312: A Bigger Universe

[Sir Ryan Ward]

A Bigger Universe

The Halo media franchise has created a rich narrative universe that you've never heard about.

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[Floppertje]

true, for the most part. I did really enjoy delving deeper into the universe and getting to know the other sides of the various conflicts. the main problem I have with the books is that they're just not very well written. I like my books to have beautiful sentences that flow into one another, it makes reading them much easier and more fun. little hickups like a sergeant (Lister? if forgot who exactly) changing gender mid-sentence didn't really help either. but fleshing out the universe more than was possible in the games did make it a fun read.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

I do enjoy spinoff material for franchises. Another good example is the Star Wars Universe. They just make the world that much bigger and more realized.

 

[Not-here-anymore]

Fall of Reach was a much better book than I had ever expected before I started reading it.
Slightly unfortunately, it does throw in what seem to be a couple of continuity errors in Reach, but a lot of that seems to be covered by the mystical handwave of 'ONI kept it classified'. Y'know, much like modern day intelligence services.

Being the general space-opera fan that I am, Halo was a great ride. I'd even describe it as epic, in the proper sense of the word, but the internet has entirely diluted the meaning of that word by now...

 

[Sabrestar]

I've never cared much for/about Halo, being both uninterested in and bad at FPS games, but I am fascinated by the world-building process, and creating an involved, coherent narrative across a variety of media and media producers. (This happens when you're a writer and fan of classic Doctor Who. Continuity becomes a passion.)

It's fun and fascinating to see the amount of work that develops around what initially is a basic concept, and it's even better when a large number of fans and designers get involved too. I don't have to be into the story to respect everything that goes on to create it, and make it all make sense. Keep it up, everyone.

 

[WNxSajuukCor]

Fall of Reach was a much better book than I had ever expected before I started reading it.
Slightly unfortunately, it does throw in what seem to be a couple of continuity errors in Reach, but a lot of that seems to be covered by the mystical handwave of 'ONI kept it classified'. Y'know, much like modern day intelligence services.

Being the general space-opera fan that I am, Halo was a great ride. I'd even describe it as epic, in the proper sense of the word, but the internet has entirely diluted the meaning of that word by now...

The newest version of Fall of Reach that was just released is slightly edited to fix those continuity errors they didn't plan for 10 years ago.

I love the lore and aspects of the Halo universe from the SPARTAN I, II, and III programs, the development of the Human-Covenant War, the aspect of the Flood, etc etc. The world is carefully built and loved by its developers and community

 

[Gilgamesh00]

Peripheral media shows us new people, places, and ideas that we, as gamers, did not know existed. It enriches our gaming experience by taking us beyond the games and expanding our understanding of them.

Yes. This is why I love reading the expanded universe of the Mass Effect series, for example. And you bet I'd be all over Halo's universe if Microsoft hadn't decided not to release Halo games on the PC anymore.

 

[Duskflamer]

So much rich, rich plot and storyline for fanboys to read about and argue about.

Yet a majority of players don't care for it at all and only play the multiplayer. Such a shame.

 

[latenightapplepie]

Eh. I'm not sure if I agree. I would prefer all the media to be in one medium - a game, film, novel, whatever. That's just my personal preference.

 

[Louzerman102]

I'm very surprised no one has mentioned the Cortana Letters from marathon.bungie.org. You disappoint me so called "fans".

 

[Jabberwock xeno]

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!

I have been trying toget this across so much!

As an avid halo fan, I am often dissapointed by the generally anti-halo attitude here, and escpalty by the idea many people seem to have about the story.

Even Moviebob mocked it.

WHY does this ONLY have 22 comments?!

Continuity failure. Halo: Reach bore no resemblance to the Fall of Reach book. The game was a total ret-con.

In reality only the games are canon. The authors get access to the Halo story bible and talk to the game writers etc., but at the end of the day what they're writing is fan-fic based on facts, and Bungie weren't obliged to stick to facts established in the novels when they started making Reach.

Continuity failure. Halo: Reach bore no resemblance to the Fall of Reach book. The game was a total ret-con.

This article smells like something I'd expect to find in the "Official Xbox Magazine" as a shallow corporate shill. Should have branched out, touched on books/media expansion from several titles and some mention of their shortcomings rather than this seeming Halo fanboyism advertisement. Shortcomings like the zero in-game explanation of what a Spartan III is and the difference thereof between them and Spartan IIs. It just leaves the gamer with a big hollow. Undecided whether that's just laziness or some kind of wordless manipulation to get the curious to look it up themselves and get into the side media. Maybe an omission to placate tea-bag players who don't give a damn.

Own 5 halo books. Haven't read 2 of them, stopped when I played through Reach. If they care so little about the lore that they'll reboot it at will whenever it strikes their fancy, I don't see why fans like myself should care either.

Fall of Reach was a much better book than I had ever expected before I started reading it.
Slightly unfortunately, it does throw in what seem to be a couple of continuity errors in Reach, but a lot of that seems to be covered by the mystical handwave of 'ONI kept it classified'. Y'know, much like modern day intelligence services.

Being the general space-opera fan that I am, Halo was a great ride. I'd even describe it as epic, in the proper sense of the word, but the internet has entirely diluted the meaning of that word by now...

Actully, most of the canon errors were explained in Halsesly's journal, which came with the limited edition of reach.

 

[Kermi]

Continuity failure. Halo: Reach bore no resemblance to the Fall of Reach book. The game was a total ret-con.

In reality only the games are canon. The authors get access to the Halo story bible and talk to the game writers etc., but at the end of the day what they're writing is fan-fic based on facts, and Bungie weren't obliged to stick to facts established in the novels when they started making Reach.

 

[fulano]

Continuity failure. Halo: Reach bore no resemblance to the Fall of Reach book. The game was a total ret-con.

In reality only the games are canon. The authors get access to the Halo story bible and talk to the game writers etc., but at the end of the day what they're writing is fan-fic based on facts, and Bungie weren't obliged to stick to facts established in the novels when they started making Reach.

Exactly this. I personally didn't read Fall of Reach and do not intend to. I'm fairly content with the story as presented in the game.

 

[repeating integers]

Perhaps the Halo storyline's greatest quality, particularly in book form, is its clear dedication to maintaining an intelligent narrative. Known to some as futurism, many of the social, political and technological claims within the narrative are based on, or explained by, extrapolation of current trends.

Futurism, eh?

<youtube=ZzaJhG0u-1g>

Two of my greatest loves, Muse and Halo, combined. Ahhh...

Oh, yeah, the article. It was great, and well written. I should probably read your guys' big articles more often, but I so frequently forget they exist...

 

[Gimlii]

Love the article! I think you make excellent points and I hope that some of the other games realize the benefits of creating such a deep environment.

 

[Sir Ryan Ward]

the main problem I have with the books is that they're just not very well written. I like my books to have beautiful sentences that flow into one another, it makes reading them much easier and more fun. little hickups like a sergeant (Lister? if forgot who exactly) changing gender mid-sentence didn't really help either. but fleshing out the universe more than was possible in the games did make it a fun read.

I will agree that the novel series has not been universally consistent in literary quality. The Flood, in particular, was not very well written. It was clearly a simple conversion of Halo: CE's game narrative into book form. That being said, calling the entire library 'not very well written' is incorrect. Eric Nylund, Greg Bear and Joseph Staten all crafted well-written and compelling stories as did the various authors in Halo: Evolutions. You are certainly entitled to a personal preference on prose style but writing all of them off because of it would be an injustice to the authors.

This article smells like something I'd expect to find in the "Official Xbox Magazine" as a shallow corporate shill. Should have branched out, touched on books/media expansion from several titles and some mention of their shortcomings rather than this seeming Halo fanboyism advertisement.

Apologies if my writing style does not agree with you but I think you are missing the point. I was not writing simply to extol Halo and its peripheral media. I do believe that it is a great example of an extended universe but, in the context of this article, that is all it is: an example. As for not branching out and exploring more examples, that is more of an issue with article length limitations than anything else. The goal is to get readers interested in further exploring the games they love. Whether that includes Halo or not is up to them.

I'm very surprised no one has mentioned the Cortana Letters from marathon.bungie.org. You disappoint me so called "fans".

Strictly speaking, the Cortana Letters are not canon. According to Joe Staten, only the few lines that they used in the Halo 3 trailer can, in terms of canon, be sourced to Cortana. The rest is just promotional material. Source: http://halostory.bungie.org/staten083106.html

In reality only the games are canon.

You are almost correct. According to Bungie, there is a hierarchy of canon validity: Games (except Halo Wars)>Novels>Other Media>Promotional Items. If there is a discrepancy between two sources, the one that is higher up on the ladder becomes canon.

 

[Kermi]

In reality only the games are canon.

You are almost correct. According to Bungie, there is a hierarchy of canon validity: Games (except Halo Wars)>Novels>Other Media>Promotional Items. If there is a discrepancy between two sources, the one that is higher up on the ladder becomes canon.

In effect, the games are the canon and books are optional - if the books fit in around the games, you're free to accept them as canon. Strictly speaking what Bungie has said in the past is that the old automatically retcons the new. Even if books were on the same level as the games, the fall of Reach as it occurred in the game Halo: Reach overrules the books simply by virtue of being newer.

Technically any new games by 343 are canon too, which is probably why they're going with a new post-Halo 3 Master Chief trilogy. Since there's no lore that currently addresses what happens to the Chief and Cortana after the second destrion of the Delta Halo in Halo 3, they won't be interfering with any current canon - though many people are speculating that the planet is Onyx and we'll find out what happened to the characters from the Ghosts of Onyx novel. Not having read any of the novels, I don't know who those people are.

 

[Louzerman102]

I'm very surprised no one has mentioned the Cortana Letters from marathon.bungie.org. You disappoint me so called "fans".

Strictly speaking, the Cortana Letters are not canon. According to Joe Staten, only the few lines that they used in the Halo 3 trailer can, in terms of canon, be sourced to Cortana. The rest is just promotional material. Source: http://halostory.bungie.org/staten083106.html

Very true. I just believed that they deserved mentioning because of how early they are in the development of the halo story. The letters, as well as the referenced poetry, are also good reads.

To this day they dwell
In a lonely dell
Nor fear the wolvish howl,
Nor the lions growl.

 

[Snowy Rainbow]

Nothing about the Halo universe is unique or compelling. Never understood what people see in it.