Halo
33 primary works • 41 total works
Book 1
The New York Times bestselling origin story of the Master Chief—part of the expanded universe based on the award-winning video game series Halo!
The twenty-sixth century. Humanity has expanded beyond Earth’s system to hundreds of planets that colonists now call home. But the United Earth Government and the United Nations Space Command is struggling to control this vast empire. After exhausting all strategies to keep seething colonial insurrections from exploding into a full-blown interplanetary civil war, the UNSC has one last hope. At the Office of Naval Intelligence, Dr. Catherine Halsey has been hard at work on a top-secret program that could bring an end to the conflict…and it starts with seventy-five children, among them a six-year-old boy named John. And Halsey could never guess that this child will eventually become the final hope against an even greater peril engulfing the galaxy—the inexorable confrontation with a theocratic military alliance of alien races known as the Covenant.
This is the electrifying origin story of Spartan John-117—the Master Chief—and of his legendary, unstoppable heroism in leading the resistance against humanity’s possible extinction.
Book 2
The bestselling adaptation of the iconic video game Halo: Combat Evolved featuring the Master Chief-part of the expanded universe based on the award-winning video game series!
2552. Having barely escaped the final battle for Reach against the vast alien alliance known as the Covenant, the crew of the Pillar of Autumn, including Spartan John-117-the Master Chief-and his AI companion Cortana, is forced to make a desperate escape into slipspace. But their destination brings them to an ancient mystery and an even greater struggle. In this far-flung corner of the universe floats a magnificently massive, artificial ringworld. The crew's only hope of survival is to crash-land on its surface and take the battle opposing the Covenant to the ground.
But they soon discover that this enigmatic ringworld is much more than it seems. Built one hundred thousand years ago by a long-lost civilization known as the Forerunners, this "Halo" is worshipped by the Covenant-a sacred artifact they hope will complete their religious quest for supposed transcendence, and they will stop at nothing to control it. Engaging in fierce combat, Master Chief and Cortana will go deep into the Halo construct and uncover its dark secret and true purpose-even as a monstrous and far more vicious enemy than the Covenant emerges to threaten all sentient life on Halo and the galaxy beyond...
Book 3
The New York Times bestselling aftermath of Halo: Combat Evolved featuring the Master Chief-part of the expanded universe based on the award-winning video game series!
2552. The theocratic military alliance known as the Covenant is showing no mercy as it continues to assault every human world it encounters, but in the way lies humanity's greatest champion, the super-soldier Spartan John-117-the Master Chief. Together with his AI companion Cortana and the last remaining Spartans, the galaxy-spanning fight rages on two fronts following the destruction of the human military stronghold Reach by Covenant forces and the mysterious artificial ringworld known as "Halo" at the hands of the Master Chief.
One faction-a squad of Spartans lead by Blue Team's Fred-104 and Kelly-087-is trapped on the glassed surface of Reach, the only planet they've ever known as home. And beneath this ruined world, Dr. Catherine Halsey has discovered an ancient secret...one that could alter the course of the war. Meanwhile, the Master Chief and Cortana lead a second group toward a gathering of Covenant warships, as the United Nations Space Command's worst nightmare has finally come true: the Covenant has discovered the location of Earth and is forming a massive fleet to utterly destroy it, as well as all who oppose the indomitable will of the Prophets...
Book 4
The Spartan-II program has gone public. Tales of super-soldiers fending off thousands of Covenant attacks have become the stuff of legend.
But just how many Spartans are left?
While the Master Chief defends a besieged Earth, and the myriad factions of the Covenant continue their crusade to eliminate humanity, an ultrasecret cell of the Office of Naval Intelligence known as “Section Three” devises a plan to buy the UNSC vital time. They’re going to need hundreds of willing soldiers, though . . . and one more Spartan to get the job done.
The planet Onyx is virtually abandoned and the perfect place to set this new plan in motion. But when the Master Chief destroys Halo, something is triggered deep within Onyx: Ancient Forerunner technology stirs, and fleets of UNSC and Covenant race to claim it to change the course of the Human-Covenant War.
But this reawakened and ancient force may have plans of its own . . .
Book 5
This is how it began . . .
It is the year 2524. Harvest is a peaceful, prosperous farming colony on the very edge of human-controlled space. But we have trespassed on holy ground – strayed into the path of an aggressive alien empire known as “The Covenant.” What begins as a chance encounter between an alien privateer and a human freighter catapults mankind into a struggle for its very existence.
But humanity is also locked in a bitter civil war known as the “Insurrection.” So the survival of Harvest’s citizens falls to a squad of battle-weary UNSC Marines and their inexperienced colonial militia trainees. In this unlikely group of heroes, one stands above the rest . . . a young Marine staff sergeant named Avery Johnson.
Book 6
The New York Times bestseller-part of the expanded universe based on the award-winning video game series Halo!
2535. It is the first, desperate days of the Human-Covenant War, and the United Nations Space Command has enacted "the Cole Protocol" to safeguard Earth and its inner colonies from discovery by its merciless alien foe. Many are called upon to rid the galaxy of lingering navigation data that could potentially reveal the location of Earth and ensure the destruction of humanity. Among those tasked with eliminating any trace of such dangerous information is Navy Lieutenant Jacob Keyes-now saddled with a top-secret mission by the Office of Naval Intelligence...one that will take him to a corner of the galaxy where nothing is as it seems.
Out beyond the Outer Colonies lies the planet Hesiod, a gas giant surrounded by a vast asteroid belt. As the Covenant continues to glass the human-occupied planets near Hesiod, many of the survivors, aided by a stronghold of human insurrectionists, are fleeing to the asteroids for refuge. They have transformed the tumbling satellites into a tenuous yet ingenious settlement known as the Rubble-and have come face-to-face with a Covenant settlement of Kig-Yar...yet somehow survived. News of this unlikely treaty has spread to the warring factions. Luckily for the UNSC, this uneasy alliance is in the path of the Spartan Gray Team, a three-person renegade squad whose simple task is to wreak havoc from behind enemy lines in any way they see fit. But the Prophets have also sent their very best-an ambitious and ruthless Elite whose quest for nobility and rank is matched only by his brutality...
Book 7
Evolutions
by Tobias S Buckell, Brian Evenson, Jonathan Goff, Kevin Grace, Tessa Kum, Robt McLees, Frank O'Connor, Eric Raab, Karen Traviss, and Jeff VanderMeer
Book 8
One hundred thousand years ago, the galaxy was populated by a great variety of beings.
But one species-eons beyond all others in both technology and knowledge-achieved dominance.
They ruled in peace, but met opposition with quick and brutal effectiveness.
They were the Forerunners-the keepers of the Mantle of Responsibility, the next stage of life in the Universe's Living Time.
And then they vanished.
This is their story.
Book 9
In the wake of the apparent self-destruction of the Forerunner empire, two humans – Chakas and Riser – are like flotsam washed up on very strange shores indeed.
They find themselves on an inverted world where horizons rise into the sky and where humans of all kinds are trapped in a perilous cycle of neglect. They have become strategic pawns in a cosmic game whose madness knows no end – a game of ancient vengeance between the powers who seeded the galaxy with life, and the Forerunners.
In the company of a young girl and an old man, Chakas begins an epic journey across a lost and damaged Halo in search of a way home, an explanation for the warrior spirits rising up within, and for the Librarian’s tampering with human destiny.
This journey will take them into the domain of a powerful and monstrous intelligence who claims to be the Last Precursor, and who now has control of both this Halo and the fate of Forerunners and humans alike.
Called the Primordial by ancient human warriors, this intelligence may control the fate of not only Chakas, Riser, and the rest of humanity, but all of sentient life.
Book 10
One hundred thousand years ago. Chaos rules the final days of the Forerunner empire. The Flood-a horrifying, shape-changing, and unstoppable parasite-has arrived in force, aided by unexpected allies, and internal strife has desperately weakened Forerunner defenses. Facing the imminent collapse of their civilization, the Forerunners known as the Ur-Didact and the Librarian reveal what they know about the relationship between the long-vanished race of the Precursors and the Flood. While the Precursors created many technological species, including those of the Forerunners and humanity itself, the roots of the Flood may be found in an act of enormous barbarity, carried out beyond our galaxy ten million years before. Because of that savagery, a greater evil looms. Only the Ur-Didact and the Librarian-husband and wife pushed into desperate conflict-hold the keys to a solution. As they face the consequences of a mythic tragedy, one of them must now commit the greatest atrocity of all time-a shocking act designed to prevent an insane abomination from dominating the entire galaxy...
Book 11
The Covenant has collapsed after a long, brutal war that saw billions slaughtered on Earth and her colonies. For the first time in decades, however, peace finally seems possible. But though the fighting's stopped, the war is far from over: it's just gone underground. The UNSC's feared and secretive Office of Naval Intelligence recruits Kilo-Five, a team of ODSTs, a Spartan, and a diabolical AI to accelerate the Sangheili insurrection. Meanwhile, the Arbiter, the defector turned leader of a broken Covenant, struggles to stave off civil war among his divided people.
Across the galaxy, a woman thought to have died on Reach is actually very much alive. Chief scientist Dr. Catherine Halsey broke every law in the book to create the Spartans, and now she's broken some more to save them. Marooned with Chief Mendez and a Spartan team in a Forerunner slipspace bubble hidden in the destroyed planet Onyx, she finds that the shield world has been guarding an ancient secret—a treasure trove of Forerunner technology that will change everything for the UNSC and mankind.
As Kilo-Five joins the hunt for Halsey, humanity's violent past begins to catch up with all of them as disgruntled colony Venezia has been biding its time to strike at Earth, and its most dangerous terrorist has an old, painful link with both Halsey and Kilo-Five that will test everyone's loyalty to the limit.
Halo: Glasslands by Karen Traviss is thrilling, action-packed science fiction that longtime Halo fans and newcomers alike will enjoy.
Book 12
The second novel of the Kilo-Five Trilogy by #1 New York Times bestselling author Karen Traviss-part of the expanded universe based on the award-winning video game series Halo!
2553. Welcome to humanity's new war: silent, high stakes, and unseen. This is a life-or-death mission for the Office of Naval Intelligence's black-ops team, Kilo-Five, which is tasked with preventing the ruthless Sangheili, once the military leaders of the alien alliance known as the Covenant, from regrouping and threatening humankind again. What began as a routine dirty-tricks operation-keeping the Sangheili occupied with their own insurrection-turns into a desperate bid to extract one member of Kilo-Five from the seething heart of a brutal civil war. But troubles never come singly for Kilo-Five. Colonial terrorism is once again surfacing on one of the human worlds that survived the war against the Covenant, and the man behind it is much more than just a name to Spartan Naomi-010. Meanwhile, the treasure trove of Forerunner technology recovered from the Forerunner shield world of Onyx is being put to work, even as a kidnapped Sangheili plots vengeance on the humans he fears will bring his people to the brink of destruction...
Book 13
The final novel of the Kilo-Five Trilogy by #1 New York Times bestselling author Karen Traviss-part of the expanded universe based on the award-winning video game series Halo!
2553. With the thirty-year-long Covenant War finally over, the Office of Naval Intelligence faces old grievances rising again to threaten Earth. Angry and bitter colonists-still wanting to settle scores from an insurrection put on hold for three decades-crave justice...as does a man whose life was torn apart by ONI when his young daughter was abducted for the SPARTAN-II program. Black-ops squad Kilo-Five now find its collective loyalty tested beyond the breaking point when the father of their Spartan comrade, still searching for the truth about her disappearance, prepares to glass Earth's cities to get an answer. How far will Kilo-Five go to stop him? And will he be able to live with the truth when he finds it? The painful answer lies with someone long dead, and a conscience that still survives in the most unlikely, undiscovered place...
Book 14
Book 15
The New York Times bestselling series based on the blockbuster Xbox® games continues with the acclaimed story (originally published as a digital-first edition) of Spartan Edward Buck—first seen in HALO: ODST and reappearing in 2015’s HALO 5: GUARDIANS!
While Spartans get all the glory, no soldier―not even the legendary Master Chief―wins a war on his own. Gunnery Sergeant Edward Buck and his team of Orbital Drop Shock Troopers (ODSTs) played a major role in saving Earth from all-out invasion at the end of the Covenant War―acts of bravery and ingenuity that did not go unnoticed by the United Nations Space Command.
Now, after many Spartans have been killed in battle and the Master Chief is listed as MIA, the UNSC decides to create a new generation of Spartans to defend humanity from threats both outside―and within. When they come to Buck with an extraordinary proposition, he is forced to make a life-altering decision. With the Covenant War finally over, is it time for him to retire to the sidelines for a life he could only dream about…or is he prepared to step up and become part of the military’s new blood?
Book 16
The military-grade artificial intelligence known as Iona has only one week to live. After that the UNSC will legally terminate her seven-year existence in order to stave off the threat of the data corruption phenomenon known as "rampancy", a condition that will eventually take hold of her functionality and persona, endangering all those around her. In a last-ditch effort to save herself, Iona has successfully launched an unprecedented legal appeal against her own death sentence - a case being watched very closely not only at the highest levels of human government but by others with a very different agenda....
Book 17
An original novel set in the Halo Universe and based on the New York Times bestselling video game series!
It is 2553, and the three-decade long Covenant War that defined a generation has suddenly drawn to a close. Yet, in the remotest parts of human space, tensions remain that threaten to overflow into another full-scale conflict. Beneath the surface of the planet Gao lies a vast cavern system renowned for its therapeutic effects and rumored miraculous cures. But now Gao natives are turning up brutally murdered down there—violent acts that happen to coincide with the recent arrival of a UNSC research battalion protected by Spartan Blue Team, led by the renowned Spartan-II Fred-104.
Maverick detective Veta Lopis of the Gao Ministry of Protection is only trying to do her job as the Special Inspector assigned to catch a serial killer—one who is possibly hiding within the Spartan ranks—but she never anticipates the situation spiraling out of control into an all-out crisis. When Gao is revealed to harbor ancient Forerunner technology that could solidify the UNSC’s military supremacy for centuries to come, Insurrection loyalists within the planetary government will do anything—even align with a vicious faction of what remains of the Covenant—to ensure that never happens…
Book 18
Fractures
by Troy Denning, Christie Golden, John Jackson Miller, Tobias S Buckell, Joseph Staten, Matt Forbeck, James Swallow, Frank O'Connor, Brian Reed, and Morgan Lockhart
A sensational short story collection in the expansive universe of HALO, the New York Times bestselling series!
Launch once more into galaxy-spanning conflict and legendary heroism…shards of an ever-expanding journey where human and alien alike find their finest hours in facing their greatest challenges. These scattered stories span untold millennia, from the age of the ancient custodial race known as the Forerunners…to the aftermath of the Covenant’s bloody war against humanity…and even the shocking events surrounding the resurrection of the mysterious Guardians. Halo: Fractures explores mythic tales of bravery and sacrifice that blaze brightly at the very heart of the Halo universe.
Featuring electrifying works from such acclaimed authors as:
Tobias Buckell • Troy Denning • Matt Forbeck • Kelly Gay • Christie Golden • Kevin Grace • Morgan Lockhart • John Jackson Miller • Frank O’Connor • Brian Reed • Joseph Staten • James Swallow
Book 19
Find. Claim. Profit. In a post-war galaxy littered with scrap, it's the salvager's motto. And with a fast ship and a lust for adventure, Rion Forge has certainly made her mark on the trade. When the discovery of a wrecked UNSC cruiser brings Rion's past back to haunt her, stirring fresh hope into a decades-old wound, she's hell-bent on finding answers: What really happened to her father and his ship, the Spirit of Fire? This digital-first enovella also contains the complete text of Kelly Gay's short story "Into the Fire," originally featured in the collection Halo: Fractures.
Book 20
