Halo Waypoint today released the Prologue from the upcoming book Mortal Dictata.

   In Halo: Mortal Dictata, the Covenant War is over but hatred, guilt, and devotion endure beyond the grave. The Office of Naval Intelligence faces old grievances rising again to threaten Earth. The angry, bitter colonies, still with scores to settle from the insurrection put on hold for thirty years, now want justice — and so does a man whose life was torn apart by ONI when his daughter was abducted for the SPARTAN-II program. Black ops squad Kilo-Five find their loyalties tested beyond 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 a man long dead, and a conscience that still survives in the most unlikely, undiscovered place.  

You can read it below:

HALO: MORTAL DICTATA
PROLOGUE
NEW TYNE, VENEZIA: MARCH 2553

My name is Staffan Sentzke, and I never planned to be a terrorist.

It’s not the kind of life you aspire to. It was simply what I had to do. Terrorism is Earth’s word for it, a moral judgment, as if your warfare’s somehow noble and mine’s cowardly. But it’s a unit of measurement; nothing more, nothing less. When your enemy is an empire and you’re just a few guys, a handful of little people, then the biggest punch you can land is called terrorism. That’s all you’ve got.

Like I said, it’s a measure of magnitude, not morality. And I’m really particular about measurements. I used to work in a machine shop in Alstad before Sansar was glassed by the Covenant, and I still like to make things to keep my skills fresh. Here: what do you think of this? It’s a scale replica of an eighteenth-century Gustavian dining chair- I’m making a doll’s house for Kerstin. Edvin says I’m spoiling her, but what else is a granddad for?

I’d give anything to be able to spoil Naomi again.

There’s not a day goes by that I don’t think about her. She’d be nearly forty- two now, well past the age for doll’s houses, but still my little girl.

Anyway, I need to finish this chair before dinner. I use a set of dental drills for the small detail. The upholstery’s the hardest thing, getting the right fabric so that the stripes are to scale. If I can’t make something myself, then I can acquire what I need because I know people who can get me pretty well anything- a scrap of satin brocade, a birch plank, even tiny brass pins.

Or a Sangheili warship. I can get one of those, too.
I think I’ve got one now, but I have to see Sav Fel again to iron out some details. Earth thinks it’s back in business now the Covenant’s collapsed. It won’t be long before it tries to stick its nose into our business again. We need to be ready. And what better time to prepare than when the black market’s awash with weapons and ships? When empires fall, there’s always a fire sale.

For the moment, though, I’m making doll’s house furniture, not arming Venezia. The workshop door opens behind me. This is the only place I’d ever sit with my back to the door, but then I know everyone who comes and goes in my own home.

“She’s going to love that,” Edvin says, peering over my shoulder. “Is it a set?”

“I’ve still got to make the matching table.”

“Nice work, Dad. I wish I had your patience.”

Oh, yes. Patience. I’ve got it in spades. When you have to wait for answers, for revenge, for justice, you can learn to wait as long as it takes.

I was forty when Edvin was born, and Hedda came along two years later. This is my second family and my second homeworld. I had a wife and a daughter on Sansar, but it wasn’t the Covenant that took them from me- it was my own kind. Humans. Maybe it was the colonial government, or maybe it was Earth’s, but it was human nonetheless.

And that’s how I ended up as a terrorist. That’s your word for it, remember. Not mine. I bet there are UNSC personnel out there right now doing exactly what I’m doing. I’ll use any means necessary, so I can’t object if my enemy does the same thing. Rules of engagement are just cynical games for politicians to play. It’s a war. People get killed. There’s no way you can make that look reasonable.

“So did you visit your sister today?” I ask Edvin. I know what’s coming next. “What’s she made me this time?”

“She sent you some surströmming. She says it’ll do you good.”

“God Almighty, you’ve not brought it in here, have you?”

“No. Take it easy. I’ve set up a cordon around it.”

“Good. Otherwise I’ll have to have the place fumigated.”

“Mom said you’d say that. Just pretend it was yummy, will you? For Hedda.”

“You can have it. Just take it outside the city limits before you open it.”

I’m not much of a Swede at heart. I don’t even like pickled herring, let alone the fermented variety, and anyway, we don’t have herring on Venezia- just some oily eel- type thing that’s even worse when it’s been turned into surströmming. Hedda, on the other hand, clings to her diluted heritage more fiercely every year, even though she’s never seen Earth, let alone Sweden. Cultures can get pretty warped in diaspora. They become weird fossilized parodies of themselves that seem to distill their worst features, but I’m afraid Hedda’s like me. She focuses, and then she can’t see anything else to either side. Edvin takes after Laura. He lets things wash over him.

But they both know they had a half-sister who was abducted, and that when she came back she was… different. And then she got sick and died. They know I think the government took her and replaced her with a double.

You think I’m crazy? Everyone did. Even me, for a while. But then I started looking, and found a few other families out in the colonies who’d lost children the same way. The kid went missing, then came back a little later, a little different, and finally went down with multiple organ failure or some metabolic disease.

So either we’re all mad, or something awful was going on long before the Covenant showed up. A few dead kids aren’t even a drop in the ocean considering the billions who’ve died in successive wars. But they’re our kids. Thirty-five years doesn’t even begin to numb the pain. I still need to find out what happened to Naomi and why. Before I die, I want to know.

Damn, it’s getting late. I need to finish this and call Sav Fel. It sounds too good to be true, but if he’s got a warship to sell, he’s come to the right place. Imagine it; he just strolled off with a vessel that can glass entire planets. Would you trust a Kig-Yar crew to look after your battlecruiser? The Sangheili took their eye off the ball.

Never turn your back on someone you’ve screwed over. You might want to make a note of that.

I smooth the tiny legs of the chair with an emery board, then blow off sawdust as fi ne as flour. It’s going to look great when it’s finished.

Edvin laughs to himself. “If your buddies could see you now . . .”

“Yeah. They say Peter Moritz knits. Real hard case.”

“You want me to go check out that new shipment?”

“No, it’s okay. I’ll be finished soon. You’ve got a living to make.”

What, you think terrorists sit around scheming and playing with firearms all day? We’ve got factories to run, food to grow, families to raise. We’re pretty much like you. This is our home. We have a functioning society, and the Covenant never bothered us. We do okay. Leave us alone, and we’ll leave you alone.

I’ve got time to put a coat of primer on the chair before I leave. This is one of my many regrets: I never did get around to making a doll’s house for Naomi. She really wanted one. I planned to make one when I had more time. She was such a bright, happy kid, always out exploring, always with lots of friends around her, which makes it even harder to understand how nobody saw her being taken.

I want to believe she’s still alive. She might not know I survived, and that’s why she hasn’t come looking for me. Maybe she doesn’t even know who she really is. They say that happens to kidnapped kids.

But if she’s still out there somewhere, I hope she’s among friends.

There. Finished. It’s a lovely little chair. But now I’ve got to go talk to a buzzard about a warship.

This is a disturbing portrait of Naomi’s father. When you couple that with the current real world climate of war and terrorism, I see a potential for bad PR here. Trying to rationalize terrorism, even fictionally, seems like a topic best left alone. I guess we’ll see how this pans out with the wider population beyond we fans.

I’m posting the Chapter One excerpt next!
-Sal

The last of the Kilo-5 trilogy will be out on January 21.

Here’s a text blurb about the book from Amazon:

This is a long article, so for those who want the TL;DR option. The book is MEH.

I got this delivered yesterday from Amazon.  And I have to say I’m a bit underwhelmed. Why? Let’s explore that…

First, I thought the book would be bigger. Not just in page count but in actual height/width dimensions. As a VISUAL guide, I’d like to see…you know…bigger visuals. Some of the pics inside are rather small. Some are crossing over into a two-page spread that just cuts the image in half and distracts from what should be an otherwise great graphic.

What’s most disappointing to me though is that the NEW things Halo 4 brought to Halo lore and the franchise are not focused on. Rather characters like Lasky, Del Rio, ships like the Infinity and other entires have a paultry one or two-page spread. The Infinity’s entry is SO disappointing. It’s one of those where the graphic is cut in half. The information about the Infinity is VERY lacking. This should have been a HUGE entry in this book, covering several pages. It would have been great to have seen an ‘exploded’ view showing the key decks of the ship. More pics from the inside of the ship could/should have been shown.

I DID like the additional info on Fireteam Majestic. It’s nice now knowing the first names of Madsen and Hoya. Madsen’s minimal backstory though makes him out to be even more a loser than I thought he was. He should have never been a spartan. Heh, in fact his story is actually what I would have expected with that yutz of a Spartan, Miller. Funny, no mention of Miller in this book either…

I have to be honest that I skimmed over most of the weapons and vehicles. Since most were NOT new to Halo, there wasn’t much of a need to all read all of those entries word for word. In fact those entries could have had a lot LESS info about them.

Another section showing the various Spartan IV Armor in Halo 4 was uninspiring to say the least.

This book was written as if it was ‘factual’ historical data, rather than a look at the game, how things came about (NO Concept art at all, which was HIGHLY disappointing) and in the case of armor for instance what it takes to unlock said armor in the game.

I get that this is a visual guide, however more attention could have been paid to the information about each entry as it relates to the game and not just the faux historical data. Which itself was lacking in most respects.

I will say that there were parts that were entertaining. These however were so few and far between for me that I just didn’t feel the book was worth the cost, even the discounted price I paid for it.

Now take that last statement with a grain of salt though. I’m DEEP into the lore of Halo and can recite quite a bit from memory. So if you are a newcomer to Halo or are ‘casual’, then this book IS a good repository of information and visual references. If you’re a moderate fan who knows some of the lore, this is a good book for you.

However, if you are like me and have been following the franchise since it’s earliest days, the book is a bit of a let down.

The highlights for me were the named characters. Sadly that is at the front of the book. After this, with exception to some of the ships near the end of the book, there just wasn’t enough for me to be excited about reading nor considering rereading in the future.

This is in part due to me already having the Prima Games Halo 4 Guide which gives you MUCH of the same information and nearly all of that in digital form too.

Had the Halo 4 Essential Visual Guide also had a companion digital version that you could view (after say using a code to unlock it), then this book would have been definitely worth the price.

Had I created this book, I’d have included such things as star charts showing the location of the Gamma Halo, Requiem, Infinity’s shipbuilding yard, etc. As well, a height chart showing the key characters would have been a great visual. Less info about things we already know about quite well like weapons and many of the vehicles and MORE info about all the NEW stuff added to the Halo lore in Halo 4 would be been the rule for this book.

It’s sad when you can easily find most of this info and in better detail on the internet. The price isn’t bad at $16.99 (I paid $14 for it through Amazon). So it’s really up to you to decide if you want a book you likely already know much of what’s inside and just want pics OR pass on it hoping for something better down the road.

Given the many months wait for this and now having it in my hands has left me with wanting SO much more than what was given to us.

Since this is a review and I give a score at the end of my reviews typically, I have to give this a 5 out of 10. It’s great for newcomers, good for middlin fans, but disappointing to those of us who are hardcore into the fiction.

If some ask, could I do better? Well, frankly YES, I could. If I were given the graphics to put a book together like this, I could easily write a bigger, better book. Sadly, unless 343 challenges me to do so and gives me all the material I request, it won’t happen.

For those who may cry foul here, let me state that I’ve been in the marketing and advertising field for more than 16 years now. During that time I’ve been a production artist, graphic designer, and art director. I’ve also been a marketing and advertising assistant manager. My skills and experience in designing and producing print publications would speak for themselves if given the opportunity to create a book of this kind in the future.

Oh and yes, my lack of cleaning up the pic at the beginning of the article is in direct correlation to my feeling underwhelmed but the book.

Should you still want to take a look at this for yourself, you can find it at most major book sellers and through Amazon.com.

-Sal

Tor Books and 343 announce Halo: Mortal Dictata by Karen Traviss, coming January 2014.

More info to likely follow at San Diego Comicon.

Is that girl on the cover Naomi? Hmm, mysterious. “Mortal Dictata” is already canon in the Halo universe:

The UN Colonial Mortal Dictata is a human piece of legislation or code of ethics which was in effect as of 2549. The precise contents of the Dictata are unknown, however it is known to prohibit the flash cloning (or perhaps cloning in general) of full human beings. Dr. Catherine Halsey is known to have violated the code on numerous occasions, most notably when cloning herself in order to create Cortana.

I’d like to thank Tom from Dust and Echoes podcast for giving the heads up on this.
Source Link

First, thanks to Halobungie.org for posting the link to this on Twitter.

Check out some new images from the book by DK, due out October this year:

Click pics for bigger pics.

Here’s the ISBN: ISBN: 9781409334828

Here’s the link from the UK site.

This is a MUST buy for any Halo fan if you’re into knowing more of the lore.

-Sal

My lovely wife was nice enough to buy these for me. I would have had Primordium and The Thursday War sooner, I’m just not one for hardcover books. They take up too much space…

Primorium:

The Thursday War: Welcome to humanity’s new war: silent, high stakes, and unseen. This is a life-or-death mission for ONI’s black-ops team, Kilo-Five, which is tasked with preventing the ruthless Elites, once the military leaders of the Covenant, from regrouping and threatening humankind again. What began as a routine dirty-tricks operation―keeping the Elites busy with their own insurrection―turns into a desperate bid to extract one member of Kilo-Five from the seething heart of an alien civil war. But troubles never come singly for Kilo-Five. Colonial terrorism is once again surfacing on one of the worlds that survived the war against the Covenant, and the man behind it is much more than just a name to Spartan-010. Meanwhile, the treasure trove of Forerunner technology recovered from the shield world of Onyx is being put to work while a kidnapped Elite plots vengeance on the humans he fears will bring his people to the brink of destruction.

Halo: Evolutions Volume I: Essential Tales of the Halo Universe:

Article via HaloWaypoint.com.

The Master Chief returns to fight the Covenant and his new foes,
the Prometheans, in his next epic quest.

Created in collaboration with DK Publishing, we are proud to announce Halo 4: The Essential Visual Guide, a companion to the world of Halo 4.

Featuring detailed, annotated artwork, Halo 4: The Essential Visual Guide fleshes out this broad universe with a vast collection of facts from the first installment of Halo’s Reclaimer Saga. Fiction fans will love immersing themselves in the perilous world of Halo 4 with detailed sections about the characters, factions, weapons, vehicles, equipment, armor, ships and locations.

Halo 4: The Essential Visual Guide engrosses readers in the rich lore with in-depth profiles focusing on the roles and significance of the many things which inhabit the vast, mysterious and dangerous Halo Universe.

Halo 4: The Essential Visual Guide will be available to purchase on 9/24/2013 for $16.99.
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Wow I can’t wait for this! I wish I could get my hands on the book sooner.
You can pre-order this from Amazon for $11.55 and save $5.44.

While the book isn’t due to hit retailers until next year, I found this pic of the cover of Halo Silentium on Amazon (with a little help from Cowboy over at littleenglishhaloblog.com). It shows the Didact and the Librarian. MMMM, good stuff here!

Text from Tor.com

Tor Books has just announced the title, first cover, and release date for the third novel in the New York Times bestselling Halo Forerunner Saga, Halo: Silentium, written by legendary science fiction author Greg Bear. The first two books of the Forerunner Saga, Halo: Cryptumand Halo: Primordium are currently available in trade paperback, e-book, and audiobook. This newest book in the series will release in hardcover from Tor on January 8, 2013 alongside simultaneous audio and e-book editions.

In Halo: Cryptum, Greg Bear began a three-book arc set in the era of the Forerunners, the ancient and enigmatic creators and builders of the Halos, which continued in Halo: Primordium. Now, in the last years of the Forerunner empire, chaos rules. The Flood—a horrifying shape-changing parasite—has arrived in force, aided by unexpected allies. Internal strife within the ecumene has desperately weakened Forerunner defenses.

Only the Ur-Didact and the Librarian—husband and wife pushed into desperate conflict—hold the keys to salvation. Facing the consequences of a mythic tragedy, one of them must now commit the greatest atrocity of all time—to prevent an unmatched evil from dominating the entire universe.

Tor Books has proudly partnered with Microsoft and 343 Industries to publish every book set in this iconic universe. Along with the books of the Forerunner Saga, Tor also publishes another all-new Halo trilogy penned byNew York Times bestselling author Karen Traviss that explores the Halo Universe in the wake of the final events of Halo 3. Traviss’s first novel, Halo: Glasslands, came out in 2011, with Halo: The Thursday War due out in October 2012.

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I don’t know about you folks, but I’m REALLY excited to read this last in the trilogy of books. The cover art is amazing and gives us yet another glimpse into the scope and size of Forerunner technology.

-HFFL

Cryptum, by Greg Bear, is an interesting look into the pre-halo game history of Forerunners seen through the eyes of a very young Forerunner. The story takes us through a winding tale of a young Forerunner who goes against the grain and seeks to explore rather than be tied down by the traditions of Forerunner classes or rates. He was to be a “Builder.” Instead he goes off exploring for an ancient artifact and instead finds an old Cryptum. Not just any one though. It’s that of the Didact himself.

The Didact was perhaps the most powerful of the Warrior-Servant class and was/is married to the Librarian, the highest of the lifeworkers. When our young hero “Bornstellar” revives the Didact, they immediately begin a mission that would change the course of history for Forerunners and indeed all sentients.

Along with two humans, who against their will are taken along, Bornstellar and the Didact visit places from the Didact’s past. An age old “enemy” has escaped and another old enemy is soon to make a reappearance. It’s up to this band of Forerunners and Humans to figure out the truth of the situation. Before all can be revealed, the Didact mutates Bornstellar so that our young hero would have the memories of the elder Forerunner.

They meet up against the Master Builder, the highest of the highest Forerunners, who test one of the Halos against the San-Shyuum homeworld. The Didact is taken into custody, Bornstellar is returned to his home and family, and the whereabouts of the humans remains to be seen.

While home, Bornstellar learns more about the universe and specifically his father’s role in it. Bornstellar is summoned to appear before the council of Forerunners. The Halos have been brought to the Forerunner homeworld, the Master Builder is in custody and a possibly mad/rampant AI known as Mendicant Bias takes control of roughly half of the Halos.

All hell breaks loose when the Halos begin to charge up or flee. The Forerunner fleet comes for a rescue. However, before we find out the fate of the homeworld, Bornstellar and two council members flee and are transported through a wormhole with one of the Halos to the Ark.

There Bornstellar meets the Librarian…

There is more to know and understand in this novel. If you want to enjoy and learn more information about the Haloverse then this book and eventual series of three is a must buy. The writing style is a little wonky at times. However that may in part be due to the perspective of it coming from a Forerunner and the use of terms the casual fan won’t be familiar with.

There is a rich sense of history and order in this novel that gives into personal decisions.

I’d say more about the book, but I don’t want to ruin the surprise.

Book two “Primordium” is out now and I will be reviewing that soon. As soon as I finish Glasslands, a tale of the aftermath of the presumed ending of the Human-Covenant war.

I hope you enjoyed the synopsis and review and again if you haven’t read this book, then I highly recommend buying it and reading for yourself.

Please feel free to sign up for my Blog and post a comment or three.

-HFFL

Go to the following links for more info of this second book of the Forerunner Saga.
Excerpt 1: http://www.tor.com/stories/2011/12/halo-primordium-excerpt
Excerpts 2, 3, and 4: http://halo.xbox.com/blogs/Headlines/post/2011/12/28/The-Halo-Bulletin-122811-Exclusive-Book-Excerpt-Primordium.aspx

Primordium will be released officially on January 3, 2012, just days away. You can order from Amazon.
Hard Cover: http://www.amazon.com/Halo-Primordium-Book-Forerunner-Hardcover/dp/0765323974/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1325230623&sr=8-1
Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/Halo-Primordium-Forerunner-Hardcover-ebook/dp/B005FWOS8I/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1325230623&sr=8-5

…Or go to any of your local booksellers to buy a copy.