Halo: Cryptum by Greg Bear review - The first of the Forerunner trilogy 100,000 years before the video games’ events, the primary protagonist throughout is an average Forerunner called Bornstellar Makes Eternal Lasting (aka, Bornstellar). This first book is where we learn the most about Forerunner culture and religion. One of these vital aspects includes their caste system. From highest to lowest, they are Builders, Miners, Lifeworkers, Warrior-Servants, Juridicals, and Engineers. Builders are responsible for constructing architecture and infrastructure, which leads the reader to rightly assume they were largely responsible for building the Halo Array. Miners provide the materials needed for the Builders. Lifeworkers specialise in biology and medicine. Warrior-Servants, as the vocation suggests, make up the military. Juridicals are the legislative body, eminently presiding over cases violating the Mantle, which is the Forerunners’ religious creed of being responsible for all life in the galaxy. Engineers, the lowest class, maintain the infrastructure and machinery. Bornstellar is a Manipular, the Forerunner equivalent to an adolescent, who refuses his father’s wishes to become a Builder. He prefers to research an enigmatic, ancient alien race called the Precursors. With the help of some ancient humans, Chakas and Riser, he discovers a long ancient secret in the Cryptum that could threaten the galaxy. The book is a little confusing to read at first because there’s no Covenant or UNSC, but mostly because there’s a whole “new” alien culture you have to get used to. Bear doesn’t ease you into this new world; he just throws you right in and you have to stumble your way through it. It wasn’t until I had read the entire trilogy a second time that I finally understood what was going on. Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⚫️ #bookstagram #bookreview #Halo
Contact Harvest by Joseph Staten review - This book is the origin story of the famous Sergeant Avery Johnson who makes his first debut in the first #Halo game, Halo: Combat Evolved. In fact, it is rich in origin stories, as you also read about the Prophet Hierarchs and the Brute named Tartarus from Halo 2. The reader gains insight into Sergeant Johnson’s military career and it also tells the story of humanity’s first, unprecedented contact with the menagerie of religious alien zealots calling themselves the Covenant on the human Outer Colony world, Harvest. Thus, you learn more about the Covenant’s fanaticism as well. You get part of Harvest’s story in the game, Halo Wars, but this book is from Sergeant Johnson’s perspective, in addition to other lore. Here, you learn why Harvest was such a significant loss for humanity as it tells Sergeant Johnson’s role in preventing the Covenant from finding an important Forerunner artefact. In the parts where you read about the Prophet Hierarchs, Truth, Mercy, and Regret, you also learn the reasoning behind their conspiracy that is first unearthed by the “heretic” leader in Halo 2 that will eventually lead to the Covenant Schism and winning the Arbiter over to humanity’s side in that same game. Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ #bookstagram #bookreview
The Cabin at the End of the World by Paul Tremblay review - Once you get past the feckless, infantile apologetics for same-sex marriage in the first few pages of the book, the rest is filled with bizarre events as four strangers bequeath Andrew, Eric, and their adopted daughter Wen with the task of stopping the end of the world. Who would say no to that? Probably no one, but who would believe THEY’RE specifically chosen to save the world, let alone the requirement of an impossible decision to make, especially from four strangers you’ve never met carrying strange tools/weapons? If you’ve seen the trailer for the movie, “Knock at the Cabin,” which is an adaptation of this book, then you already know what that decision entails. (If you don’t and don’t want any spoilers, don’t go googling it.) Borrowing Samuel Beckett’s style of telling a story in a single location (though far from his genre of theatre of the absurd), the story moves along as it smoothly transitions from scene to scene while the trio, hostages in their own cabin, attempt to figure the strangers out. Are the strangers experiencing a shared delusion, or are they being truthful? Will they slowly believe what the strangers are telling them and make the selfless choice, or the selfish one? Will someone make the choice for them all, making the impossible choice and bearing the impossible weight like Jesus did on the cross? Will they even make a choice? Wild events take place in the cabin at the end of the world that will leave you wondering if this is truly how it ends. Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⚫️ #bookstagram #bookreview #thecabinattheendoftheworld #knockatthecabin #paultremblay
Halo: The Cole Protocol by Tobias S. Buckell review - In order of chronology, this is the first #Halo book where you read about another Spartan who’s not the Master Chief, named Ignatio Delgado. And not just one, but a trio of Spartans. Even ‘Thel Vadamee, whom we simply know as the Arbiter in the games, plays a role in this book. You don’t know it at the beginning of the first game, Halo: Combat Evolved, but everyone aboard the UNSC frigate the Pillar of Autumn accidentally stumble upon the Halo ring as a result of the Cole Protocol, named after Admiral Cole, its founder. This isn’t exactly a spoiler, but the Cole Protocol requires that when defeat is imminent during space battle, you either self-destruct or make a randomised slipspace jump (faster than light travel). The latter is what Captain Keyes opted to do on the Autumn, and he tells us the reason in the very first scene of the game. A randomised FTL jump or even something as drastic as self-destruction was deemed a necessary protocol because every UNSC frigate has an AI (like Cortana) that, if captured, the Covenant could learn everything about humanity: force deployments, weapons research, and Earth’s location. This book tells us what events led up to the installation of the Cole Protocol. It’s a great book that gives us some exciting lore, despite some continuity and spelling errors. For example, Buckell gets some blood colours of the aliens in the Covenant wrong (e.g., he describes Elites’ blood as being blue when it’s purple in the game, and he correctly describes Grunts’ blood as being blue but later says it’s purple). He also changes the name of the character Adriana to being “Adrienne” suddenly at the end of the book. Otherwise, it’s an enticing book as we read the story of a most formidable trio of Spartans essential to humanity’s survival. Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⚫️ #bookstagram #bookreview
The Lutheran Column 