraft (UNSC = Terran, Flood = Zerg, Forerunner = Xel'Naga, Protoss ~~ Covenant, kind of), but I find it far more interesting that the Starcraft universe simple because there is more detail and things are more fleshed out.

I don't know, I think Bungie crafts a pretty good story. We'll see where Microsoft takes it from on it. For Halo 4, it can be either epic, or a total farce.

 

[NikolaeVarius]

Meh, to each their own.

I think its grounded in real science at a high level. The details are obviously fabricated. Quantum gravity is an active field in modern research, and to link something as far-fetched as faster than light travel to quantum gravity shows awareness of current direction in physics research, and pays homage to historical sci-fi explanations for such things, a la Star Trek (which I believe explained it using GR alone).

The Covenant plasma weapons are magnetically confined plasma, and magnetic confinement fusion is/was a very active field of research.

The concept of AIs, von Neumann machines, all classic sci-fi stuff. The merging of technology and mysticism makes the story feel more epic.

I mean, TBH, the Halo story sounds like every other video game story, especially Starcraft, but I find it far more interesting that the Starcraft universe simple because there is more detail and things are more fleshed out.

I don't know, I think Bungie crafts a pretty good story. We'll see where Microsoft takes it from on it. For Halo 4, it can be either epic, or a total farce.

Quantum Gravity is not currently a real science as much as Infinity -1 = Cadillac is math. It's nothing. We don't even know if such a thing exists, and we've been working on it for about half a century. And there is nothing in it that has anything to do with surpassing light speed. It's merely a combination of quantum mechanics with relativity into a single unified theory.

As for plasma, yes plasma is a big topic in the scientific field, and has been used in every single sci fi ever. Problems with plasma include, as soon as magnetic field stops being applied, plasma automatically stops burning, without constant source of fuel, it stops burning, plasma is a gas, when it hits atmosphere, it might as well be hitting a brick wall. Plasma guns are impossible, and even if they were, a defense against them includes turning on a magnetic field inducer. But, of course, since every single sci fi ever uses it, the science behind it is usually ignored.

The merging of technology and religion has been done since the advent of science fiction.

I personally think Halo is such a dull universe. It doesn't really have anything that differentiates it from other Humanity Fuck yeah type universes, nothing about it is interesting.

 

[Farmer]

And there is nothing in it that has anything to do with surpassing light speed. It's merely a combination of quantum mechanics with relativity into a single unified theory.

That's all true. The possibility of "faster-than-light" travel has been of theoretical interest in relativity for some time (ER bridges, Alcubierre metric), but it seems plausible that a working theory of quantum gravity may result in some more advances along those same lines. This is ripe for exploitation in sci-fi, which Halo does.

It has nothing to do with whether or not it is factual or realizable today, nor can you say it's "implausible" without being incredibly narrow-minded. We don't understand the field, nor do we have a valid theory. How can you say it's "implausible" or that it has something to do with this or that? 60 years ago there was no electroweak theory. 140 years ago people thought Maxwell's equations completed physics. That's why there is sci-fi.

As for plasma, yes plasma is a big topic in the scientific field, and has been used in every single sci fi ever. Problems with plasma include, as soon as magnetic field stops being applied, plasma automatically stops burning, without constant source of fuel, it stops burning, plasma is a gas, when it hits atmosphere, it might as well be hitting a brick wall. Plasma guns are impossible, and even if they were, a defense against them includes turning on a magnetic field inducer. But, of course, since every single sci fi ever uses it, the science behind it is usually ignored.

The merging of technology and religion has been done since the advent of science fiction.

I personally think Halo is such a dull universe. It doesn't really have anything that differentiates it from other Humanity Fuck yeah type universes.

Halo does much better than most video-game derived drivel simply because it uses many elements of real science fiction. At least that's my argument. I'm impressed, and I like it very much.