Ghosts of Onyx (Halo) by Eric Nylund Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Ghosts of Onyx (Halo)
Book Review: Right out of left field.
Summary: 4 Stars
Awesome. Absolutely awesome.
What makes the Halo games so cool from a storytelling perspective is their post-modern treatment of "good" and "bad" guys. In Halo's predecessor's--games like Doom, Quake, Unreal--everything is black and white. You are good. The people you are shooting at are bad. In fact, they're not people at all. Their evil, nazi, death dealing aliens that want to suck the souls out of every child and kitten in the universe. Oh, and they don't have souls either.
In Halo, this is not the case. The "bad" guys are intelligent. They adhere to their religious beliefs. They speak, and have clear emotions. They're not shooting at you because they're bad. They're shooting at you because YOU'RE bad. And they know it. To top it all off, in the second game, you become them. How confusing and awesome is that.
As for the flood, I won't spoil that one for the seven people in the world who still don't know much about the game.
All that said, what makes Halo cool is not the combat and the multiplayer, it's the little stuff like that, the divergence from other shooters and the intense backstory that leaves so many questions unanswered. This book answers some of those questions and then poses even more. It gives more diverse perspectives from other marines and covenant forces (even some of the grunts) making the whole story even more confused and amazing.
This book also has the best drama of the whole Halo universe. Up 'til now Halo might have been graphic, beautiful, epic, and a bit dark in places, but it has never been tragic. With this book that is no longer the case. By the time you reach the end, you might even feel that the Master Chief is just a master chump. That's how powerful the characters become in this novel. The story doesn't hurt at all for its lack of he and Cortana.
All that said, I do have one gripe that moves this from a 10 star to a 4 star review. Though the content of the book was incredible and I had to read it in about three sittings, I was appalled at its editing. Microsoft has more money to play with than the Trump family, Russia and Forest Gump combined, and yet they couldn't splurge on hiring a real editor to clean up the conspicuous typos and syntax errors throughout the book. Hopefully it will be cleaned up before it's released as a cheaper paperback. Either way, though, it's still worth the time and money anyone's willing to spend on it.
Book Review: Simply put, I love these books.
Summary: 5 Stars
I've arrived at my next stop along my reading rampage this summer with the Ghosts of Onyx. After thoroughly enjoying the first 3 books of this series, I read this book once again.
In Ghosts of Onyx, the situation for humanity is a rather bleak one. There are just a handful of John's (The Master Chief) fellow Spartan II's left and they are fighting a losing war on two fronts against the Covenant and a civil war against the Rebel colonies.
Section III, responsible for the original Spartan II's creation, once again devises up a plan to create a new , improved breed of Spartans (Spartan III's), in an effort to somehow balance the tide of the war just a bit.
A top secret operation is underway at Onyx to train these new Spartans using a familiar Spartan II face. The main question is will it be enough to stop the Covenant forces or will it just buy time for another fight, another day? This question is answered in the book and once again Forerunner technology rears its head on, you guessed it, Onyx. This turns into an arms race between humanity and the Covenant both seeking a desperate edge to turn the tide of war against one another.
The ending is a real trip though and of course is a cliffhanger doing what any good book does, making the reader wanting to immediately want a continuation of the story. Unfortunately, the next Halo book I'm reading I'm told has no Spartans in it, so we will all have to eagerly await when the story is hopefully continued in another 5-6 months.
Book Review: The best put together & presented story I've ever read - literally
Summary: 5 Stars
Honestly what can I say that already hasn't been said about this book? The writing is superb. Anybody remotely thinking about passing on this one because its major connection to a videogame property should think twice.
This is exactly the type of book that after you read you wish you are alive long enough for there to be a movie on the exact same subject matter you just finished reading or if that is too out of reach you atleast want as many people to read it as possible so they can (like you) understand just how great a piece of work it truly is. This is coming from someone that has never touched any of the Halo Novels, but I'm thoroughly impressed and because of this I plan to go back and read the previous entries into the series by Eric Nylund.
You get a take on the story from so many different perspectives its the complete package. You get to experience the story from the perspective of the Spartans, various UNSC ships and troops, Covenant, the genius that is Dr. Halsey.. just there is an all around variety to this book that I love. Now after becoming so impressed with what was happening with a specific group of characters naturally you'll be a bit disappointed when they go away from that group and start concentrating on another group, but as you read it becomes more clear as to why the author chose to present you with their perspective and you'll come to appreciate their inclusion.
This book will get you to care about the characters and what is going on the universe. this book firmly puts Halo up there with the best of them if there were any doubts before. The Halo universe can be just as popular if not more so than the likes of Star Wars. It really does feel fresh, interesting and new. When I say this book will get you care about the characters and everything going on around them I really do mean that. Without spoiling too much there is one character in particular that will leave you in awe and command your utmost respect and that is Kurt.
I may have singled him out, but that doesn't mean there wont be many other characters that you find yourself thoroughly impressed by, but Kurt's character will blow you away. This book is vivid, emotional and full of action. If there is anyone out there that is remotely interested in the games they'd be a complete fool to not read this book. I know there are some people that don't like to read, but I firmly believe that after reading this book it will be the catalyst that convinces you that books are just as entertaining if not more so than television.
This in my opinion is a great book and when a book is very well written there are things that you can get from a book that you can't get from a game or television and sometimes its the very simple practice of seeing how a writer describes what is going on in a scene of their book that really sells the vision to you tenfold and its so well done that at so many critical points during your reading you just have to stop and tell someone around you how great this book is or atleast read a specific part of the book to them.
So again let me finish off by saying you WILL care about the universe of this book, you WILL care about the characters and you WILL be tempted more aggressively as you progress through the book to keep on going even when you think its time to stop, but the book is so good that it gripts you and you WILL most certainly want more.
Book Review: The best yet in the series
Summary: 4 Stars
Before reading this book I bought the box set and read the first three in the series. The first book was littered with gross typos, the second book mostly failed to deliver (due to the author's lack of detail at many times), but the third book was better. "Halo: Ghosts of Onyx" is by far the best in the series. It was more professionally done as there were less typos (if any at all) and there was close attention to detail most of the time. I like the idea of the Spartan III program and some new technologies associated with it. However, the one thing with Halo that bores me is all of the "space quest". I'm a fan of Spartan action, so when they're just flying around in outer space, my interest drops a bit. But once again, this book is definitely the best in the series so far.Book Review: The weakest of the three Nylund Halo novels
Summary: 3 Stars
I have listened to the audio book versions of all three Nylund Halo novels, as well as The Flood, which was not written by him. I find this one to be the weakest of the three Nylund books, not quite as weak as The Flood, but a notch below the other two. In the Fall of Reach, Nylund did a lot of good characterization of the training of the Spartans, and provided a great insight into what made John 117 tick. In First Strike, he detailed some amazing events that took place after the destruction of the Alpha Halo ring, and provided a great group of human heroes consisting of a grizzled admiral, a old dog of war marine sergeant, an ONI spook, a drop ship pilot, an ODST grunt, a few Spartans, the mother figure of Dr. Halsey, and the leader of them all, John 117. Every one of those people seemed to have a different personality, and brought something different to the table. The tactics they used in each battle in that book also seemed fresh and innovative. This book unfortunately throws a lot of that good development away, and focuses instead on the mostly disposable Spartan IIIs. They seem to totally lack any distinct personality, and all the good points about this controversial program are discarded halfway through the book to rush into repetitive action sequences. The tactics used are mostly a rehash of what was done in the other books, and everything seems to lack that magical Nylund touch. Perhaps a rushed release to keep the momentum going, but it is frustrating to see so many good ideas touched on at the start (e.g., neural enhancement of the III's and it's supposed side effects, covenant civil war aftermath, return of chief Mendez, conflicted mind of Kurt over making his troops so disposable, etc.) discarded so carelessly to go into endless description of forerunner technology that bored me. This could have been so much better with another rewrite.