Halo - Ghosts of Onyx

[Ionsniper]

Finished reading the book about a week ago and just now got around to posting about it. It takes place during the second Halo game I believe. It talks about the third Spartan Program and the other spartans that are left. I thought it was a really good book since I couldnt put it down and revealed more about the Halo universe than previous books did.

Just like Halo 2 though the book leaves you with a cliffhanger ending that leaves you thinking WTF. Though I think this might be due to Bunjie haveing some say in the book. The Author said in an interview that there were certain events that Bunjie wanted in the book that had to happen but gave him complete freedom to write how he wanted. As long as he included the events they wanted.

Id personally recommend this book to ANY Halo fan as it shows how the top Brass of the military handles the Spartan project and reveales more information on the Forerunners.

[Ham n Cheese]

books that end on WTF cliffhanger endings deserve to be burned.

[chaos]

I've only read The Fall of Reach, and it was actually a really good book. One thing I never understand about the games though, why aren't they pumping out 1,000 spartans per week? shit we've seen what they can do, they are all badasses, and the program seems to be terminated, now there's a war consuming the entire galaxy. meh.

[Ionsniper]

Well in the first book Fall of Reach I think it tells how the Spartans are made. They are handpicked from a select genetic pool. Those that are selected are kidnapped around age 4-5 and taken to the Spartan training camp. There they train continuously for about 10-15 years. After the training is done they then undergo biogenetic enhancements. At the time when the first spartans were made they had less than a 50% chance of surviving or becoming unmutated. The original program I believe had 100 spartans of which I believe only 46 survived with no complications.

Another reason they just cant pump out spartans is the cost of them. The Mjolnir armor itself runs around the cost of a cruiser. In Ghosts of Onyx you learn how the military begins to cut back on the Spartan program. Its an interesting book in how the military views the spartan program as a whole and how they feel about the creator of the Spartans, Dr.Halsey.

[Cybsled]

Fall of Reach was probably the first video game inspired book I read that was actually pretty good. As Ion mentioned, Spartans took a long time to produce and were an extremely large investment. It wasn't just a case of throwing some dude in armor. Infact, the armor was only able to be worn by the genetically engineered Spartans because only they could withstand the incredible damage the suit could inflict. I remember a scene in the first book where a marine tests the suit, does a small motion, but it is reflected by the suit with such great speed and force that it literally shatters the bones in the poor test pilot.

[Don Won]

From what I was to understand, making more spartans would not have necessarily turned the tide of war.

Covenant spacecraft >>>>>>>> human spacecraft.

[chaos]

true but Keyes already proved in Fall of Reach that he can own a covenant ship (kind of). In a ground war, which the war for the rings largely is, the Spartans dominate the covenant in crazy numbers. I remember the genetic mutations killing a large number of the children in the first book but I'd still think they'd be looking for a way to continue the project.

another thing I wonder is where are they going to take this story after Halo 3, it's too big of a property for them to just end it.

[Bizanich]

The Fall of Reach was a great book, far exceeded my expectations. The Flood was a horrible book, and First Strike was somewhere in between.

In Fall of Reach, Chief Mendez leaves before the Covenant war really begins to start training the next group of Spartans. I haven't read Ghosts of Onyx, yet, but hopefully it addresses this stuff.

The only thing that bothered me, storyline wise, is that the Covenant are so far superior to the humans that I don't see how the Humans could win/survive realistically, unless it's due to something cliche like internal Covenant politics.

[chaos]

heh you must not have played Halo 2, politics is going to figure greatly into the outcome of the war. Fall of Reach is the only book I've read so not sure if they disclose more than Halo 2 did.

[Bizanich]

Originally Posted by chaos

heh you must not have played Halo 2, politics is going to figure greatly into the outcome of the war. Fall of Reach is the only book I've read so not sure if they disclose more than Halo 2 did.

Yeah, I played it, and the Flood fucked over the Covenant world, but in the books it makes the Covenant seem like an Empire. The Flood taking over one world shouldn't end it.

But, they are so focused on Earth, maybe...

[Digits]

I take it from this that if I'm interested in Halo books I should look into The Fall of Reach and Ghosts of Onyx? I didn't realize that Halo had good books out there in this universe

[Don Won]

Originally Posted by Digits

I take it from this that if I'm interested in Halo books I should look into The Fall of Reach and Ghosts of Onyx? I didn't realize that Halo had good books out there in this universe

Yeah, all the Halo books are enjoyable to one who is a fan of the universe.

The Fall of Reach and Ghosts of Onyx are easily the best of the four, with First Strike coming in second, and The Flood a close third (imo). I've handed people who have hated, or were otherwise not very interested in the Halo universe a copy of The Fall of Reach and they've enjoyed the book thoroughly. Halo franchise aside, the books are some pretty good sci-fi.

I just finished Ghosts of Onyx last night and wow, that ending is nuts. A++ book .